Striking Goldsborough (From Living Northeast)

Striking Goldsborough

1:32pm Thursday 19th August 2010 in

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Fox and Hounds, at Goldsbrough, near Sandsend, is one of the best dining pubs in Britain and the subject of rave reviews from food critics. Jenny Needham asks Sue Wren, 37, why she and partner Jason Davies, 39, left London to head for the North Yorkshire coast.

‘WEOPENEDthe Fox and Hounds on December 20, 2001. I remember it well because it was the day our daughter was born. That in itself was tricky, as you can imagine, but then we spent two months to-ing and fro-ing to hospital because Nina had a series of operations, and all that was while Jason was trying to get the restaurant off the ground. We got there in the end.

Nina is five now, our little boy Joe eight. We have all come to love living here, and our restaurant is very much a part of how we exist together: it’s difficult to separate the two.

The remote location did bother us in the beginning, but I believe it’s become an asset and sometimes another reason for coming here, apart from Jason’s fabulous food, of course. Before this, we lived in London, where our son was born. I managed Odette’s in Primrose Hill, and Jason worked in various places, one of them being The Ivy. We met at a gastro-pub in Highgate when I was waitressing in between publishing jobs.

I had never thought of food as my career – in fact, I’m a useless cook: I can put something together for the kids, but they would prefer dad to cook it. Jason, on the other hand, is passionate about good, seasonal ingredients.

His food is incredibly simple and understated.

We don’t have a kitchen upstairs at the pub and the restaurant kitchen is definitely his domain: he hates it when I go in there for things. Everything is in its place.

We’ve been given a number of accolades and are in all of the reputable food guides now, and I think our customers like us for our consistency and quality. Accolades are important as we are quite remote and they bring us to the attention of the public. At the moment we have our fingers crossed as the Michelin inspector came round last week.

The decor has kind of evolved: it’s quite quirky, and I really like mixing traditional with ultra-modern. I suppose it is unique: it’s our lives, and you are really coming for supper at our house.

Three years after we moved in, we had a huge fire.

We were having tea with the kids when we spotted smoke and Jason went out to have look. An electrical fault had sparked something off and there were flames shooting out of the back. It spread to barns filled with straw on the doorstep and it took the fire brigade eight hours to put it out. The back of the building was burned to the ground.

We lease the building from the Mulgrave estate and it took six months to put it back together again.Wedid wonder about our futures but decided to stay and took jobs in Sandsend for the summer. In retrospect, it did give us time have a rethink and we reopened as a purely dining venue as opposed to a pub. There is nothing wrong with sandwiches and chips but we wanted to take another route and now open four nights a week doing up to 26 covers.

Another big challenge was last winter. There was so much snow. Customers couldn’t get down the lane to us so I picked them up in our trusty Land Rover and took them home again on some occasions. I was going a bit stir crazy one day so Jason sent me through the drifts with a backpack on to get some fennel from Whitby. And yes, you can buy fennel in Whitby!

We get all our fish from Whitby and Scarborough quays.

Our supplier rings us every morning to tell us what he’s got and what’s looking good. Lobsters come out of Runswick Bay, the scallops come from Scotland, our meat is all rare breed and comes from Taste Tradition, near Thirsk, and the organic vegetables are from Mickleby, near Saltburn, just along the coast.

When we can snatch the time, we go out and enjoy what we are lucky enough to have on our doorstep, which is all this natural beauty and the wonderful cliffs. I have taken up running and even had a go at surfing.

The Fox and Hounds is a really special place where we have really grown as a family. The building itself always reminds me of a little doll’s house when I look up at it from the cliff path, standing there quite defiantly.

■ Fox and Hounds, Goldsborough, Whitby, North Yorkshire, YO21 3RX. Open Weds to Sat evenings.

Tel: 01947-893372. Booking recommended.

foxandhoundsgoldsborough.co.uk

Jason's recipes

SLOW ROAST PORK BELLY WITH CANNELLINI BEANS

Serves 6

Pork belly, skin scored (about 1kg/2lb 4oz)

Extra virgin olive oil

Sea

600g (1lb 5oz) rainbow chard

For the beans

2tsp bicarbonate of soda

200g (7oz) dried cannellini beans

½ head garlic

Juice of 1 lemon

6tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Sea salt and black pepper

METHOD

Jason advises that you make this dish over the course of two days as it’s in two stages.

The first stage involves cooking the pork belly and soaking the beans in a generous amount of cold water with the bicarbonate of soda.

This can be done overnight. The next day is the cooking and serving.

Preheat the oven to 140C/275Fgas mark 1. Rub the skin side of the pork belly with olive oil and sea salt and place in a roasting tin. Add a cup of water and place in the oven, then leave to cook overnight or for 10 hours. Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in a bowl of water and soak the beans in the solution for 10 hours or overnight.

Remove the pork from the oven and place on a tray. Allow to cool, then put in the fridge for a couple of hours to firm up. Add some more water to the roasting tin that held the pork, place on a high heat and scrape to create a thin sauce. Put the juice through a sieve into a jug and reserve. Once the fat has settled on the top, skim it off and discard.

Drain the beans, place in a saucepan, cover with cold water, bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Drain again and pour in fresh cold water to cover by about 5cm (2 inches). Add the garlic.

Return to the boil and simmer, removing any scum that comes to the surface, for about 1/1½ hours, or until the beans are cooked.

Preheat the oven to 220c/425f/gas mark 7. Remove the pork from the fridge, cut into six pieces, and place in an oven for 15- 20 minutes until the skin crackles.

Drain the beans and mix with the lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. Prepare the chard by cutting out the tough central stalks and washing the leaves. Wilt the rainbow chard in a pan with some olive oil and season. (You can use the stalks for soup, or chop them up and soften them in the pan with some olive oil before adding the leaves).

Reheat the roasting juices.

To serve, divide the beans and chard between six plates, put a piece of pork belly on top and spoon the roasting juices around.

CHOCOLATE TRUFFLE CAKE WITH ESPRESSO MASCARPONE CREAM

Yes, this dessert could nearly kill, but what a way to go…

Serves 10

450g (1lb) plain dark chocolate (you need excellent stuff, with 70pc cocoa solids)

600ml (1pt) double cream

Cocoa powder

For the Mascarpone cream

400ml (½pt) double cream

1tbsp icing sugar (or more to taste)

250g (9oz) Mascarpone

1 shot strong espresso

METHOD

Break the chocolate into pieces and melt in a bowl set over simmering water. You must not let the chocolate get too hot; the bowl should be in steam, not in water. Warm the cream and stir into the warm chocolate.

Place a 20cm (8inch) cake ring on a flat plate. Pour the mixture into the ring and leave to set for three hours in the fridge. To remove the cake from the ring, place a hot dishcloth around the ring to slightly melt the edge of the cake and lift it off. Dust the top of the cake with cocoa powder.

For the Mascarpone cream, whisk the cream with the icing sugar until it forms soft peaks.

In another bowl, mix the Mascarpone with the shot of espresso and incorporate the cream into this mixture. Use a hot knife to cut the cake and serve with the Mascarpone cream.

■ More of Jason’s recipes appear in The Gastropub Cookbook: Another Helping by Diana Henry (Octopus, £20).

'You wouldn’t go to The Fox and Hounds if you weren’t in the know. Stuck on a promontory overlooking the sea in a littleknown village in Yorkshire, it looks like a farm outbuilding and not a place where you would expect to have a gastronomic experience. Which is why it’s all the more wonderful when you do.

Certainly the atmosphere among the diners – many of them locals who come frequently – is one of shared glee that this place is so tucked away and so special.'

– The Gastropub Cookbook by Diana Henry (Octopus, £20)