New head chef at Daniel Clifford’s Essex gastropub
Luke Finnegan, who previously worked at restaurants including Roux at Parliament Square, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal and as head chef at the now-closed Arbutus, Mayfair, will lead the pub’s kitchen.
Bringing a Michelin star to Essex
Clifford has been candid about his high aspirations for the Little Dunmow pub, tweeting earlier this year that he planned to ‘bring a Michelin star to Essex’.
The Flitch of Bacon’s previous head chef, Dan Gill, left the pub in April this year, having worked for Clifford.
High-ranking restaurant
The pub was named as the 92nd best restaurant in the UK at last month’s National Restaurant Awards, which took place at the Hurlingham Club in London.
Stephen Harris’s Michelin-starred ‘boozer by the sea’ the Sportsman took the top spot, with several other pubs staking their claim on the list, including Tom Kerridge’s double Michelin-starred Marlow pub the Hand & Flowers (33rd) and the Coach (59th), the Hardwick (40th), the Wild Rabbit (84th), the Parkers Arms (88th) and the Pipe & Glass Inn (90th).
