Sunday best - Pub Roast of the year
To celebrate the great British roast PubChef launched a competition earlier this year to find the best pub roasts in the UK. Jo Bruce takes a look at the finalists.
For roast dinner fans, finding a pub that has an excellent offer is like discovering a good plumber or dentist - a real find.
Get your roast dinners right and it will create fierce loyalty among your customers who will return with the regularity of Jordan's appearances in Hello! magazine.
The great British roast is one of the UK's favourite meals with millions of dinners being eaten every year. This, combined with the dish's enduring popularity with consumers of all ages, makes it an excellent profit opportunity for licensees.
While some pubs stick to a very traditional roast, many chefs are giving the dish a more contemporary twist with different accompaniments, meats and presentation.
Having shaken off its naff '80s image, the pub carvery is also making a comeback, with many venues cashing in on the convenience and multiple covers this format offers. Toby Carvery can serve up to 1,200 roasts from carveries at some of its sites on Sundays, proving the hot counter still has great pulling power.
A trend for eating later, beyond the traditional Sunday lunch window of 12noon to 2pm, has seen many pubs start to offer roasts all day and this looks set to grow.
As David Hancock, editor of Alastair Sawday's Pubs and Inns Guide and competition judge, says: "Many pubs are missing a trick on Sundays. Rather than just serve food between 12 and 2pm, pubs should be serving roasts throughout the afternoon, as busy lifestyles increasingly demand lazy Sunday dining. Keep it manageable - just offer a Sunday menu, simple starters and puddings, a choice of roasts, or pre-ordered family roast joints, and sandwiches at the bar."
To celebrate the importance of the roast dinner to pub menus, PubChef launched the Pub Roast of the Year 2006 competition to find the best pub roasts in the UK.
Dozens of entries were judged on paper then five pub chefs were selected as finalists. Their pubs were visited by a panel of judges who sampled the roasts on offer at each.
The competition was sponsored by Knorr Fine Gravy Granules, the new professional gravy from Unilever Foodsolutions.
The finalists' roast dinners were judged on presentation, taste, value for money, innovation and the business success of the roast offer.
As well as David Hancock, judges included Serena d'Souza Wilkinson of competition sponsor Unilever Foodsolutions and PubChef editor Jo Bruce.
Our judges were looking for quality cuts of meat that had been well-cooked, well-carved and rested before serving.
Roast potatoes are one of the most important elements of a roast dinner and our judges were looking for them to be golden crispy on the outside and fluffy in the middle.
When it came to Yorkshire puddings, the key criteria for our judges was a light and airy texture. As for vegetables, the judges were looking for fresh and al dente vegetables with colours that worked well on the plate. Gravy is the crowning glory of a roast dinner and the judges wanted gravy of perfect consistency that was full of flavour and had an inviting colour.
Finalists were asked to serve up their roasts to the judges in exactly the same way they would to their customers, with roast beef and another meat of their choice.
The pub chefs were also asked to serve up their choice of two starters and two desserts that would be typical of those offered on the pub's Sunday menu.
Members of the judging panel were impressed with the overall excellent standard of chefmanship, passion for food, skill levels, attention to detail, fantastic presentation of dishes, support of local producers and innovation of all the finalists.
