Being the slightly self-depreciating chap that I am, I’m
always slightly surprised when people tell me that they’ve enjoyed reading this
column, or indeed have simply read it at all. It was much to my amazement
recently when at my local greengrocer’s a fellow I’ve never met before tapped
me on the shoulder and said, “You write that column in the paper don’t you?”
Before I could even start looking for a pen with which to sign his copy of the
South Shropshire Journal he continued, “Well it’s a bit bloody moany.”
Charmless, but he may have a point. What irks me more is
that my byline photo (see above), possibly the most unflattering snap ever
taken of me sober and clothed, would appear accurate and lifelike enough to
warrant me being recognised by complete strangers. So, unfortunately, I guess
this is actually what I look like.
But I take unconstructive and random criticism on board –
I’m a man of the people me- and I’m going to write a moan-free column this
week.
When Shaun Hill opened the Merchant House restaurant in
Ludlow back in the early ‘90s many locals at the time thought that he was going
to wreak unutterable havoc on this little town with many old timers decreeing
that fancy-pants new restaurants had no purpose here other than causing noise
and smell. Shaun came from “off” with clever ideas and wonderful food, a
serious reputation, and within a couple of years had turned a staid market town
in the middle of nowhere into a gastronomic hub pulsing gorgeousness.
By the time Hill left Ludlow in 2005 he had single-handedly
turned the town into somewhere worth living, and thirteen years later his
legacy lives on. The Ludlow Food Festival, Claude Bosi’s Hibiscus, Mr
Underhill’s, La Becasse. They’d be nothing without Shaun Hill.
After Ludlow, Shaun went into retirement for about five
minutes and then found himself cooking at the legendary Walnut Tree Inn just
outside Abergavenny. Local newspapers have more A A Gill-u-likes than you could
ever need, so I’m not going to embark on a review here. But go to the Walnut
Tree, just go. Save up and eat the sort of grub that first got Ludlow her
reputation. I went last week and ate some of the most clean, sensible and
accomplished food that I’m ever likely to.
Shaun Hill is of the group of chefs (Simon Hopkinson,
Alastair Little, Jeremy Lee, Fergus Henderson, Rowley Leigh, Henry Harris etc)
who emerged in the late 1980s, gentlemanly, educated, witty and better at
cooking than any of the half-cocked telly clogging halfwits who are so
prevalent these days.
Shaun has retired once already. Try his cooking before he
retires again.
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