Appetite for acclaim
SHINING ON: Three years after he was dropped from the Michelin guide, The Star at Harome’s Andrew Pern tells Sarah Freeman how he finally won his star back. Pictures by James Hardisty.
HEN Andrew Pern lost his Michelin star he thought regulars at the Star Inn at Harome might be too polite or embarrassed to mention it. In fact they could talk about nothing else.
“Yep, it was the main topic of conversation in the restaurant for a while, although perhaps that was better than it being the elephant in the room. The truth is, everyone was really supportive.In fact I think our regulars probably ate here more after we lost the star than they did beforehand. It was their way of showing they weren’t going to abandon us, but personally I took it badly.
“I’d had my sights set on two stars and there I was with none. I really didn’t see it coming. When you have a star you feel part of a club. I still got invited to the same events as the other Michelin star chefs, but I turned them all down. I just didn’t feel like I belonged any more.”
We’re sat in the main dining room at the historic pub and restaurant near Helmsley. It’s a couple of hours before lunch and as the front of house and kitchen staff prepare for another busy service, the evidence of just how much Andrew has invested in the place is everywhere.
Ever since the summer of 1996 when he and his first wife Jacquie took on what was then a rundown boozer and began turning it into one of Yorkshire’s best restaurants, The Star has always been more than a business. It’s been his life.
Packed with personal memorabilia, family photographs hang on the walls and in one corner there’s a model of the famous Michelin man, which he bought after winning his first star in 2002. He may or may not be joking when he says it got kicked around the car park after the restaurant was pulled from the guide in 2011, but until recently it was a bitter reminder of what had been.
“When you lose your star, there’s no feedback. They never tell you why. We thought we were working to exactly the
It was like the perfect storm. I was looking down to the
depths of hell.
same level as every previous year. We certainly didn’t think that we had taken our eye off the ball. I wanted it back and the only way to do that was to work even harder.”
Andrew says the team, including head chef Steve Smith, were bruised by the experience which came at a particularly bad time. Two years before, the restaurant had been forced to close temporarily after 80 guests fell ill with the norovirus. The outbreak cost the business £120,000, but there was worse to come.
The same day he lost the Michelin star, Jacquie, with whom he has four children, told him she was leaving. Overnight Andrew’s personal life appeared to be unravelling along with his foodie empire, which, as well as the Star, included The Pheasant and a delicatessen in Helmsley and another shop in Harome.
“Honestly, it was like the perfect storm. I was looking down to the depths of hell, but we had to sort things out for the sake of the children.”
Dividing up the business – Jacquie now runs the Pheasant – Pernshire was scaled back with both the deli and the shop closing. It was inevitably a painful time, but Andrew is nothing if not resilient.