Under the spotlight: the King William, Bath
Charlie Digney of Bath gastro pub the King William is a prime example of a chef in touch with the seasons and sourcing local produce. One of his biggest influences is the fashionable London restaurant St John and dishes from its cookbook appear on the King William menu for good reason because they're simple and they work.
His short menu is typed each morning before lunch and dishes often depend on what has been delivered by his local butcher, fishmonger and greengrocer. A typical lunch menu at the King William will include the best-selling crab on toast (£6.50) and slow roast shoulder of lamb with goose fat potatoes, greens, carrots and mint sauce (£10).
"You go to some places and you need to know the professional chef's code to understand the menu. I'm interested in ingredients and making sure they've been produced properly," says Digney, who opened the freehold pub with his wife Amanda in October 2004. It's their first pub venture and in the first few months of trading, it has attracted national reviews in The Daily Telegraph and Metro.
"Food tastes good and you don't have to mess around with it if it's been produced well," says Digney. "I get my meat from a butcher five minutes down the road. The beef is from a local farm, it's hung for a minimum of 25 days and it is some of the best I've ever eaten."
When he gets time, Digney also sources produce from Bath's Farmers' Market, which is something more and more gastro pub chefs are doing in order to make contacts with high-quality local producers.
