White buys Yew Tree to raise stakes in pub fare
by Mark Taylor
Legendary chef and restaurateur Marco Pierre White has taken over a 17th-century Hampshire pub.
He bought the freehold of the Yew Tree at Highclere for an undisclosed sum with Gareth Lloyd-Jones and Andrew Guy of Gourmet Holdings, which runs the Richoux, and the Bel and the Dragon brands.
White may have retired from cooking professionally, but he has been heavily involved with the menu creation at the pub, renamed Marco Pierre White's Yew Tree Inn.
The first chef to win three Michelin stars when he cooked at London's Hyde Park Hotel in the late '80s, White is widely regarded as the chef who changed the face of British cooking.
Although he hung up his apron in 1999, he has been back in the kitchen at the Yew Tree, working closely on the menus with head chef Neil Thornley.
Thornley used to work at the award-winning Berkshire gastro pub the Crab at Chieveley. Before that, he worked with John Campbell at the nearby Vineyard at Stockcross, as well as with former White proteges Billy Reid and Nigel Haworth.
The pub has two separate dining areas with a total of 90 covers and although the menu is described as being 'full of Marco classics, the new owners stress that it is very much a pub, rather than a restaurant.
Pub manager Gareth McAinsh said: 'Marco describes the Yew Tree as an 'eating house' and our menu caters for all occasions.
'We're very aware that people's eating habits are changing and people are no longer going out on a once-a-month blow-out to some three-Michelin starred restaurant. Of course it still has to be fantastic quality food, but without the fuss.
The menu at Marco Pierre White's Yew Tree Inn includes classic British pub dishes, such as Cumberland sausage and mash (£9.75), fish and chips with pea puree and tartare sauce (£13.95), shepherd's pie (£11.75) and whole grilled 20oz lobster with bearnaise mousseline for £27.50.
Other dishes include Welsh rarebit, eggs benedict with sauce hollandaise, Normandy brown potted shrimps and desserts such as sherry trifle, Cambridge burnt cream and rice pudding with red fruit compote.
