FOOD&DRINK

It’s a tough job but someone had to eat at all those restaurants we’ve reviewed over the years. Tony Benjamin hears from the man who put Venue on the food map.

Times (and magazine formats) may change but food goes on forever, and as Venue moves into the next phase, it’s worth reflecting on how much has happened in the food world of Bristol and Bath since Dougal Templeton, our first Food & Drink editor, rolled up his sleeves and reached for the wine list. Back in the 80s, the (Bristol-born) Berni Inns had had their prawn cocktail heyday and ‘loadsamoney’ yuppies were taking three hours over claret-fuelled lunches. You’d have had some trouble finding a Tesco or Sainsbury’s, but the big stores were gearing up for mega developments. The well-established takeaway trilogy of “fish ’n’ chips, Chinese or Indian?” was facing the proliferation of doner kebabs and the arrival of the first big golden M in Broadmead. Meanwhile, over in the States, a Mr Howard Schultz was launching a coffee shop called Starbucks… An age of ill-fed innocence was ending and our food culture was about to change dramatically.

The newly hatched Venue featured food and drink from the outset and publisher Dougal Templeton manfully shouldered the task of covering the subject despite a woeful lack of prior knowledge. “I soon learned – copious shifts at the proverbial coalface of Bristol’s finest hostelries, an insatiable appetite and the ability to talk to hundreds of chefs about food helped me build up some level of competency.” What he found, however, was not over-impressive. “There was a remarkable paucity of talent – literally a handful of decent chefs, the majority of them out-of-control characters with gargantuan habits. It was essentially bistro-style cooking – Chris Howard, Keith Floyd, Michaels on Hotwell Rd. Stephen Markwick was always right up there. (They provided) superb places to hang out, like John’s in Old Market. John – sadly no longer with us – knew how to create a sense of place and community and his bastardised version of Thai cooking was right out there.”

Things moved on in the 90s, Templeton recalls: “Like Bristol itself the scene became less parochial, more cosmopolitan. While it lost some of the charm of its rough edges, there was a proliferation of young, independent operators who saw what was happening in London and beyond. And, of course, the national chains also woke up to the possibilities of Bristol and Bath, but if they now seem to dominate, there are still enough great local chefs and restaurateurs to make for an interesting mix. There’s a place for the likes of Cote (Brasserie) but I’ll always support people like Ross Wills at Source, Chris Wicks of Bell’s Diner and many others.”

Reviewing restaurants for over 20 years naturally had its highs and lows. “My worst review ever? The place was appalling, a shed decked out in random fish nets and buoys, serving food straight from the packet. The ‘fresh made’ Black Forest gateau was burnt on the outside and still frozen in the middle. We wrote a complete slagging.” The so-bad-it’s-hilarious review had unintended consequences, however: “Soon the place was heaving. The owner was delighted – although he was confused by the customers laughing like hyenas whenever the food arrived.” Not everyone was so easily pleased, however, and another restaurateur even emptied a pint of beer over his head claiming a bad Templeton review had cost her her livelihood (“It was the shite cooking which led to the failure, not the write-up” ) and a major tapas chain even sued him (“A notable plus on my reviewing CV”).

But the upsides more than compensated and Templeton freely admits that he created his Food Editor role with an eye to the kickbacks: “As a publisher I soon tired of gigs and exhibitions but I never tired of eating and drinking. Thanks to the job, I was invited to dine at Michel Roux’s superb Le Gavroche restaurant and got to go on a two-day bender with dear old Keith Floyd. I had many great meals from Stephen Markwick but probably the best food was at Martin Blunos’s two-starred Lettonie. I generally don’t like overworked ‘clever’ food but his signature dish of stuffed pigs trotters with caviar and vodka eggs was sensational.”

Having moved on from Venue five years ago to develop his digital publishing business, Templeton still rates the magazine’s coverage of food and drink: “It’s critically important – eating out is probably the single most popular pursuit across the readership. It’s universal, so having a decent guide to what’s going on is a must. Maintaining some element of independent editorial judgement, free of commercial influence, is immensely difficult – we live in the real world – but Venue manages that pretty well and the Eating Out West guide has to be one of the most indispensable aids to living in Bristol that there is.”
 

Copyright Tony Benjamin 2011

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