Good Food Guide 2012 Pub of the Year is named

By Lesley Foottit

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags Good food guide Heston blumenthal

Good Food Guide: more pubs named
Good Food Guide: more pubs named
The Duke of Cumberland Arms in Henley, West Sussex, has been named Pub of the Year in the Good Food Guide 2012 Editors' Choice Awards. Simon...

The Duke of Cumberland Arms in Henley, West Sussex, has been named Pub of the Year in the Good Food Guide 2012 Editors' Choice Awards.

Simon Goodman, chef-patron of the freehold, was named Pub Chef of the

Year in the Morning Advertiser's Great British Pub Awards 2010.

"I'm really happy. It's great news," said Goodman. "Having spoken to the team this morning I think it was the whole experience — the food, the pub, the service, everything — that won it for us."

Guide editor Elizabeth Carter said: "I was very, very impressed with the pub from the time of booking. It is a nice, friendly, informal pub with efficient, friendly staff and a can-do attitude.

"The Duke of Cumberland does very, very good food without veering off into the realms of fancy restaurant whips and foams. I'd encourage other publicans to go there and see how its done."

Top pubs

Three Michelin-starred pubs were listed in the Good Food Guide's Top 50 Restaurants list, up from two last year.

They were Tom Kerridge's Hand & Flowers, in Marlow, Buckinghamshire; Steve Harris's the Sportsman, in Seasalter, Kent; and Nick Parkinson's Royal Oak in Paley Street, Berks.

Carter said she was very impressed with the standard of pubs in this year's guide.

"Pubs are getting stronger and stronger. In many ways they are almost challenging restaurants.

"One thing that I think has changed is the standard of bar snacks in the pubs wanting to cater for the drinker."

She had seen snacks such as pork crackling and apple sauce being served in restaurants. "A lot of ideas are going both ways," she explained.

Of the three pubs in the top 50, Carter said: "They are all so different, but what they are doing is wonderful for the image of pubs.

"I think that the way pubs are going, we will see more coming into the top 50. Tom Kerridge has shown the way with the Hand & Flowers. I hope there'll be more pubs in the top 50 next year."

Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire, came first in the top 50 list.

n The Good Food Guide 2012 is out on 8 September 2011, priced £16.99.

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