An increasing taste for fine dining amongst pub-goers – including no less than 3,500 lobsters sold in 2015 – has helped food revenue at St Austell Brewery’s 25 managed pubs top £15 million this year.
The milestone comes after more than a decade in which the Brewery has been at the forefront of raising the bar on pub food, changing perceptions and driving demand for high quality dishes cooked to order using the finest local ingredients.
The Brewery earlier this year celebrated its latest Coastal Pub and Kitchen menu scooping Best Pub Menu (3-20 sites) at Restaurant Magazine’s Development Chef Awards 2015, which recognise top quality fare within the food industry.
Trends continuously changing
Nick Hemming, catering and development manager at St Austell Brewery, said: “In the last ten years we’ve seen a huge shift in what people think about pub food and how they now use pubs to eat out, but there’s still more to do.
“So it’s no surprise that our best-selling dish of 2015 is still fish and chips, but also that people are trying new things as evidenced by our huge sales of dishes like mussels and 3,500 lobsters from our Coastal Pub and Kitchen menu.
“We see trends continuously changing and that keeps it exciting as we then develop new interesting and diverse menus to meet demand. However, it’s all underpinned by a commitment to using fresh locally sourced ingredients, cooked to order which is what customers want.”
Pub chefs prove their place
The news of growth comes at a time when pub chefs proved their place at popular food venue, Padstow Christmas festival where Nick and John Hooker, head chef and tenant of the Cornish Arms pub in Tavistock, took to the stage of the crowded festival to demonstrate their culinary skills among some of the biggest names in the industry, including Rick Stein.
Nick cooked a seasonal dish of Seared Bass with Cornish Crab, Coconut & Coriander Dahl, which is perfectly matched with St Austell Brewery’s Clouded Yellow beer. John cooked one of the popular dishes from his menu at The Cornish Arms, Smoked Haddock Chowder with Confit Egg.
Nick said, “Events like this highlight the best chefs in the industry who are cooking great food, and it’s very special to have been invited back for a third year to demonstrate one of my favourite dishes. It was also a pleasure to hand the baton over to Rick Stein on the stage and this highlights pub chefs well-deserved credibility within the industry.”
John Hooker was also recently named Best Chef at this year’s prestigious Trencherman’s award which is part of the Trencherman’s guide, which is the longest standing guide to dining in the South West, having been running for 23 years.
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