I first met David Pitchford 15 years ago in the car park of his former restaurant, then situated in a small village outside Faversham, Kent, about 10 miles from Canterbury. Not surprisingly, he was wearing a chef’s jacket as he has been cooking for the past 44 years since he left school aged 15, but he was then indulging in what seemed to be his other favourite pastime as he was about to set off in his vintage Bentley.
Pitchford has recently, albeit somewhat reluctantly, parted company with this car (although he still drives a 30 year old bright red Austin Healey) and in the intervening period has moved into Faversham, transformed what was a handsome 18th century manor house into an extremely comfortable restaurant with six bedrooms and, most astutely, built up a sizeable asset for when he chooses to retire. On top of this he and Rona, his wife and business partner, have managed to work alongside each other seemingly very happily for the past 31 years while, fully justifiably, holding a Michelin star for the past 16.
I most recently caught up with Pitchford in the kitchen of his restaurant one sunny Saturday morning. He had just cooked breakfast for his 12 guests and was about to start preparing vegetables from their nearby walled garden but he was reluctant to leave the kitchen as his young brigade were arriving for what would be a busy Saturday. Between sips of coffee and with one eye on the sharp knife in his right hand, he explained the business development behind Read’s of Faversham.
“It is very difficult to make a significant return out of a restaurant where the standards are as high as Rona and I want them to be. Perhaps today there are more opportunities with the increased media coverage of chefs but 30 years ago there were not that many. Fortunately we were able to buy the freehold of our former site in 1977 for £30,000 and over the next 20 years I applied for and finally obtained planning permission for eight houses on the site. We sold it to a developer in the late 1990s for £700,000.”
The Pitchfords had long set their heart on the manor house and its grounds which they eventually bought in a very run-down state for £450,000 while, as Rona explained with a laugh, committing three significant commercial mistakes. “We bought this place before we’d sold our other one, we therefore needed a significant bridging loan and we hadn’t applied for planning permission to convert this from a house into a restaurant with rooms. In retrospect, we were lucky.”
This is equally far-sighted because the one adjective that most comprehensively describes not just the 18th century house itself but also all the conversion that the Pitchfords have undertaken is ‘handsome.’ The house stands proudly in front of a large garden; there is an extensive walled garden which supplies many of the kitchen’s vegetables, salads and fruits; behind are a couple of oast houses (this is Kent, after all) and a few hundred metres behind these, an apple orchard for a gentle pre-dinner stroll.
The interior fits the same description. The bedrooms are extremely comfortable. There is a plush bar area with an outside terrace to sit in before and after dinner and there are three different, intimate dining rooms which can accommodate up to 60 but never become too noisy. Nor do the years seem to have detracted one iota from the Pitchfords’ obvious desire to be warm and generous hosts.
From a menu that is littered with food-related quotes, including one attributed to Miss Piggy of the TV series The Muppets that struck a chord with this restaurant correspondent that one should ‘never eat more than one can lift’, we began with two excellent first courses. A tower of Cornish crab and brown shrimps was interwoven with diced mango and next to very fresh leaf salad while a soup made from their own beetroot was one of the most elegant first courses. Poured from a small jug into a white bowl containing small cubes of diced beetroot under a goats’ cheese tortellini it was everything a first course should be: stimulating, refreshing and appetising.
Any criticism of the main courses would focus primarily on what is not there in that there was, surprisingly given the proximity of the fishing port of Whitstable, only one fish choice out of six and no vegetarian main course given the adjacent walled garden. But the Kentish chicken, the tarragon gnocchi that accompanied it and the local lamb showed the kitchen’s professional dexterity, as did their version of the often traduced lemon tart. Here it was served slightly warm with the correct balance between the sweetened, burnt topping and the acid filling.
Nor has time dissipated their magnanimity with their mark-ups on the wine list. The 300 bin list offers two distinct options for any wine lover: either to go for some of the better known names in France, which are here listed at considerably lower prices than elsewhere, or to go for the second wines of numerous Bordeaux properties which have been obviously assiduously selected. We drank a bottle of 2003 Ségla, the second wine of the second growth Rauzan Ségla, for £30 with great pleasure.
As we moved from the kitchen into the garden David explained how despite their particular strengths one perennial challenge had always been getting the balance right between the strengths of the teams in the kitchen and the restaurant. “I think it has been slightly easier for me,” he explained, “because the Michelin star has been a great attraction for aspiring chefs. They always want to come and nick your ideas.”
But the unlikely prospect of eventually selling the business to an equally talented couple has prompted them to plan for the future. They have already secured planning permission to convert the stables, former bullock yard and area round the tennis court into a further 22 bedrooms which would then make the restaurant and rooms far more attractive to a small hotel group. “If I was 40 I would supervise all the building work myself but we have just become grandparents for the first time and I would rather just spend the next few years cooking,” Pitchford explained with a proud smile.
When it is developed, the character of this restaurant with rooms will obviously change. In the interim I would urge anyone in the area, or heading that way, towards the Channel Tunnel for instance, to call in.
Read’s, Macknade Manor, Canterbury Road, Faversham, Kent ME13 8XE.
www.reads.com 01795-535344
