Vanilla thriller

28 August 2002 by
Vanilla thriller

Michael Macdonald isn't worried by the local competition around Marlow. In the six months that his new Buckinghamshire restaurant, the Vanilla Pod, has been open, he has lost no sleep thinking about his former employers, Danesfield House and the Compleat Angler. Nor is he fazed by the thought that around the next bend of the Thames nestle Cliveden, the Waterside Inn and the Fat Duck. After all, if no less a personage than Gordon Ramsay had recommended you buy the run-down premises of a relocating Indian restaurant, you wouldn't worry, would you?

"I thought the price was too high, but Gordon said, ‘Go for it'," Macdonald remembers. The two men have known each other since Macdonald's days as a chef de partie at London's La Tante Claire when Ramsay was a sous chef there. And there is another connection: Mark Askew, Ramsay's executive chef de cuisine at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay on Chelsea's Hospital Road, is Macdonald's old flatmate and was one of the friends who chipped in financially to kick-start the Vanilla Pod when Macdonald came up £10,000 short of the purchase price of £150,000.

Despite the support of these friends in high places, one person needed convincing that the town-centre site could be a success - Macdonald's wife, Stephanie. He explains: "The first time she saw it, she said, ‘You must be mad. It's a mess.' And it's true - there were holes in the wall and the floor was black. But I didn't see that, I saw the potential. I said, ‘You're looking at what they've got. Think what we can do instead'."

Tight budget Potential is one of 32-year-old Macdonald's favourite words. "On a tight budget, you have to do what you can," he says, so he and Stephanie spent three months decorating the restaurant themselves to save money on interior designers. But they made sure not to neglect key details, so that diners are left in no doubt that the Vanilla Pod is nothing less than a top-end operation - the ceramic signs on the toilet doors were hand-painted by a family friend, while the work of local artists ensures a constantly-changing backdrop on the dining room's vibrant ochre walls.

Another of Macdonald's economies was taking on the marketing of the restaurant launch himself. Not for him a money-guzzling, pre-launch campaign of glossy press releases and opening parties; instead, he piqued locals' curiosity by blanking out the restaurant's windows during its redecoration, pasting up a small poster detailing his professional achievements and, three weeks before opening, tacking 400 flyers on the outside wall.

Having been tantalised by this drip-feed of home-cooked PR, the people of Marlow couldn't wait to eat Macdonald's food when the restaurant finally opened. The Vanilla Pod has been busy from day one, 5 March, and the 34-cover restaurant is now fully booked most nights of the week, with a 30-strong waiting list for a Saturday night table. Lunch averages a respectable 15-20 diners.

If anything, the nearness of such illustrious venues as the Fat Duck has been a help, not a hindrance. "There are a lot of people in the local area interested in eating out, and if there's no competition you relax," says Macdonald. "One of the things we feel we have to do here is change the menu monthly, because we have so many people returning. In the past month, 32 of our customers have been back more than twice."

Though Macdonald is keen to stress that it was "doing his own thing" rather than "being mentioned in any books" that made the Vanilla Pod an immediate success, he is sufficiently circumspect to acknowledge that success in itself is not the only recognition that matters. "Every chef wants accolades," he admits. "If you're busy, you know you're doing something right, but you'd be silly to say you didn't want a Michelin star. It's another pat on the back."

Not only do such awards bring the customers in, they're a useful recruitment tool, too. "People want to work for successful restaurants," Macdonald says. "The first thing I picked up when I was looking for a job was Michelin. I wanted to work for the best."

Michelin has proved a useful handbook for Macdonald. Among those he has worked for have been Nico Ladenis at Chez Nico, Pierre Koffmann at La Tante Claire and Eric Crouillère-Chavot at Interlude. From Ladenis, he learnt about simplicity of flavour, while he admires Koffmann for being a hands-on teacher. Herbert Berger, for whom Macdonald worked at Keats and Martins, wins praise for his calmness, and Gordon Ramsay for his commitment.

Yet, it's perhaps CrouillŠre-Chavot - "another workaholic" - with whom Macdonald shares the greatest affinity. "We had five in the kitchen at Interlude," says Macdonald, "and we proved what you can do with that, winning a Michelin star the first year it opened." This experience of quality over quantity coloured Macdonald's approach to his own kitchen - rather than taking on a commis, he hired two chefs he had worked with before: sous chef Hywel Richards from the Compleat Angler, and pastry chef Marjorie Brice from Danesfield House. "Having good-quality staff pays off in the end," Macdonald says of this strategy. "You get what you pay for. Good staff make you busy because there are no mistakes. I took on two highly ranked people in the kitchen because they can deal with the workload and produce consistent results."

Menu simplicity
The size of the kitchen brigade necessitates a simplicity in the menus, which, after working with Ladenis, suits Macdonald fine. He describes his cooking as "modern English with a French twist - food that I enjoy cooking". The monthly-changing à la carte (three courses, £25.50) is based around sweet and sour combinations of straightforward, interesting flavours and balanced textures, while a daily set lunch (two/three courses for £13.50/£15.50) allows for experimentation. "It's a busy operation but you have time to try new things," he says. "It's not like a hotel, where you're rushing off to meetings."

As the restaurant has become more successful, Macdonald has expanded his front of house team from four to five with the addition of a sommelier, Manuella Oger-Radenne, from the Waterside Inn. Her appointment is part of the gradual evolution of the restaurant which, now the Vanilla Pod is closed for a fortnight at the end of August, sees Macdonald spending his two-week summer holiday creating a private room upstairs, fitting a new fridge in the garden shed and supervising the installation of an upgraded central heating system. Next year, he's planning to extend the dining room into the garden, taking the total number of seats to 45.

Given the relatively slow pace of change at his new restaurant, does Macdonald have any regrets about giving up life in the fast lane in the capital? "No," he smiles, shaking his head. "Once I had made the decision to leave London, I knew I'd never go back to work there. I don't think I'd ever have opened my own restaurant in London - I'd always have been working for someone else." Now, not only does he own his own restaurant, he has a garden for his two children.

Obviously there are different pressures, as he admits. "You're in charge of the purse strings," he says, "but you feel a lot more secure. At the end of the day, my responsibility is to make this a success, both for my family and for my staff." With the way the first six months have gone, they shouldn't be losing any sleep either.

The Vanilla Pod, 31 West Street, Marlow, Buckinghamshire SL7 2LS. Tel: 01628 898101

Macdonald's tips for rookie restaurateurs

  • No matter how good you are as a chef, you need a good location. Look where you're going to fit in.
  • Employ quality staff. You alone can't make somewhere busy.
  • As long as you cook your dishes well, with good flavour, that's what people want. Keep your frills for pastry.
  • Take on people who understand your vision of what you're trying to achieve.
  • Don't skimp on china or glassware, but save money on things that guests don't see.H Don't be afraid to set aside three months to decorate the restaurant yourself. At the end of the day, it's like painting your house, and it makes your restaurant feel more personal.
  • Know how to talk to your suppliers, so you can be more flexible in how you pay your bills.

Vanilla Pod - the essence of the menu

Ravioli of confit rabbit on garlic cream and herb salad
Chilled cucumber and natural yogurt soup with fresh oyster and pickled cucumber
Roasted turbot and artichokes with baby new potatoes and port sauce
Braised short rib of beef, horseradish pommes purée with parsley shallots and red wine sauce
Caramelised pineapple and polenta cake, warm cherry compote and chantilly cream
Strawberry chibouste, with poached rhubarb and strawberry salad, topped with rhubarb sorbet

Steamed fillet of sea bass with vanilla and saffron velout‚ and new-season asparagus (serves four)

Lavender panna cotta with sweet pickled raspberries, lavender sorbet (serves eight)

The Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email

Start the working day with The Caterer’s free breakfast briefing email

Sign Up and manage your preferences below

Check mark icon
Thank you

You have successfully signed up for the Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email and will hear from us soon!

Jacobs Media is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.

close

Ad Blocker detected

We have noticed you are using an adblocker and – although we support freedom of choice – we would like to ask you to enable ads on our site. They are an important revenue source which supports free access of our website's content, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

trade tracker pixel tracking