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Alison Ashworth tells Amanda Wragg all about trade secrets at the Craven Heifer Chef/patron Nick Wharfe, his partner Susie Dinsdale, and Alison and...

Alison Ashworth tells Amanda Wragg all about trade secrets at the Craven Heifer

Chef/patron Nick Wharfe, his partner Susie Dinsdale, and Alison and Johnny Ashworth own the Craven Heifer, which opened in March 2005. Nick trained with Paul Heathcote, helping to establish Simply Heathcotes, and worked in New Zealand and Belfast with Paul Rankin. Ali was in hotel management, and worked for at the Intercontinental in London before moving back to Lancashire in 2001. Nick runs a weekly cookery school in the Heifer kitchens, teaching a maximum of six people at a time.

Our menu

The Ribble Valley is awash with excellent growers and producers, and we've developed a good relationship with them. We have the same menu in the bar and the dining room — specials go on the blackboards, everything else is on a sheet that changes daily. Our philosophy in the kitchen is to keep it simple and tasty. Our food isn't pretentious, but hopefully it's memorable.

Best-selling dish

The black pudding, bacon and egg salad flies out. We make the pudding ourselves. It's the most profitable dish too, with the Craven fish pot coming a close second.

Food costs

Like everyone else, we're trying to keep prices down as much as we can, and if we get a bargain from a supplier, we pass it on to the customers. Round here increases have been steady, so not too horrendous yet.

How we recruit our staff

The staff we've got we've had from the start, they've all stayed with us. I think they enjoy being part of something that's growing. It might have been a problem, being so rural, but we put ads in the local paper and on boards outside.

Marketing

We've just re-branded, and spent £2,000 on maps, photos, booklets, menu covers and information about the cookery school. It was a big decision to make and a huge investment, but it's starting to pay off and we're thrilled with the way it looks.

Future plans

We've applied for planning permission to convert one of our outbuildings and open a deli, selling our home-made bread, puddings and patisserie. We feel that increasingly customers want to take home some of the good things they've eaten here. Another new initiative we want to try in a few months' time is a set-price lunch menu, and an early-bird menu between six and seven — two courses for £10, three for £13.95.

Special events

Alongside the cookery school, we have Fish Friday and Chaigley Night, which offers a £10 menu for locals. We want very much to remain part of the local community — 75% of our customers come from within a five-mile radius.

Top tips

Open your business with a partner who's as enthusiastic as you. We both exactly understand each other, and our previous experience has helped — we went into the pub with our eyes wide open. You've got to do this job for the love of it. Make sure your front-of-house is smiling. And, of course, the food's got to be great.

Pub facts

Tenure: Freehold - £530,000

Staff: five full time, six part time

Covers: 400-470

Turnover: £450,000 pa

Spend per head: £20 to £25

On the menu: Starters: Craven Heifer black pudding with bacon and egg salad, mustard dressing (£5.50); Mains: wild boar ragout braised in rich tomato sauce served with pasta and parmesan (£12); duck breast pan roasted with sausage and bean cassoulet (£14); Puddings: warm almond and cherry tart with wild cherry ice cream (£4.95)

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