Pub Chef of the Year 2006
John Rudden, of the White Hart in Stockport Road, Lydgate, near Oldham, Lancashire, is Pub Chef of the Year 2006.
He was the winner of our Beer & Food category with his dish of roast fillet of beef with rag pudding, carrot purée and creamed potato.
With business partner Charles Brierley, John is chef/director at the White Hart, where he has now worked for 10 years. The White Hart has two restaurants, function rooms, letting bedrooms and bar.
John's CV takes in the Grosvenor Hotel in Chester and the Angel Inn at Hetton, North Yorkshire, working with the late Denis Watkins.
Our awards judges were impressed with John's technical skills, attention to detail and passion for what he does.
Covers at the White Hart average 1,200 a week with a 50:50 wet:dry split. John describes his menu as modern British and European with a classic French influence.
Other dishes on the menu include: Saddleworth sausage and mash (£13.25); fillet of haddock in a beer batter with fried potatoes, minted peas and caper beurre blanc (£14.75), and roast maize-fed chicken breast with Caesar salad, sauté potatoes and fresh anchovies (£16.25).
John paired his beef dish with the dark Trappist beer Dubbel from the Westmalle brewery in the town of Malle in Belgium. Dubbel beer, which has has an abv of 7%, is available from James Clay & Sons in Elland, West Yorkshire, which supplied it to go with tonight's dinner.
