INTERVIEW
Back Where IT ALL BEGAN
GARY RHODES IS THE LATEST STELLAR NAME TO STAMP HIS MARK ON THE PLYMOUTH FOOD SCENE. HE SPOKE TO WESTCOUNTRY FOODLOVER
MAGAZINE TO GIVE A LITTLE MORE INSIGHT INTO HIS LATEST PROJECT… On a seemingly endless list of possible destinations, what made Plymouth stand out?
I think back to my days of old, back in the mid-1980s when of course I used to be at The Castle Hotel in Taunton. I was there for five years and during that time I would spend many a weekend down in Devon, visiting Plymouth or heading into Cornwall and I realised just how beautiful the West Country is.
At that point I always thought to myself that Plymouth is such a fantastic city. It is architecturally beautiful, just to walk through it is quite stunning and it always has that warm and welcoming personality that is brought about by the people. I began to wonder about opening my own restaurant here, and then of course went back to London and began to read about the Tanner brothers (owners of Tanners Restaurant and Barbican Kitchen in Plymouth) and the Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstalls. At that point I started thinking “I wish I had gone there first”.
Now the beauty is that there is room for all to share, and it is absolutely fantastic. There are great chefs here, there is a fantastic audience and the nicest thing is that we are all offering something slightly different to the guests. It isn’t about being competitive, most of the chefs are good buddies of mine anyway, and we know that there is not only a healthy professional respect but a personal respect between us as well. So I think that is one of the great things about it, we all have something slightly different to offer and that offers so much to the public and the region.
Will we see a local and seasonal South West influence in your menus, embracing some of the foods for which we are famous?
“I want you go out and discover, go out to little farm shops and delis, find things that make you think ‘ this is incredible”
As the menus develop even more, certainly. When I first put the menus together I perhaps hadn’t had the time to really discover everything Plymouth had to offer. This is something I have said is of upmost importance to Liam (Liam Rutherford, Head Chef at Rhodes @ The Dome), who has come across from Rhodes W1 in London. This is what he needs to be doing on his ‘days off’, as in today’s world there is no such thing as a day off! I have said to him “I want you go out and discover, go out to little farm shops and delis, find things that make you think ‘this is incredible’”. Then buy it and work out how best to show it off, all the while letting everyone know that this is made only two miles down the road. This kind of thing, this is what I want from Rhodes @ The Dome and it is a great story for our guests. I am hoping by the summer months we will have a
truly local menu, keeping the purchasing radius down to 15-20 miles as much as we possibly can.
Can we expect to see any exciting collaborations with other well-known West Country chefs and organisations? The great thing is that there are a lot of them here! As time goes on I would like us to start putting together these ‘Summer Culinary Festivals’, where we are all working together to show off the region and say “look, this is all about great camaraderie, all supporting one another and drawing in more people”. Visitors should be coming here to holiday not just to look at the stunning views, although that will always take priority, but know that at the end of that day they can enjoy great food in so many corners of an exciting city.
How do you rate the South West as a foodie destination, and where does it rank on your UK food map? Plymouth in particular is becoming such a culinary city and I am hoping that between us all we can make the area even more exclusive in terms of the UK as far as food is concerned.
You have brought Liam Rutherford in as Head Chef from Rhodes W1. Is this an important step to make sure your standards are being met even when you might not be present? No matter where, every one of my restaurants open at present is led by someone who has had to work through the hard times with me in London or Dubai. I have another chef coming to support Liam from London, so we are always trying to make sure that whoever is in that leading role understands the Rhodes concept of how we like to work and exactly what our standards are.
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