Crownin’ glory

Garry Cook on his choice of  East Suffolk’s finest foods.

Why do you live and work where you do?
Originally I am from Northumberland but being a chef, I left home at 18 to go to the Channel Islands and since then, I have worked around most parts of England on the country house circuit. I guess Suffolk felt most like home, the county has certainly been good to me. I first arrived here in 1990 as a junior chef at Hintlesham Hall, then sous chef for much of my seven years. There I met restaurant manager Andrew Lister here, who was to become my business partner later on. After a break both travelling around Australia and working in a variety of luxury hotels, Andy called me to say he was interested in buying the leasehold on Restaurant 152, one of Aldeburgh’s well known dining spots and would I become a partner. The rest is history, we worked together for over four years, us buying the short term lease on it back in 2003. Having our own business was an experience, very hard work and it taught me a lot about the restaurant trade. Teresa, my partner and I actually met at 152, she joining me as a chef and our relationship became more than professional in late 2003. Now we have taken the plunge to get our own place together with me leaving 152 last Autumn - after nearly 5 years I felt it had run its course for me. With the intention of taking some time off, within just a week or so I happened to find out the Crown was available. After talking to Adnams, who own the pub, we felt it was too good an opportunity to miss so took over as landlords in mid December last year.

What makes your locality so different?
Certainly we love this part of the world, of course as a chef there is so much to take advantage of. We want to make the pub a real part of the community, as much for the villagers as for our diners who travel from afar and of course the tourists as well. We love the atmosphere and the real mix of people the Crown attracts.
As a chef we are very privileged in East Anglia to have fantastic fresh produce available.
People are now prepared to pay more when they genuinely know the products’ food chain from field to fork. Not only do we work with some tremendous local farmers and growers as well as high quality suppliers, we also rear our own livestock now and harvest our own produce. Maria and Derrick Brenchley, Teresa’s sister and brother in law, were already rearing rare breed sheep and pigs to sell at farmers markets. With the land we have at the Crown we thought it would be perfect to hijack their venture so we have moved some of the animals to the meadows behind the pub car park. We also have ducks on the pond, quails eggs in the incubator and we love foraging for hedgerow fruits, wild garlic, fungi, elderflowers etc.
It is trendy to say you use local produce and it has become rather an abused label by some places, often only locally supplied (or even not locally connected at all!). We thought we could exploit the home reared produce angle as it seemed an obvious thing to do with the land and knowledge we have and of course we were already passionate about it.  We also use what is in season and the best quality, wherever possible from around the East Suffolk and especially the Alde and Ore Valleys but also sourced elsewhere when not locally available. I have recently used Italian new season carrots as British ones weren’t yet available and they were fantastic.

Tell us about a few of your favourite local foods…
Pinneys – smoked fish you will struggle to find any better and their wet fish is pretty good too. Neil Macro for his lobsters and dressed crabs. Sudbourne’s High House Farm apple juice - you will struggle to find any better. David’s Black Crag Farm beef and lamb also at Sudbourne. Wild game from the Campsea Ashe shoot. All our other meat is slaughtered at Lamberts in Bungay and prepared by KW Clarkes at Bramfield. Sue Allen at Thorpeness grows us superbly different salad leaves and we mustn’t forget Snape asparagus.

How about from further afield?
Most of our other fruit and veg comes through the Fresh Food Group who work with local farms in North Essex.

Where do you like visiting to eat and drink on your doorstep?
Home! We don’t get enough time to eat out as much as I would like. Of course we have lots of wonderful places around here, most of them owned by friends of ours! Recently we’ve enjoyed eating in the Regatta in Aldeburgh and most often we go to the Thai in Woodbridge, but still only a rare treat.

What about eating and drinking elsewhere around East Anglia?
I’d have to say the Crown at Bildeston and the Hoste Arms in Burnham Market.

THE CROWN
A 15th century smugglers inn, the Crown sits just a one minute walk down from the bridge over the River Alde and the smart surroundings of the Snape Maltings shopping emporium and music complex. With Garry’s fine dining experience, it is no surprise that there is more than a little restaurant flair to his cooking at the Crown, but he is keen to stress it is distinctly pub food, albeit above the norm. Whilst they both love cooking, Teresa is more out front while Garry heads up the kitchen. A dish such as home reared pork and black pudding terrine with their own piccalilli shows his efforts, transforming what are often discarded cuts, namely the head and hocks. He also takes locally caught mackerel, sweet pickling them in an escabeche style and served alongside a new potato and spring onion salad.  Earthy main courses include a Suffolk hotpot of middle neck lamb chops with boulangere potatoes or roast skate wing with sprouting broccoli and a piquant caper raisin dressing. Rhubarb and ginger trifle or summer pudding terrine with crème fraiche ice cream happily hark back to school days. One key part of their strategy with the Crown is to remove the exclusive label which it attracted before -  well behaved children and dogs are most welcome and light bites and sandwiches are firmly back on the menu at lunchtimes. The re-landscaped gardens are becoming a focal point, both for outside catering in marquees overlooking the pasture and closer to the inn in the verdant side gardens for summer dining.

The Crown, The Crown Inn, Bridge Road, Snape, near Aldeburgh, Suffolk
T: 01728 688324