: The Professionals winner Alex Webb has waded in on ‘s decision to serve exclusively British produce at his Cotswolds pub The Farmer’s Dog.
Alex, who won the cookery show in 2020, is a huge supporter of British produce in his own cooking but is also aware of the practicalities of rigidly sticking to a homegrown products policy.
Speaking exclusively to he said: “I saw the other day someone tried to get something there (Jeremy’s pub), and they said, ‘We don’t serve it. It’s not British’.
“For me, I think you sometimes have to draw the line and take the flavour over the British produce.”
Jeremy’s vision of an all-British menu, using only produce grown or reared by UK farmers, . However the cracks in the plan quickly began to show, and .
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Alex Webb won MasterChef: The Professionals in 2020 (Image: Stuart Martin/Reach plc)
He has explained that while imported black pepper would cost him around £10 per kilogram, the home-grown alternative costs “ten times” that price.
“If I butcher one of my own pigs and turn it into sausages, each one of those sausages will arrive at the pub costing 74p but if I buy imported pig meat then the cost of a sausage is 18p. It was the same story everywhere,” he groaned in his column for last September.
While Alex sympathises he says: “You kind of get what you pay for with British produce. And I think you can always tell by the flavour. I can really tell things like that (taste).
Pondering on Jeremy’s higher than average prices for his food, Alex said: “Well he is a very high end name and so you are probably also paying for that in a little bit of way. And people talking about it so it has made it into the public eye, and then people do go and try it. And so it’s kind of different (to a regular restaurant), I guess.
“We were out that way a few weeks ago, and it was a bit further out than where we were so we didn’t go, but I’d love to go try it,” he said.
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Jeremy Clarkson only serves British produce in his pub (Image: Neil Robnson/PA)
Since winning MasterChef: The Professionals Alex career has gone from strength to strength. He is working towards opening his own restaurant (he’s currently looking for a space for it), has numerous private clients, a once a year residency in the Maldives and his own cider Alex Webb Signature Blend.
He is also teaming up with the other 2020 finalists to mark the 35th anniversary of the show with a pop up restaurant on Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd February.
He will be joined by Santosh Shah, Philli Armitage-Mattin, Bart Van der Lee and Vivek Singh for a Fantastic Five Supper Club at Cinnamon Kitchen City on Devonshire Square.
Revealing that they have a WhatsApp group since the show he said: “We’ve kept in contact and we get on really well.”
Tickets for the Fantastic Five Supper Club are available .