Les Routiers editor praises quality food pubs
Pubs that offer great food and quality accommodation at affordable prices have been applauded by the editor of the prestigious Les Routiers Guide 2004.
Editor Elizabeth Carter said the informality of pubs, coupled with attentive, but not over-the-top service and good food has spearheaded a change throughout the whole hospitality industry.
"Increasingly the public is aware that good cooks do not always need table cloths on which to present their food and that it is the overheads - the chic plates, the crystal, the linen and the overdose of service - that put up the price," she said.
And she said the trend of top-quality chefs and hoteliers taking on pubs was changing the face of the industry forever.
"The number of enlightened individuals who have begun to think in terms of offering more of what people wanted, at a price they could afford, has grown as an increasing number of chefs and hoteliers take over more and more pubs," she said.
According to Ms Carter, the trend has meant "this new generation has turned long-standing traditions and concepts on their heads" and has led to a blurring of the line between restaurant, hotel and pub.
She also highlighted the growing number of publicans using locally-sourced ingredients, something celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson spoke about at the recent Publican Pub Food Awards.
Ms Carter said: "Today there is much more inventiveness in British kitchens, with ideas stimulated by the sheer wealth of local and regional produce available."
