Popular pub joins elite group after winning industry honour
A POPULAR gastropub has become one of only a handful in the country to win three AA rosettes.
The Lord Clyde in Kerridge is the only pub in the county to hold the coveted industry quality stamp.
Chef proprietor Ernst van Zyl, who took over the pub 16 months ago with partner Sarah Richmond, said: “We have joined quite a special little group.
“We only have two chefs in the kitchen and four people out the front, so for a six-person team to achieve this in the space of 16 months is fantastic.
“People have really embraced our difference – we are very far from a traditional pub, that’s what we wanted to do from day one.
“We set out to be as different as possible, to cook really well and to use our environment to forage and educate.”
Ernst has worked at some of the world’s finest restaurants, including Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck, Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, Noma in Copenhagen and Restaurant Frantzén in Stockholm.
The AA guide praises him as ‘a prodigiously talented chef’.
Ernst said: “We’ve always set out to work very hard, put the experience we’ve gained in our industry to use, and gain national recognition in as many possible ways as we can.”
That ambition includes shooting for a Michelin star in the future.
He said: “We are talking about it and we have been inspected but we are barely a year and a half old, an extremely new kid on the block.
“I don’t think it will be this year, and maybe not next year but within the next five years we’d very much like to have one.”
The Lord Clyde was one of only 21 restaurants in the UK to be awarded three rosettes.