insideKENT Magazine Issue 99 - June / July 2020 | Page 23

FOOD+DRINK
MEET THE CHEF:
ROBERT TAYLOR,
THE COMPASSES INN
© Hannah Caitlin Photos
Where did you train?
So officially I trained at Thanet Technical College,
but in reality my training started much earlier at the
age of 11. I had loved cooking as a child and started
working weekends with my step dad who was a chef
at the time, I continued to work with him every
weekend until they opened their own restaurant,
where I worked throughout college, until I left for
London at the age of 18.
Where have you worked before The
Compasses?
Upon leaving Kent, I worked in London for around
seven years working in 5 star hotels and their fine
dining restaurants. Having met my now wife in
London, we decided to go back to Australia to spend
some time in the country she was from. This was a
real turning point in my cooking as I learnt that food
can be good and still enjoyed in a relaxed comfortable
environment.
Why Kent/The Compasses?
We decided while in Australia that we wanted to
return to England to open our own business and the
dream at this point was to take all we had learnt
about great ingredients and fine dining, but to take
this into a pub environment and do it in a really
unpretentious manner. It was about five or six years
after returning to England that we were able to get
our own place and in this time we had seen a few
people making what we had decided to do work for
themselves and more gastro-style pubs were popping
up around and doing it very well. Kent for us seemed
an easy choice I had grown up in Kent and had
grown up in the local pubs, so they have always been
a part of who I am. And knowing the area, I knew
how well stocked it is with some great produce and
food producers.
Tell us about the dishes/courses you have
created for the menu?
The food we create on the menu utilises the best of
what is in season at any one point, however this
doesn’t mean we use solely local ingredients (otherwise
you wouldn’t be able to enjoy our chocolate desserts!)
We run two menus at the pub; a main menu which
is always available and a set lunch menu at £23.95
for 3 courses that changes daily; enabling us to use
the best of what’s around and be fluid in doing so.
It is a great process because it keeps me thinking
and if someone locally is producing something great
it deserves to be used and showcased.
What is your signature/favourite dish?
I wouldn’t say I have a signature dish but there is
an ingredient that’s been on every menu since we
opened seven years ago and that’s ox cheek. It’s a
cut I genuinely love. It’s rich and tasty, in the winter
I tend to use it as main course when you want a big
sticky glazed piece of meat, and in the lighter months
I use it in a starter; for example we recently had it
stout glazed with crispy oysters, oyster emulsion and
wasabi cress.
What is your guilty pleasure?
My guilty pleasure without a doubt is the Chinese
take away we get normally on a Saturday after
service, we sit down with the staff, have a beer and
all tuck into some Chinese before we do it all again
the next day.
www.thecompassescrundale.co.uk
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