Gastro hubs

Some places are a magnet for Michelin inspectors. The key, say restaurateurs, is wealth, tourism and access to good produce. So which town is next, asks Tina Nielsen

When Shaun Hill left Devon in 1994 after nine successful years at Gidleigh Park hotel, he amazed the culinary world by opening a restaurant in little-known Ludlow. No one suspected that he would soon put the Shropshire market town firmly on the culinary map.

Hill's Merchant House restaurant was pretty much the only restaurant of note in Ludlow. "At the time, it was deemed to be a very bizarre and eccentric choice," he says. "It was important to me that it was a nice place to live, but it also had a lot of really good food shops—there was a great delicatessen and six butchers making their own sausages. Although it was a small town with just 10,000 people, it was the hub for a big area of people, with shops that punched above their weight. At least I'd have food to cook."

Elizabeth Carter, consultant editor of the Good Food Guide, remembers it well. "Everybody went into deep shock when he said he was going to Ludlow," she says. "But he sang the praises of the lovely produce."

Over the next decade, Ludlow became known as the foodie capital of England, with several other top chefs competing for customers. And even though the Merchant House closed in 2005, the town is now host to a whole array of restaurants. Their success has inspired other restaurateurs to embrace out-of-town eating, and villages such as Bray, in Berkshire, have become similarly plump with top-class eateries.

According to Carter, Ludlow was a gastro-heaven waiting to be discovered. "The town itself is really quite something," she says. "Already back in the 1990s, it was very attractive to tourists, with its castle and the annual food market."

After the Merchant House came Chris Bradley and his wife Judy, whose Suffolk restaurant, Mr Underhill's, had already won a Michelin star. They wanted to expand and found themselves restrained in Suffolk. "Ludlow was far and away the best place we saw around the country. It had a strong tourism base and we needed that," says Bradley. "By the time we arrived, there had already been one or two food festivals, and you got the feeling there was something bubbling underneath."

The couple located a new venue, and transformed the premises into an exclusive restaurant with rooms. "When we took over, it was being run like Fawlty Towers," recalls Bradley. "The people just didn't realise they were sitting on a potential goldmine."

Claude Bosi also chose Ludlow as his base. He was working as head chef at the nearby Overton Grange hotel when he decided to set up Hibiscus in 2000. "Ludlow has everything to offer," he says. "The produce is fantastic and the surroundings are just stunning." Hibiscus was an instant success, and by 2004, it had gained two Michelin stars. "It was great that the Merchant House and Mr Underhill's were there because it meant people came to Ludlow for a gastronomic break and tried us all out," says Bosi.

Hill, too, appreciated the company, but admits to a bit of healthy competition between his own Merchant House and the other big hitters. "I wouldn't say it was all sweetness and light between us," he says. "While we all got on and benefited from each other's presence, you always hope to do better."

Bosi moved Hibiscus to London's Mayfair last year, two years after the Merchant House closed its doors, leaving Mr Underhill's with rather less competition. La Bécasse, which moved into Hibiscus's old home last July, is yet to be reviewed by any of the major guides but has been warmly received by the press. Meanwhile, Bradley says Mr Underhill's is busier than ever. "I never quite understood why you'd pack in something so successful," he says. "I was always baffled that they [Hill and Bosi] moved on from Ludlow."

Many towns and villages across the country have since been tipped as "the next Ludlow", but so far the only truly comparable place is Bray. This tiny Berkshire village is home to two three-Michelin-star restaurants, the Waterside Inn and Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck, and the latter was recently voted the second-best restaurant in the world for the second year running (after Spain's El Bulli).

Unlike Ludlow, Bray has no marketplace, nor does it have a large supply of high-quality food nearby. Even the village's grocery store and post office closed down long ago. It has nothing but a few restaurants and a couple of pubs.

"In the case of Bray," says the Good Food Guide's Carter, "you've got a lot of wealthy people living there. It is well connected to London and it is very pretty."

The Roux brothers, Michel and Albert, came to England in 1971 to open Le Gavroche in London; a year later they opened the Waterside Inn in Bray. "They were countryside boys, and they fell in love with Bray," says Michel's son Alain, who is now the chef patron at Waterside Inn.

But trade in Bray was slow in the beginning. "It took them almost 10 years to get the business up and running," says Alain. Today, limousines are a common sight in Bray, and foodies flock to experience the Waterside Inn, as well as Blumenthal's "molecular gastronomy" at the Fat Duck around the corner.

The Waterside Inn had been the village's only restaurant for more than 20 years when Blumenthal arrived in 1995. "When Heston opened the Fat Duck, he asked my father first if it was OK to open next to the Waterside Inn," says Alain. "And when you have someone who is 30 years old with that attitude, it can only be good." Blumenthal later took over the village pub, the Hinds Head, and has turned it into a success as well. "Heston is bringing life back to English cooking," adds Alain.

Bray's heavyweights have now been joined by an Italian venture, Caldesi in Campagna, which opened last autumn after owner Giancarlo Caldesi and his wife Katie fell in love with the village. Caldesi is not fazed by the competition. "If you are opening a restaurant and you are ambitious, which other place but Bray?" he asks. "It has two of the best restaurants in the world with three Michelin stars. It doesn't matter that I don't have any—I believe I can give them a good run for their money."

Since closing the Merchant House in Ludlow, Hill has reopened the famous Walnut Tree Inn near Abergavenny. One of Wales's top restaurants since the 1960s, it had recently closed before Hill and his business partner, William Griffiths, revived it. Hill firmly believes everyone benefits from top restaurants outside the major cities. "I'm not a country boy," he says, "but stuff grows and is raised all around you. There is more awareness of the food as produce and ingredients, and from my point of view, it's nice to talk to people who grow things rather than do phone sales."

The Good Food Guide's Carter agrees. "You always link tourist places with really nasty food, and I think it is wonderful to have someone like Shaun Hill in Ludlow or Abergavenny. It makes great food more accessible," she says.

Even with two of its star restaurants gone, Ludlow has retained its foodie credentials, which will be hard to replicate elsewhere. "There are many towns across the country that have a restaurant with one Michelin star, but it is going to take more than that to turn it into another Ludlow," says Mr Underhill's Bradley. Bosi, too, thinks Ludlow is unique. "I can't see the same thing happening in Luton," he says.
Hill, on the other hand, gives more hope to would-be Ludlows. "I think an awful lot of places have the potential because there is an enormous interest in good food and how it is prepared," he says. "People watch the programmes and read the books across the country—not just in Islington—so potentially many places could become like Ludlow or Bray."

Edible journeys

Let your stomach be your guide, and tuck into these tasty destinations

Lyons, France
Home to Paul Bocuse's quartet of world-renowned restaurants and more than 40 daily food markets, France's third-largest city has excellent foodie credentials. Specialities include tripe, Lyons sausage and Bresse poultry. The wine's not bad either.

Bologna, Italy
Nicknamed La Grassa—the fat one—Bologna serves up great cuisine. The entire surrounding region of Emilia-Romagna is a culinary paradise, and the road between Parma and Bologna is lined with shops selling local delicacies, such as white truffles and balsamic vinegar.

St Davids, Pembrokeshire
Britain's smallest city has had a food revolution, gaining four entries in the Good Food Guide—the highest per capita in the UK. Expect plenty of fresh seafood and locally sourced produce.

San Sebastián, Spain
With a bigger concentration of Michelin stars per inhabitant than anywhere else in the world, visitors to this northern Spanish city are in for a gastronomic treat. Gorge on pinchos (the Basque equivalent to tapas) in the endless selection of bars or head for one of the Michelin-starred restaurants.