Pub 2610 p30-31 food f 21/10/09 09:25 Page 30
30 Monday 26/10/09 thePublican www.thepublican.com
Pub Food Sous Vide Cooking
Many licensees might feel that offering food is not an option if they have limited
space or lack the relevant skills. But one Gloucestershire licensee discovered that
there are ways around this – and now offers his products and experience to help
other pubs. Claire Dodd reports
Package deal
IF YOU simply looked at the facts 12 years spent running pubs he has
surrounding the Royal Oak and its learnt that any licensee, with any
food trade you would think that level of cooking skills or any standard
licensee Myles Ball was either an of kitchen can provide a high-quality
extraordinary chef or a liar. food offer.
The tiny pub, which sits on a quiet “Over the years I have definitely
B road in the Gloucestershire village found out the hard way that some-
of Gretton near Winchcombe, has an times chefs can be few and far
annual turnover of £600,000, attracts between or you can be caught out
an average of 75 covers on a weekday without one as people are not always
lunchtime and has a strong reputation reliable,” says Myles.
among locals for its fresh, quality “Not only that but if you’re building
food. up a new business sometimes you
Add to that the fact that Myles pre- can’t afford to pay the wages a chef is
pares his meals from a tiny kitchen, looking for, especially these days.
and without the aid of a trained chef, “But pubs are becoming so food-led
and the performance of the business that it’s essential to have a very good
seems pretty unbelievable. food offering. My role was front of
But Myles has a trick up his sleeve. house but I found I had to take on the
After nearly 30 years in the business, kitchen out of necessity sometimes. I
including stints working in hotels in learned a lesson.”
the Lake District and in London, and
Sous vide solution
Myles turned his pub’s food business
around with the use of pre-prepared
sous vide meals.
The method, whereby pre-prepared
meals are vacuum sealed in pouches
and later cooked by placing them in
a bath of warm water, means that no
matter what the size of the kitchen,
whether there is a chef or not, or
however many customers there are,
anyone can provide a consistent food
offer.
Myles has now launched his own
Publican Myles Ball has turned the lessons food supply and consultancy business
he learned in his Gloucestershire pub, the called Create Great. The service is
Royal Oak (left), into a service to help other aimed at licensees who are struggling
licensees offer decent food, however limited to offer food – either because they
their resources have no experience in the kitchen,
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72