Hi, I'm sending this from the hospital..... don't worry, I'll be fine.....
I've poisoned myself.
I've eaten what I though was an onion.....
turned out it was a daffodil bulb......
I should be out by the spring.
:)
TTFN
M
Thursday 10 March 2011
Having hard thought-through ideas pinched by a competitor
I know this happens in every single industry, in every civilised country in the world but I absolutely hate having an idea that we have had (and subsequently communicated) pilfered by a competitor!
We might make a new menu addition, or "tweet" about a special for the weekend or send a note out on Facebook to followers about a particular dish we've dreamed up.... then seeing it in all its glory on a competitors menu soon after is a great big pain in the neck.....
Let me tell you.... there is absolutely no room for playing nice in the restaurant trade.......certainly not during a deep recession!
Some of our competitors are so caustic they should have a HACCP sheet permanently attached to their being!!
It toughens one up.... so it does, so it does!!
TTFN
M
We might make a new menu addition, or "tweet" about a special for the weekend or send a note out on Facebook to followers about a particular dish we've dreamed up.... then seeing it in all its glory on a competitors menu soon after is a great big pain in the neck.....
Let me tell you.... there is absolutely no room for playing nice in the restaurant trade.......certainly not during a deep recession!
Some of our competitors are so caustic they should have a HACCP sheet permanently attached to their being!!
It toughens one up.... so it does, so it does!!
TTFN
M
Another little tour....
Have a little look around why don't you.....
This is the view from our lounge.... right over to Longridge Fell.... beautiful and atmospheric in the mist...... early spring 2010.....
and
I promise to get some obligatory food shots for you..... I'm not into going down the professional route as that all seems rather wrong, but I'll try and make them a little interesting.!
TTFN
M
and
I promise to get some obligatory food shots for you..... I'm not into going down the professional route as that all seems rather wrong, but I'll try and make them a little interesting.!
TTFN
M
Are we really that interesting?
"With a name like yours you couldn't possibly have come from common stock".......
"What are you running away from?"
"where did you get your money from to do this place up?"
"we give you three years.... tops"
"where did you get the money from for that new car?"
"why were you closed?"
"if we want to make up a story about you, we will, and you had better get used to it"
"I will bring your business down..... I will never supply you with anything....."
"you're very friendly..... would you consider having sex with me...."
"this is absolutely SNOT... foul disgusting food......disgraceful, horrible"
"is your chef foreign.... he looks foreign"
" we've heard your chef is gay.... if he is no-one will eat here....we'll make sure of it"
Just some snippets of actual comments that immediately spring to mind between 2005-2008...... we call them the stabilising years......
By this time we were still under the radar of the big, well established restaurants in the area..... but this was changing.... our restaurant was regularly full at weekends.... the compliments were coming thick and fast and we were being noted in national press about how we went about our business...... two ordinary people following a dream and making a go of it, serving really tasty, excellent quality food......
..... but we realised that this was upsetting for some folk who really needed to see us fail.... and they continued to hurtle missiles at us.....
But we enjoyed our work and felt confident that what we had was good.....
...... so we cracked on.....and in late 2008 early 2009 we were informed about our insertion into the Michelin Guide.....
We had a little cry!.....
.... and the crazy questions and comments (like above) slowed down........
We still noticed the eyes cast sideways at us; we still heard some great gossip about us and we still had to go about our job of building the business.....
.......we think we're really boring.....
..... others disagree clearly.... and therefore watch us like we are plotting some crazed scheme in the tiny hamlet we live.....
...... quite frankly it all sounds terribly exciting...... but we really couldn't be bothered....
The Life and Times of an Innkeeper makes one rather tired at the end of a busy week to contemplate anything quite so outrageous.....
sorry to disappoint!
We do look back at these "stabilising years" fondly now and are happier to recall some of the funnier comments; leaving the darker stuff for family and friends' conversations!
I'm wondering whether this isn't a little cathartic......
anyway..... I'm off in search of a steak.... it's my night off.....
TTFN
M
"What are you running away from?"
"where did you get your money from to do this place up?"
"we give you three years.... tops"
"where did you get the money from for that new car?"
"why were you closed?"
"if we want to make up a story about you, we will, and you had better get used to it"
"I will bring your business down..... I will never supply you with anything....."
"you're very friendly..... would you consider having sex with me...."
"this is absolutely SNOT... foul disgusting food......disgraceful, horrible"
"is your chef foreign.... he looks foreign"
" we've heard your chef is gay.... if he is no-one will eat here....we'll make sure of it"
Just some snippets of actual comments that immediately spring to mind between 2005-2008...... we call them the stabilising years......
By this time we were still under the radar of the big, well established restaurants in the area..... but this was changing.... our restaurant was regularly full at weekends.... the compliments were coming thick and fast and we were being noted in national press about how we went about our business...... two ordinary people following a dream and making a go of it, serving really tasty, excellent quality food......
..... but we realised that this was upsetting for some folk who really needed to see us fail.... and they continued to hurtle missiles at us.....
But we enjoyed our work and felt confident that what we had was good.....
...... so we cracked on.....and in late 2008 early 2009 we were informed about our insertion into the Michelin Guide.....
We had a little cry!.....
.... and the crazy questions and comments (like above) slowed down........
We still noticed the eyes cast sideways at us; we still heard some great gossip about us and we still had to go about our job of building the business.....
.......we think we're really boring.....
..... others disagree clearly.... and therefore watch us like we are plotting some crazed scheme in the tiny hamlet we live.....
...... quite frankly it all sounds terribly exciting...... but we really couldn't be bothered....
The Life and Times of an Innkeeper makes one rather tired at the end of a busy week to contemplate anything quite so outrageous.....
sorry to disappoint!
We do look back at these "stabilising years" fondly now and are happier to recall some of the funnier comments; leaving the darker stuff for family and friends' conversations!
I'm wondering whether this isn't a little cathartic......
anyway..... I'm off in search of a steak.... it's my night off.....
TTFN
M
The Pure Shock Of This New Life
The cosmopolitan, fast paced world we left..... the suits, executive cars, 4 holidays a year, the courteous taken-for-granted intellect of folk understanding your circumstance enough to allow you to do what you felt was right within your own life so long as you offered the same courtesy to them....was now going to become a thing of the past.
I take you back to 2005.... hurtling rapidly into 2006 (our first full year) and we were still enjoying the niceness of the newness of our new rural life..... the bills hadn't started to come in yet and we didn't think that we would have any problem making ends meet.
But remember we were new to this world.... not just rural life but the hospitality industry of which we were now a bonefide member! This wasn't playtime.... we had invested a mammoth amount of our hard-earned savings into making this business a success.
We came from city life; nipping out to the city shopping, to meet friends, to have parties.... to be invisible.
All of a sudden we were acutely aware we were being watched and it was curious and strange to us and wierd demonstrations of our building paranoia emerged; we really didn't like the negative attention we seemed to be getting.
We've all read the papers and journalistic offerings of rural life being harder than anything you will ever imagine if you are a newcomer..... an incomer.... an outsider.....make that doubly so if you are trying to build a business there.
It was cripplingly difficult..... we missed our friends and family and we were coping with a new way of life, a new business, a new industry to fathom out and the rather startling reality that we had, in 13 years of marriage up to this point, never spent every waking hour (and those asleep) in each others' company!
We aged...... very rapidly.... in that first full year!
But we found our feet..... found a great head chef and got ourselves on the ridiculously competitive foody map in the area!
No bumps so far..... just the difficult adjustment to a different kind of folk was obvious...... we couldn't understand why people were so unfriendly.... bordering on nasty in some instances.... but we lifted our chins and carried on.... we had a job to do... even if it was going to be made a little more difficult than we had initially thought.
I wont dwell on these difficult times in the early days.... or on the difficult people that crossed our paths and made them very bumpy, but they will definitiely pop up from time to time during the blog.....
..... look out for them.... they're certainly interesting enough!!
TTFN
M
I take you back to 2005.... hurtling rapidly into 2006 (our first full year) and we were still enjoying the niceness of the newness of our new rural life..... the bills hadn't started to come in yet and we didn't think that we would have any problem making ends meet.
But remember we were new to this world.... not just rural life but the hospitality industry of which we were now a bonefide member! This wasn't playtime.... we had invested a mammoth amount of our hard-earned savings into making this business a success.
We came from city life; nipping out to the city shopping, to meet friends, to have parties.... to be invisible.
All of a sudden we were acutely aware we were being watched and it was curious and strange to us and wierd demonstrations of our building paranoia emerged; we really didn't like the negative attention we seemed to be getting.
We've all read the papers and journalistic offerings of rural life being harder than anything you will ever imagine if you are a newcomer..... an incomer.... an outsider.....make that doubly so if you are trying to build a business there.
It was cripplingly difficult..... we missed our friends and family and we were coping with a new way of life, a new business, a new industry to fathom out and the rather startling reality that we had, in 13 years of marriage up to this point, never spent every waking hour (and those asleep) in each others' company!
We aged...... very rapidly.... in that first full year!
But we found our feet..... found a great head chef and got ourselves on the ridiculously competitive foody map in the area!
No bumps so far..... just the difficult adjustment to a different kind of folk was obvious...... we couldn't understand why people were so unfriendly.... bordering on nasty in some instances.... but we lifted our chins and carried on.... we had a job to do... even if it was going to be made a little more difficult than we had initially thought.
I wont dwell on these difficult times in the early days.... or on the difficult people that crossed our paths and made them very bumpy, but they will definitiely pop up from time to time during the blog.....
..... look out for them.... they're certainly interesting enough!!
TTFN
M
Room At The Inn Part Two
When we comfortably had the guest rooms completed and functioning....we turned our attentions to other parts of the Inn.
Creating pretty gardens and seating areas for our customers....
And generall creating a really lovely feel to the traditional country inn and restaurant we were creating
Our efforts, blood, sweat and lots of tears continued for the next 2 years as we raised gardens, landscaped, planted & toiled......
..... and then the typical Lancashire weather killed off any hint at us being able to use them as it rained solidly through the next two summers.... giving a tiny respite in its soaking for two weddings we held..... which we thought was jolly thoughtful of Ma Nature!
Needless to say, we're looking forward to a summer in 2011...... otherwise I think we might go mad!
Tata for a bit
M
And generall creating a really lovely feel to the traditional country inn and restaurant we were creating
Our efforts, blood, sweat and lots of tears continued for the next 2 years as we raised gardens, landscaped, planted & toiled......
..... and then the typical Lancashire weather killed off any hint at us being able to use them as it rained solidly through the next two summers.... giving a tiny respite in its soaking for two weddings we held..... which we thought was jolly thoughtful of Ma Nature!
Needless to say, we're looking forward to a summer in 2011...... otherwise I think we might go mad!
Tata for a bit
M
Room At The Inn Part One
In 2006 we took on the enormous task of renovating the three guest rooms for accommodation at the Inn.... they were in a dreadful state and subsequently required us getting in an architect who was familiar with working with Grade II listed buildings and planning the re-build of the rooms to make them fit for letting.
Needless to say as Queen Elizabeth II and Price Phillip, The Duke of Edinburgh drove past us one fine May day on their way up to the Whitewell Estate (all Duke of Lancaster land), they gave us a little cheery wave as we proceeded to purge the rooms of their horse-hair plaster walls and demolish the current boundaries in preparation for newly built ones......
You know the way Her Maj must think the whole of her world smells of fresh paint........ as she passed the Inn she must have had a little chuckle to herself as a neat row of hairy-arsed builders with face masks (to prevent the nasty unwitting inhalation of horse-hair plaster dust) gathering under clouds of said dust billowing out through the open windows of the Inn, and giving her a little cheery wave!
6 months later they were ready for the first paying, staying guests and within 3 months we had a 4 star rating as an Inn....which we quickly added the accolade of "Silver Award" for outstanding hospitality.....
The "Inn" part was complete......
A comfortable mix of old and new
A 250 year old listed building with gloriously modern rooms in which to snuggle down into!
Alastair Sawday's eponymous luxury travel guides picked up on us quite quickly; his ethos is for owner-run establishments going the extra mile....and that just about sums us up!
The rooms at our Inn have been in operation now for over 4 years and there isn't a line we haven't heard, a crazy guest we haven't met, an excuse we haven't raised eyebrows at...... it's amazing the level of tolerance you build up as you receive paying guests into your home..... oh yes.... I forgot to mention we live here too!
Speak soon,
M
Needless to say as Queen Elizabeth II and Price Phillip, The Duke of Edinburgh drove past us one fine May day on their way up to the Whitewell Estate (all Duke of Lancaster land), they gave us a little cheery wave as we proceeded to purge the rooms of their horse-hair plaster walls and demolish the current boundaries in preparation for newly built ones......
You know the way Her Maj must think the whole of her world smells of fresh paint........ as she passed the Inn she must have had a little chuckle to herself as a neat row of hairy-arsed builders with face masks (to prevent the nasty unwitting inhalation of horse-hair plaster dust) gathering under clouds of said dust billowing out through the open windows of the Inn, and giving her a little cheery wave!
6 months later they were ready for the first paying, staying guests and within 3 months we had a 4 star rating as an Inn....which we quickly added the accolade of "Silver Award" for outstanding hospitality.....
The "Inn" part was complete......
A comfortable mix of old and new
A 250 year old listed building with gloriously modern rooms in which to snuggle down into!
Alastair Sawday's eponymous luxury travel guides picked up on us quite quickly; his ethos is for owner-run establishments going the extra mile....and that just about sums us up!
The rooms at our Inn have been in operation now for over 4 years and there isn't a line we haven't heard, a crazy guest we haven't met, an excuse we haven't raised eyebrows at...... it's amazing the level of tolerance you build up as you receive paying guests into your home..... oh yes.... I forgot to mention we live here too!
Speak soon,
M
Duck Sausages and other such like
There was one left.... it became mine.....Jon had added a little black pudding to them to make them really moist.... it was a winning combination.....and the duck sausages were deemed a success.... all sold out at lunch time so Jon is going through the recipe with the chefs so they can make the next batch!
In the meantime, I've got a few more pictures to show you...
.... this tempting little batch of buns are just cooling their bums in preparation for the delicious roasted butternut squash and sage soup being made for this evening's service.
We make all of our own breads and biscuits here..... in fact the only thing we do buy in ready prepared is Ice Cream.... and that's simply because we sell so much of it it is impractical to make it ourselves!
But who can think of ice cream when it's really chilly outside and you want to be next to one of these......
That's the roaring fire in the snug.....
I'll be giving you a little tour around the Inn, so you can get your bearings whilst I'm wandering about it and you'll feel more at home then!
Feel free to stop me at any time!
See you in a bit....
M
In the meantime, I've got a few more pictures to show you...
.... this tempting little batch of buns are just cooling their bums in preparation for the delicious roasted butternut squash and sage soup being made for this evening's service.
We make all of our own breads and biscuits here..... in fact the only thing we do buy in ready prepared is Ice Cream.... and that's simply because we sell so much of it it is impractical to make it ourselves!
But who can think of ice cream when it's really chilly outside and you want to be next to one of these......
That's the roaring fire in the snug.....
I'll be giving you a little tour around the Inn, so you can get your bearings whilst I'm wandering about it and you'll feel more at home then!
Feel free to stop me at any time!
See you in a bit....
M
Introduction No'2.... a little more......
It's early March and we 're still lighting fires.... not a bad thing but the novelty is wearing thin and we yearn for a little early spring sunshine but the "Dribble Valley" as we affectionately refer to our borough of Ribble Valley is living up to its name!
Today it's cold, wet and windy but the fire's roaring and I can hear people gathering in the snug for lunch....
Jon (the male Innkeeper.... husband of mine) was in the kitchen at 7am making wild duck sausages to put on the specials' board this lunchtime....
We will be pleased when the weather changes a little.... we've had a winter like this......
...... and now we reckon we are due a little early spring sunshine!
Let me make some further introductions.....
I'm Marti, husband is Jonathan (or Jon.... it depends whether he's in my good books or not), we have three full time chefs, one full time Front of House, 8 part time FOH, currently hunting for a new dog to replace our gorgeous 16 year old collie cross who died last year....
Our whole life is good food.....we are boringly obsessed with really tasty food... we talk about it all day everyday.... trying, experimenting, going back to basics then starting all over again.
We have a short menu (this means that it is most definitely easier to produce because we insist that everything is prepared from fresh raw ingredients every day)..... make that a big lesson to you..... big menu...probably not prepared from raw ingredients.... unless it is a massive operation with a dozen chefs working 17 hour shifts!
We don't do that; we are a small team, we work reasonably normal hours for a country inn and restaurant and make sure that nothing compromises the quality we serve.
We use only local suppliers; in fact 95% of our product comes from surrounding farms and local markets......"farm to fork" they like to call it..... we just call it common sense.
We love our exceptional beef, pork and lamb and especially look forward to the abundance of fantastic game in the area as we love having lots of game dishes on our menu.
Our whole ethic is about flavour..... flavour first is our whole meaning..... presentation is important but we are more concerned with flavours.... big gorgeous gutsy flavours!
Anyway.... back to the duck sausages....... I had a try for breakfast (it's impossible to abide by the rules of normal eating times and expected food items for the specific times of day.....so you'll just have to get used to the fact that it is normal and usual for us to have belly pork for breakfast, or venison, or curried parsnip soup with crispy onions.....it's all rather liberating actually to be that radical!)....... the duck sausages...... really "ducky"... wild mallard, pot-roasted and shredded, mixed with a little pork meat & fat, really well seasoned with a little chinese five spice, some redcurrant jelly, tiny pieces of orange peel and squished unceremoniously into sausage skins, tied and then oven roasted....... only that the battery on my camera decided to die, I could have shown you the wee beasties..... they were magnificent and I promise to make sure the battery is always charged from now on!
We're serving them with a little carrot mash and some warmed plum gravy made from our glut last autumn....
I am genuinely hoping there might be a little spare one or two for me after this lunchtime service....
... here's to hoping......
See you soon!
M
Today it's cold, wet and windy but the fire's roaring and I can hear people gathering in the snug for lunch....
Jon (the male Innkeeper.... husband of mine) was in the kitchen at 7am making wild duck sausages to put on the specials' board this lunchtime....
We will be pleased when the weather changes a little.... we've had a winter like this......
...... and now we reckon we are due a little early spring sunshine!
Let me make some further introductions.....
I'm Marti, husband is Jonathan (or Jon.... it depends whether he's in my good books or not), we have three full time chefs, one full time Front of House, 8 part time FOH, currently hunting for a new dog to replace our gorgeous 16 year old collie cross who died last year....
Our whole life is good food.....we are boringly obsessed with really tasty food... we talk about it all day everyday.... trying, experimenting, going back to basics then starting all over again.
We have a short menu (this means that it is most definitely easier to produce because we insist that everything is prepared from fresh raw ingredients every day)..... make that a big lesson to you..... big menu...probably not prepared from raw ingredients.... unless it is a massive operation with a dozen chefs working 17 hour shifts!
We don't do that; we are a small team, we work reasonably normal hours for a country inn and restaurant and make sure that nothing compromises the quality we serve.
We use only local suppliers; in fact 95% of our product comes from surrounding farms and local markets......"farm to fork" they like to call it..... we just call it common sense.
We love our exceptional beef, pork and lamb and especially look forward to the abundance of fantastic game in the area as we love having lots of game dishes on our menu.
Our whole ethic is about flavour..... flavour first is our whole meaning..... presentation is important but we are more concerned with flavours.... big gorgeous gutsy flavours!
Anyway.... back to the duck sausages....... I had a try for breakfast (it's impossible to abide by the rules of normal eating times and expected food items for the specific times of day.....so you'll just have to get used to the fact that it is normal and usual for us to have belly pork for breakfast, or venison, or curried parsnip soup with crispy onions.....it's all rather liberating actually to be that radical!)....... the duck sausages...... really "ducky"... wild mallard, pot-roasted and shredded, mixed with a little pork meat & fat, really well seasoned with a little chinese five spice, some redcurrant jelly, tiny pieces of orange peel and squished unceremoniously into sausage skins, tied and then oven roasted....... only that the battery on my camera decided to die, I could have shown you the wee beasties..... they were magnificent and I promise to make sure the battery is always charged from now on!
We're serving them with a little carrot mash and some warmed plum gravy made from our glut last autumn....
I am genuinely hoping there might be a little spare one or two for me after this lunchtime service....
... here's to hoping......
See you soon!
M
The Introduction
Hello there..... welcome to my blog.... a simple and honest insight into the life of a real life Innkeeper.....
You've probably seen the tv programmes about the disassociated, bored, disillusioned or down-right eccentric folk who opt out of the rat race to open a fish farm in rural France, or make a life changing decision to uproot their family ro renovate a derelict church in Cyprus and run it as a B&B..... you know the type of thing.... well in a nutshell, that's what we did... 6 years ago.
"We" being me & the other Innkeeper in my life..... my husband.
My aim for this blog is a peek inside life in a big old country inn and restaurant through the eyes of an "incomer", a "novice", a "woman!", a "townie", ..... I could go on but by now you probably get the drift.
I will share the good, the bad and the ugly.... after all, it is a time of belt-tightening and news of pubs and businesses failing at an alarming rate under restrictive economic times....
I will feature the real life people who come here, who work here, who stay here, who eat here, who deliver here, who pass by here.... albeit anonymously of course....
I will pass on tips about food, share our best recipes and hopefully entertain you along the way.
This is an old photo of our place.... tucked away in a sleepy little hamlet in the Ribble Valley, just on the edges of the beautiful Forest of Bowland.
We moved in August 2005 and opened the doors (albeit only to the bar and snug) in October 2005 after much cleaning and rebuilding of the commercial kitchen.
I would dearly love to be excrutiatingly honest about our first 18 months here, but I actually don't wish to remember the trauma in that much detail in order to reproduce it for your eyes to read...... we will leave that there shall we....I might might hints at the genuine awfulness of folk thoughout the ramblings.... depends how naughty I'm feeling!
Our website will give all the usual details
www.theredpumpinn.co.uk
but the real news about the real workings of an Inn, including the delicious food, mixed with the gossip, the hardships, the fun and frolics, the reality in all its bareness will be presented to you here.....
....I really hope you enjoy it!
You've probably seen the tv programmes about the disassociated, bored, disillusioned or down-right eccentric folk who opt out of the rat race to open a fish farm in rural France, or make a life changing decision to uproot their family ro renovate a derelict church in Cyprus and run it as a B&B..... you know the type of thing.... well in a nutshell, that's what we did... 6 years ago.
"We" being me & the other Innkeeper in my life..... my husband.
My aim for this blog is a peek inside life in a big old country inn and restaurant through the eyes of an "incomer", a "novice", a "woman!", a "townie", ..... I could go on but by now you probably get the drift.
I will share the good, the bad and the ugly.... after all, it is a time of belt-tightening and news of pubs and businesses failing at an alarming rate under restrictive economic times....
I will feature the real life people who come here, who work here, who stay here, who eat here, who deliver here, who pass by here.... albeit anonymously of course....
I will pass on tips about food, share our best recipes and hopefully entertain you along the way.
This is an old photo of our place.... tucked away in a sleepy little hamlet in the Ribble Valley, just on the edges of the beautiful Forest of Bowland.
We moved in August 2005 and opened the doors (albeit only to the bar and snug) in October 2005 after much cleaning and rebuilding of the commercial kitchen.
I would dearly love to be excrutiatingly honest about our first 18 months here, but I actually don't wish to remember the trauma in that much detail in order to reproduce it for your eyes to read...... we will leave that there shall we....I might might hints at the genuine awfulness of folk thoughout the ramblings.... depends how naughty I'm feeling!
Our website will give all the usual details
www.theredpumpinn.co.uk
but the real news about the real workings of an Inn, including the delicious food, mixed with the gossip, the hardships, the fun and frolics, the reality in all its bareness will be presented to you here.....
....I really hope you enjoy it!
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