What does it take to be awarded the title of 'Pub of The Year', having been named as a runner-up in 2018, the team at The Cock have gone the distance and have been named as the Good Pub Guide's Pub of the Year for 2019.
Described as ‘A first class pub with wonderful food and drink’, The Cock, a village pub in the heart of Cambridgeshire has been awarded the prestigious accolade of Pub of the Year 2019 by the Good Pub Guide and has previously been named as Cambridgeshire Dining Pub of the Year on several occasions.
They serve award-winning English and European food alongside local real ales and a unique wine list which focuses on wines from the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France.
The team at The Cock celebrate their win
The Dining pub of the year was The Plough in Kingham, Chipping Norton which is run by chef-proprietor Emily Watkins and her husband Miles Lampson. Emily has previously worked for Heston Blumenthal at The Fat Duck in Bray and took part in Great British Menu in 2014. The late AA Gill writing in the Sunday Times said that: “The bar menu is as fine as any I’ve seen…anyone thinking of opening a local pub restaurant should come here and see the gold standard.”
The award for New Pub of the Year went to the Masons Arms, Cirencester - a pub with rooms. They serve dishes such as Braised steak and ale pie and Roasted skate wing, orange and honey braised chicory, mussels, heritage tomatoes.
Findings from the guide revealed that diners at Britain’s pubs are not necessarily looking for intricate dishes but would prefer to eat more simple dishes that are fad-free. Feedback from readers showed that ‘pretentious’ food on menus was a turn-off for pub-goers.
The guide said: “Pubs and good food now go hand in hand, but many chefs appear to have gone Masterchef-mad. We really aren’t interested in eating kabsa, katsuobushi, matbucha, succotash, tataki or verjus in a pub.
"We don’t want our dishes adorned with carrot fluff, edible sand or fish ‘foam’. Leave that to the swanky restaurants. We want good, honest pub grub.”
Fiona Stapley, editor of the Guide comments: “In the 37 years of the Good Pub Guide’s existence, fancy food fads have come and gone but what always stands fast is honest cooking using tip-top local, seasonal ingredients, but ones that we can all recognise!”
The Good Pub Guide 2019 book is published today by Ebury Press and is available to buy along with the corresponding app. In addition to over 5000 listings, the Guide contains contributions on current pub topics from some talented, high-profile people.
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