A taste for island life

Two former "Castaways" are fast earning a reputation for food at the Taversoe Hotel on the Orkney island of Rousay. Alice Whitehead reports

It was love at first sight when Trevor Kearon and Patricia Prater met as "contestants" on the BBC TV reality show Castaway, filmed on the Isle of Taransay, in the Outer Hebrides. Four years later, they fell in love again, but this time it was with an empty pub ­ the Taversoe Hotel on Rousay, a small island off Orkney.

"We had absolutely no intention of buying a pub," says Prater. "But we asked ourselves: can we cook and serve customers and run a good business?' That night we made an offer."

They've only had the business open since February but the pair are already earning themselves quite a reputation for food, and the bar restaurant serves up to 150 meals a week, with Prater at the helm as head chef.

Though she admits to using some cookbooks, Prater creates a lot of her own recipes and likes to experiment in the kitchen. "I expand on the original a lot," she says. "I made duck lasagne this week, and last week it was game pizza."

And it's clear that their Castaway experience has given them a helping hand. They were two of a 36-strong group sent to the island as part of a "social experiment" to see how they would survive the conditions and fend for themselves. "I've always had an absolute passion for cooking but my time on Taransay gave me a wee bit more confidence," says Prater. "Before filming even started I was cooking food for the builders who were finishing off the set. Plus, we were taught how to make our own bread ­ and by the end of the show I could make scones to perfection."

Island life obviously agreed with them. After the TV show, the pair bought a farm on another island, South Ronaldsay, attached by a causeway to mainland Orkney. Here they bred free-range turkeys, ducks, chickens and pigs, and butchered them for sale. "When we lived in South Ronaldsay we loved the idea of being self-sufficient and growing and producing our own food," says Prater. "It just tastes so much better and is better for you. On Taransay we had all-natural food and none of it contained additives. I found that it really improved my health and I wanted to eat like that when I came back."

Local sourcing's a priority

It's clear this healthy emphasis has rubbed off on the pub menu too. Where possible, everything is sourced locally. Flett's Butchers, in Stromness, provides the apple, pork and basil sausages, spicy tex-mex burgers and steaks; locally-caught fish comes from Donaldson & Sons butchers on Orkney; chips are hand cut and cooked from Maris Piper potatoes; and Kearon and Prater grow herbs and garlic in their garden.

They also offer pizzas to eat in or take away. "We bought a traditional brick pizza oven at the beginning of the year and it has revolutionised the kitchen because we can now offer fresh bread and pizzas to go," says Prater. And while they make traditional pizza toppings, with sun-dried tomato and liquidised coriander or pineapple in the sauce, they are also experimenting with locally-shot game including quail, venison, rabbit and pheasant, as well as seafood such as squid and crab ­ which are abundant on the island. Their deluxe Scottish version heaps white pudding, black pudding, Chinese pudding and a hot and spicy pudding on top of the base. "We started off by leaving a few slices of pizza on the bar for people to taste and tell us what they thought. They certainly liked the idea of free pizza, and they were very popular, so we decided to take the plunge," Prater says.

And their greatest culinary disaster to date has been burning the cabbage.

"To be honest the first week of opening was a bit of a practice run to see if we could pull it off," says Prater. "We had no pub experience and really plunged into the deep end. When the guy from the brewery came to visit us, he had to draw an idiot-proof sketch of how the beer lines worked."

The cooking side was more instinctive for Prater. Though she's had no formal training, she's worked in catering and hospitality for most of her career. Her big break came when she was waitressing at the Prospect Hotel, on the Isle of Man, and the main chef retired. "I was always sticking my nose into the kitchen, suggesting ways to do things and helping out here and there. When the chef left they offered me the chance to show what I could do, and four years later I was doing 60 to 100 meals a day."

Weather hasn't daunted pair

Even Orkney's infamously choppy weather hasn't daunted them ­ thanks in part to the local trade. "You can only get on and off the island by ferry and if you want anything big you have to go to Orkney, so if the weather is bad you're a bit stuck. But in the winter we had snow and customers still travelled to see us in their tractors and quad bikes. In fact, the best thing about running the pub has been the people. Everyone is so laid back here and it's great to see our customers enjoying our food. We don't advertise the hotel, but our reputation seems to be spreading by word of mouth."

Now, Kearon and Prater have plans to make the most of the pub's views over Eynhallow Sound with a conservatory, and two of the three hotel rooms will have conservatory-style breakfast rooms. "That's all for next year though," says Prater. "So much has happened this year I think we're just going to concentrate on running the pub before we embark on any more projects. But it's been a really fun start to the year and it continues to be fun. If I had any advice for people thinking of doing the same thing it would be: don't lose the fun in it'."

Business-boosting

brainwaves

"We make sure we offer value for money to our customers. All our meals are priced around the£6 bracket, and we offer cheap takeaway meals for those who don't want to sit in. We offer big portions, but if the customer can't eat everything we box it up and ask them if they'd like to takeit home.

"Also, because people can only visit us by ferry we offer a courtesy taxi service from the ferry terminal. We bought a minibus especially for this in January and it means we can pick people up and then take them home at the end of the night.

"It makes sense for us, as there are only two ferries they can catch, so everyone leaves at the same time and we can take them all together.

"It's been very popular and it means we can take big parties and group bookings too. Now, when people ring to book a meal we'll offer them the free mini bus and they are really chuffed they don't have to fork out on taxies. It all adds to the general feel of hospitality and value for money."

Facts and figures

Covers: 42

GP: Not known yet as they have only been trading for three months

Average spend per head: £7 for two courses,£10 for three

Money spent on property: £105,000

Famous faces: Robbie Coltrane

Beers: Orkney Brewery beer and Orkney whiskies from Highland Park and Scapa Distilleries

Number of wines on list: A dozen, sourced by Bristol-based Averys Wine Merchants, including one Champagne