Marlow institutions The Hand and Flowers and The Coach are celebrating special anniversaries this year. Tom Kerridge looks back at a gamble and how chefs like Sarah Hayward have driven the business on
When it comes to creating a legacy, a humble carrot may not be what springs to mind when discussing an iconic restaurant. But then again, The Hand and Flowers isn’t just another restaurant: in fact, we would always consider the Marlow institution to be a pub that does fantastic food.
However you define it, one thing that isn’t up for debate is its popularity and success – and in March, it celebrates 20 years since opening its doors for the first time. To mark the occasion, Tom Kerridge is bringing back some classics from yesteryear on the aptly named Classics Menu, which is where the aforementioned carrot pops up.
“The shin of beef had to go on,” he grins about his favourite dish on the menu. “The carrot that goes with it ended up being in a TV show. That TV show ended up being in a recipe book, loads of people cooked those carrots at Christmas, I get told about it all the time. We also have a version of that dish that’s in M&S. We have gone from setting up that dish 20 years ago, going from a pub with no Michelin stars to a pub with two Michelin stars, and also then having an opportunity for that dish to be in a high street supermarket space. There’s something really amazing about that dish that I love so much.”
From Credit Cards to Michelin Stars
It’s a slightly off kilter answer that in a way sums up the opening of The Hand and Flowers. Tom was 30 when he and his wife, Beth, decided to open their own place, and after searching far and wide, this spot in Marlow came up. “We had no money and this was a tenancy for Greene King, which is different to a leasehold, making it a little cheaper to open up,” Tom explains. “We still had to raise £75,000 to get in there, which we did by maxing out our credit cards and lying to the bank by saying we were doing a small extension on a cottage we were living in back in Norfolk! They gave us some money, but instead of doing an extension we gave it to Greene King,” Tom chuckles. “The bank were not that happy when they found out, but they were left with two options. It was different 20 years ago, you actually had a bank manager, a human being you could speak to. When he found out he was left with two options: he could either call the money in, or he could let us have a go to then pay it back – which they did.
“We took the opportunity and went for it. I opened it up with myself and Beth running front of house, my best mate came along and ran the bar, and I had two other guys in the kitchen with us and that was it. Within ten months it had won a Michelin star and then we just decided to keep driving forward. The idea was for Beth to be able to make art and for me to be able to cook, and that was it – there wasn’t this aim of getting to the point where this pub was two Michelin stars. We had no idea we would still be here 20 years later, the way it has progressed and the journey we have gone on, and the people who have been on the journey with us like Sarah.”
A Two-Decade Evolution
Sitting next to Tom today is Sarah Hayward, who is the head chef of The Coach down the road from The Hand and Flowers, which itself is marking 10 years since opening – an anniversary that Sarah shares. “I started on the 21st January 2015. I was around just as The Coach was doing its soft launch,” she says about when she started working at The Hand and Flowers. “I was young back then, so it was quite intimidating. I had definitely never worked in a two Michelin star restaurant before, and the food was very different to anything I had also done previously. It was intimidating, but it didn’t scare me off.”
“In the environment of a two Michelin star kitchen, there is a level of consistency you have to hit every day,” Tom adds. “Can you do that again and again and again? It’s almost like training an athlete, you have to go through repetitive motions over and over. And that pressure you put on yourself… We try to always create an environment where people can feel comfortable. The intimidation and worry people have as younger chefs is ‘can I actually do it?’.
“Without making Sarah big headed, there is no arrogance with her, she is incredibly humble, she works with such a strong ethic, her morals are in the right place with how she treats other people, she has self drive, she wants to learn, she is a confident young woman that has that ability, and she is level headed. You could see that 10 years ago, that this is somebody who wants to do something.”
The Coach: A Next Step
Was opening The Coach always part of a plan? “Not really,” Tom shakes his head. “It took us 10 years being open at The Hand before we opened The Coach. As we were driving The Hand forward, and I was in that kitchen on a constant basis and competing on the likes of the Great British Menu, I could see from a business point of view that there was no point opening a second space if we were not operating to 90-100% out of the first space, otherwise it is just wasted space.
“It came through organic growth of people and staff to be honest,” he continues. “We had at that point a chef with us called Nick Beardshaw, who was sous chef underneath the head chef Aaron Mulliss at that point at The Hand and Flowers. Nick is an incredible chef and a brilliant person, similar to Sarah in the way he works with people, operates with humility, knows how to talk to people, guests and front of house staff – he hasn’t got a chef arrogance, he has this ability to communicate. He was pushing for a head chef position, but the head chef of The Hand and Flowers was not leaving. We were left with two options. One was to go OK, let’s invest our time and energy in Nick and see if there is another site, or Nick leaves and all those amazing skills he has got goes into someone else’s business. At the same point The Coach down the road came up for lease and it was literally one afternoon between services, I walked up the road with Beth, we saw the site and we took it on.”
Stepping Into Big Shoes
How did Sarah feel taking over The Coach’s kitchen? “Terrified!” she laughs. “The Coach is such a special place, Tom and Nick have these big, amazing personalities and they have built such a reputation with customers, it is a very people orientated pub. I was absolutely terrified of stepping into their shoes, and that my tiny little feet would never fill their massive shoes.
“The Coach is probably in the best space it has ever been in terms of personality of the chef running it,” Tom steps in. “A chef who has managed to grab hold of something and made it their own. Sarah being recognised by the Michelin Guide for being Young Chef of the Year a couple of years ago was Michelin’s way of saying well done Sarah, this is definitely your own, we recognise you for what you have done there. It’s not another achievement just maintaining a star, it’s actually a recognition of a chef for what she’s done. So that opportunity she has grabbed with both hands to put it into this space.”
Marking the Milestones
Like The Hand and Flowers, The Coach will be marking its anniversary with celebratory fare. “We are bringing back old Coach dishes, favourites, classics, ones that people are dying for us to bring back and we are integrating them into the menu, so they have got a 10th anniversary logo next to them and they are making a guest appearance, and will go in and out on the menu across the year. We have just brought back the rhubarb and custard choux bun, which is one of my absolute favourites. We have also just put on The Coach baked potato, which gets us a lot of stick and I love it! We have a few versions of that and that’s coming back over the course of the year.”
Pressures will always be present, particularly with the current financial squeeze the UK is facing – “Right now it’s very difficult,” Tom sighs – but from the outside looking in, The Hand and Flowers and The Coach both look in rude health. “We are in a fortunate position that we have been in business for 20 years, we have gone through recessions before, we have gone through Covid, lots of dark times, and this is another time we just have to go, hey, we will get through it,” Tom says. “We will have to make some hard and difficult decisions I am sure, but in 10 years we will hopefully be celebrating The Coach being 20 years old.” That’s a dangled carrot worth pursuing.
