The Scotch eggs at The Hinds Head are legendary. The size and shape of an actual hen’s egg with a soft yolk, seasoned sausagemeat and a crisp finish, the restaurant sells hundreds of them every week. They’ve become a bit of a signature for the fine dining pub, bought by Heston Blumenthal in 2004 so he could serve British cuisine alongside the more experimental dishes at The Fat Duck; both restaurants are on the same street in the village of Bray and in 2013 The Hinds Head earned a Michelin star.
Today, head chef János Veres ensures that Michelin star is retained through lots of hard work. As part of The Fat Duck Group, he works with some of the best chefs in the UK – including Heston’s right-hand man, Ashley Palmer-Watts – and has access to the coveted database of all the group’s recipes and research. While the menu at The Fat Duck has gone through entire evolutions over the past few years, The Hinds Head is a little more stable, with iconic dishes such as the Scotch egg and Heston’s famous triple-cooked chips on offer year-round.
‘We would upset a lot of people if we took certain things off the menu,’ says János. ‘At one point we thought we’d stop selling our pea and ham soup as it didn’t seem very seasonal, but diners were coming in specifically for a bowl of it with a Scotch egg on the side. Now it never comes off. When Heston bought The Hinds Head he wanted certain things to always be on the menu like the Scotch egg, our oxtail and kidney pudding and the tea-smoked salmon, so now we have a core menu made up of those signature dishes and change others as much as the season allows.’