Welcome to the first Tresco kitchen blog!
I’m Pete Marshall and head chef at the New Inn. In these articles I will be writing about what’s in season, from our very own grass-fed Tresco beef and fresh island lobsters to asparagus from Borough Farm and tasty delights from St Agnes dairy!
At the New Inn, I have a small kitchen brigade consisting of 6 chefs (including myself) and 3 kitchen porters. My sous chef, Joe Aram, has worked with me for several years. He and a few others have followed me from the Island Hotel to the New Inn. It’s a great team, we have worked long enough together to know how each other ticks though, as you might expect, there have been plenty of colourful moments in the kitchen. We all have the same goal; we all want to produce good food, using great ingredients. We all want to use more local produce and be proud of what where doing.
Already the season is upon us, a typical day starts with one of the chefs preparing the breakfast shift at 7am, where the guest are treated to an award-winning breakfast with our very own home-made jam and marmalade. The lunch rush is the usual 1pm sprint at Driftwood Bar! The chefs are like coiled springs ready for action. Crab sandwiches and beer-battered Pollack seem to be the lunchtime favourites, closely followed by our home-made burgers.
The evening dinner service is becoming busier, with lots of visitors and islanders wanting to eat between 7 and 8. The bar fills up with hungry guests and the regulars quickly find the desired table. Others take their time, peruse the bar and specials before looking for the table and having a quick glance at any food passing by to help make their minds up!
Sunday lunches are always a winner, with a great selection of roasts to choose from. For me, a family pub lunch of a Sunday roast is one of my favourite memories… succulent meat, crispy roast spuds, seasonal vegetables and real gravy made from the juices of the roast, followed by a fruit crumble and vanilla custard.
During the service, however, there seems to be one dish that can change the atmosphere of the kitchen team! We can be extremely busy, all our prep from early that morning is being used and everything is going like clockwork and then the words most dreaded by all the chefs I have ever worked with are called out…two portions of cheesy chips please!
In the future, I look forward to sharing with you some exciting recipes for you to try from the New Inn’s recipe book, while Chefs Pete Hingston from the Island Hotel and Glenn Gatland from Hell Bay on Bryher might let me have one or two of their superb recipes! Also there will be information on future events and some snazzy food photos from one of multi skilled chefs!
Bon appetit!
2 Comments
Looking forward to trying lots of that Tresco Beef
Came to your wonderful island for one day last year & fell in love with the Island
Coming over for a week in September staving at Flying Boat Club
Stephen & Amanda Squires
All sounds good. Can I make a request please… my family are vegetarian (the dreaded word!) and we also love good food. In “the old days” it was always possible to have a decent choice from the menu, but in recent years we’ve found it pretty restricted and therefore have eaten at our favourite New Inn less frequently whilst out for our 2 weeks in August. It’s really easy to do interesting veggie items that are “proper” meals – i.e. protein rich and satisfying .. not just pasta/vegetable-based token ones. Can I throw out a challenge to your team for 2011…. give the veggie-brigade equal culinary choice and pleasure?!