Everything under

the Sun

Home-made dishes with an international flavour and a list of guest ales have helped the Sciclunas build a loyal clientele at the Sun Inn in Essex. SUSAN NOWAK reports

Today's bar menus are culinary Towers of Babel, offering international eats from Sri Lankan to the Pacific Rim but how often do you find authentic Maltese cooking in a pub?

In Essex-man territory, just off the A12 between Chelmsford and Colchester, Kim and Charlie Scicluna have served the traditional tastes of Malta at the Sun Inn, Feering since 1992. 'Charlie is from Malta and taught me to cook some of the dishes from his homeland, so I started serving them in the pub and they became a real talking point, said Kim.

Maltese food has Sicilian and Moorish influences but is mainly rustic, peasant cooking: ideal pub fare. Kim makes timpana, a Maltese meat pasta bake; Maltese tuna pie; kapunata, Maltese-style ratatouille; the national dish of bragioli, that's Maltese beef olives; their take on bread pudding, budina, flavoured with brandy, cocoa and coconut; and not forgetting wild rabbits, served Maltese-style in red wine and caper sauce.

'Rabbit dishes are especially popular in Malta and they'll be on the board soon. We both go rabbit shooting when the stubble is left at the end of harvest, said Charlie.

Malta is not the limit of the Sciclunas' culinary horizons far from it. Kim believes a menu must be exciting, experimental and ever-changing to attract diners back time after time. So you find Thai, Cantonese, Mexican, French, Italian, Spanish, Indian and, most recently, Czech food served. 'We've just been to Prague and I brought back some lovely recipes. I've been doing bread dumplings and people couldn't get enough, said Kim.

'It's stale breadcrumbs, fried then mixed in a yeast dough flavoured with herbs or caraway then steamed. I keep our own strain of yeast in the fridge and top it up with milk and sugar.

Nor does she scorn good old-fashioned British cooking, from beef, oyster and Guinness pie to liver and bacon cooked in Adnams Bitter. The best-selling dish of all? Home-made steak, kidney and stout pudding. 'We can never take it off, even on the hottest summer day. People say they stay awake thinking about it, and they're terribly disappointed if we run out, said Kim.

Passion for pubs fuelled learning

Formerly a hairdresser, Kim is a self-taught cook and Charlie a self-taught publican, once an oil rig worker. He took over a restaurant in Suffolk and that's where he met 'my English rose. They built it to success then decided to go with their 'passion for pubs and found the 14th-century Sun Inn. Thirteen years later, the passion grips them still. The pub is run on eccentric lines just visit www.suninnfeering.com and both say they'd quit as soon as it stopped being fun. 'I'm a total prostitute to it, I absolutely love it, says Charlie.

But don't be fooled. Hard work, long hours, strict attention to detail and sound business acumen lie behind their success. In today's gastro climate, when so many pubs become quasi restaurants, Charlie's approach is unconventional. They do not, for instance, accept bookings.

The wonderful beamed interior with vast open fireplaces is open plan. It has three areas lounge, bar and 'nook and people eat where they like. 'When we first arrived we did take bookings briefly, but we found people didn't turn up or they turned up late. We had reserved tables standing empty in case they showed, and had to turn away customers wanting to eat, said Kim. Added Charlie: 'We serve more people by not taking bookings. We are full most nights. Even on a Monday evening there'll be an hour when every table is taken, and on Saturdays we could fill the place two-and-a-half times over.

They now serve around 400 covers a week, but the wet side is as important and lucrative as the food. Charlie is a real-ale fanatic with 20 different beers a week on six hand-pumps. He sells around 300 barrels a year of beer and lager combined. 'My bank manager said to me 'What's your ratio?' and I said, 'What, in money terms' and he said 'What else?', so I said, 'Well, if it's in money it's about 50:50, but if it's bums on seats it's about 60:40 in favour of food, said Charlie. Adds Kim: 'The structure wouldn't work without one or the other. If we just did good food and a couple of tacky beers, that wouldn't work; or six real ales and mediocre food, that wouldn't work either.

Food boosts spending on drinks

Customers often spend more on drink than food. Three men who ordered steak sandwiches with chips totalling £12 the day before, had spent nearly £30 on drinks. But the food is not expensive. Main dishes, with accompaniments, start at £6.25 and all are under £10. Even beef fillet, served en croûte in a red wine sauce, is only £9.45.

Kim says they achieve a decent GP of 60% to 70%, but their philosophy is fair pricing. They are rewarded by a loyal clientele from a 30-mile radius. 'We try to get reasonable deals from our suppliers. Today the butcher had 80 big lamb shanks at £1.50 each so I bought them all. Then if I pay more for something else, I can spread the cost across the board. In the same way, if Charlie gets a good deal from one brewer he will even it out so people pay a reasonable price for a pint.

Lamb, shank or shoulder joint, is one of the biggest sellers. Spread with a mixture of butter, olive oil, cumin, coriander and a touch of rosemary it is slow-baked to a dark crust round melting meat, still slightly pink a massive portion on silk-smooth mash with roasted vegetables is £9.45.

A year ago Kim was cooking seven days a week. Then she 'poached chef Stephen Brown from Scarborough (his parents are the 'pixies who clean the pub at night) and has found a kindred spirit in devising new dishes. And Charlie leaves bar manager Chris Howley in charge three days a week, 'So I can go up to the office where publicans now have to spend so much of their time.

From the menu

Starters

Baby balls of Mozzarella on pureed roast red pepper sauce with fresh basil, £3.95

King prawns and fresh watercress dip, £4.45

Sweet potato and coriander pesto soup with crusty roll, £3.70

Mains

Hake fillet with lemon, herb and black pepper crust, £9.25

Rich steak and kidney pudding with vegetables, £7.95

Chicken breast stuffed with Stilton and walnuts in a creamy Stilton sauce, £9.45

Roast sirloin with home-made Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes and fresh vegetables, £5.50

Desserts

Baked triple cheesecake of mascarpone, Philadelphia and soft goat's cheese topped with berries, £3.95

Plum and port crumble, £3.95

Chocolate pavlova with fresh fruit, £3.95

Facts and figures

The Sun does more food trade in the evenings than at lunchtimes, serving around 400 covers a week, with sales split roughly 50:50 between food and drink. Although the GP on food is 60% to 70%, all main courses are under £10, with an average meal spend around £15 and diners tending to spend more than that on drinks.

With no separate restaurant and no bookings, the Sun can seat around 60 diners at a time, leaving space for the locals who are there for the real ale, and is busy every night of the week.

Apart from their trademark Maltese dishes, Kim's strategy is to offer an ever-changing diverse menu, with new dishes all the time in order to tempt back her existing clientele and attract new diners.

Maltese dishes are popular but their biggest selling dish for years remains the home-made steak and kidney puddings. Kim and her chef have to make a fresh batch every other day.

Plastic makes perfect

Charlie Scicluna finally decided the Sun Inn should join the plastic revolution in early May this year. 'I've introduced credit cards within the last four weeks. I was hoping to spend my entire business life without doing plastic, I'm very stubborn, he says. 'At one time we used to lose a table every two months (through not taking credit cards) but now it's about tw