The Great British Chefs cookbook: classic British and pub food

Up in Fife, Geoffrey Smeddle combines the rustic and the refined to cook stunning fare that champions the produce of the east coast of Scotland above all else. His restaurant The Peat Inn is a wonderful eighteenth-century building which serves up Michelin-starred food that changes with the seasons. Ingredients such as game, berries, hake and elderflower are cornerstones of his kitchen, and they’re plated perfectly.

Frances Atkins’ Yorke Arms is a stalwart of classic British cooking, with Yorkshire ingredients and flavours at the forefront of everything she does. Being largely self-taught means she has a playful, free-spirited approach to cooking, which brings traditional dishes such as pies, tarts and cakes bang up-to-date.

Norfolk produces some fantastic ingredients, and Galton Blackiston is the county’s most prominent chef, taking local produce and transforming it into impeccable Michelin-starred cuisine. His restaurant Morston Hall is a destination in its own right, and his combination of traditional dishes and internationally influenced cooking produces unrivalled results.

Bristol and the surrounding region would be a lot less popular with foodies if it wasn’t for Josh Eggleton. From his Michelin-starred pub The Pony & Trap in Chew Magna to his Salt & Malt fish and chip shops and veg-first restaurant Root in the city, he has single-handedly transformed the local food scene for the better. Taking beloved classics, reinterpreting them and adding modern flourishes is his speciality, and the resulting flavour and texture combinations present on his plates are a joy to experience.

As the proud owner of The Pipe and Glass Inn, east Yorkshire’s only Michelin-starred restaurant, James Mackenzie produces seriously refined versions of the dishes we all know and love. His fantastic relationships with local suppliers means he has access to incredible ingredients, which he then turns into simple, familiar food that provides the perfect example of Britain’s thriving food scene.

After a spell working at The Fat Duck, you’d be forgiven for thinking Emily Watkins’ food is full of cutting-edge, experimental techniques – it is, in fact, the opposite. At her charming pub-restaurant The Kingham Plough, Emily takes a look at what’s available locally, gets it into the kitchen and cooks simple, refined, delicious food that appeals to all.

For tasty, comforting food in rustic, unfussy surroundings, you can’t get better than a meal at Dominic Chapman’s The Beehive Inn in Berkshire. His aim is to take beloved dishes we think we know and, rather than change or evolve them, simply make them taste as good as can be. His love for British ingredients mixed with a passion for worldly flavours results in some of the most delicious food in the UK.