hand & flowers

the hand and flowers – tom kerridge from greatbritishmenu’s quintessentiallybritishgastropub in marlow stands out for two reasons: firstly, it could well be britain’s campest named pub. secondly, as the only 'pub' in the world to ever be awarded two michelin stars (please correct me if i'm wrong), it could justifiably be claimed to serve britain’s best pub grub. i went, hoping for the latter.

over the easter weekend, p surprised me with a booking at the 2 michelin star pub in marlow, the hand and flowers. owned by tom kerridge, one of p’s favourite chefs, and who i had become familiar with since moving to the uk from his appearances on sunday brunch and the greatbritishmenu, it was fair to say we were both more than a bit excited to score a table. and after our good friday feast, it was easy to see why this was the first pub to receive two stars in the michelin guide.

the hand and flowers is the only pub in the united kingdom that has 2 michelin stars (awarded in 2011). it is located in marlow and first opened in march 2005. it is owned by chefs tom and beth kerridge and the hand and flowers is currently voted the number one uk restaurant by restaurant magazine. needless to say all these awards have made it really hard to book and i booked a table at the hand and flowers in december 2013 for august 2014 and i could not even get a saturday and sunday and had to settle for a late lunch on friday. the hand and flowers serves “ unpretentious modernbritishflavours as well as rustic french dishes”.   marlow is a very charming town and the hand and flowers is located in a small very charming house. they recently extended it and now it is bigger. there is a casual bar when you enter and as you go further in, the restaurant.

... the menu is a good combination ofbritishand french dishes. the food is good, the service is excellent, and the dishes come out looking beautiful. what more can i say?

the hand & flowers opened in 2005 and received it’s first michelin star in under a year, in the 2012 guide it was awarded it’s second becoming the only ‘pub’ in the world to hold 2 michelin stars. during that time tom kerridge has competed in 2 series of ‘greatbritishmenu’ winning the main course round both times and returning as a judge last year.

i was very intrigued by the 2 star status of the hand & flowers as i remember tom describing himself as “not a michelin-star kind of guy” and explaining that as the reason for opening a pub rather than a restaurant. so i wasn’t quite sure what to expect when we arrived.

2011 has been a great year for hand & flowers. tom kerridge's roasted hog topped the greatbritishmenu and the restaurant became the first and only pub with two michelin stars in the uk.

as fate would have it, i booked a table here a couple of hours before 'michelin' awarded tom kerridge a 2nd star for his gastro pub, the 'hand and flowers'. this award has elevated tom into the culinary elite ofbritishcuisine, joining the likes of michel roux jr, raymond blanc, brett graham and andrew fairlie. we were expecting fireworks from the dishes today. from the outside it looks like your typical english country pub. on entering you have low wooden beams, a dark slate floor and what seemed to be oversized wooden dining tables that did make the restaurant a bit cramped. we arrived about 20 minutes early so we were quite prepared to come back or sit in the bar area (it was a pub afterall) until our table was ready. we were seated immediately which was great. not so good was having to ask a table of four next to us to squash in to let us past and to move our table until an in away from the occupied table of two next to us. the table of four were quite unimpressed by this. the fir

let's cut to the chase here, you don't get your dishes to the final of greatbritishmenu two years running unless they're pretty special, so we've got pretty high expectations of the hand & flowers; it's a place we've been wanting to go for a while. and while it also has a michelin star, and is not so far from london (marlow), a google search for reviews reveals only a small handful of write ups, old media and bloggers combined. but none of that we'd guess matters for the hand and flowers has local if not national fame now and at 2:30 on a friday lunchtime, the place is packed. this is another former pub that is now a restaurant and the inside boasts old style country pub features like wooden beams and low ceilings, so watch your head. table sizes are generous though the inside of the restaurant is long but not so wide so the large tables seem to trap you into your seats which is slightly uncomfortable. the menu though doesn't disappoint with both tom's 2010 slow cooked duck with duck

roast hog - the winner on greatbritishmenu. i particularly loved the simplicity of the trotter. gelatinous skin with the minced, peppery stuffing. this showed how amazing pork can be without all the fuss.