Island Life Magazine Ltd February/March 2008 | Page 101

FOOD & DRINK

life

the interview
Taking a gander at a
modest man
Try as you might, you won’t get Ian Cowcher to
make any fancy claims for his restaurant, Ganders in
Bembridge. He’d rather let the food speak for itself.
“I’m not after awards and rosettes, that’s not what
floats my boat,” says Ian. “I like people to know what
they’ve got. They don’t want anything too poncey:
they want home-cooked flavours they can identify.”
“Poncey”, the antithesis of what he does, is a
word that comes up often. It is not surprising
that of the celeb chefs he likes Jamie Oliver and
Ramsey, but “can’t stand Gary Rhodes.”
“People stay within their comfort zone. You can
produce something wild and whacky and see it
sitting on the Specials board all evening.”
An Islander since he was a young boy, Ian trained
at the Isle of Wight College, and after a few
working years his parents bought the restaurant
so the family could run a business together. For
the past ten years he and his wife Kim have run it
on their own, with a small but consistent staff.
“What I like is that people come here and find
more than one thing on the menu that they want
to try. It’s a small menu because it’s all freshly
prepared. I hate seeing menus a mile long:
you know it’s all frozen and microwaved.”
The problem Ian has is that he is almost a victim
of his own success. In updating his winter menu
he doesn’t want to upset any of his existing
customers. “I love cooking with calves’ liver, and
lamb shanks are a favourite, but I do like doing
Indian-styled or Thai-styled dishes too.” Similarly,
if he were to change the décor to get away from
the quaint tearoomsy feel (“I hate the word
‘quaint’”), would the marina crowd still come,
sow’esters and all, to enjoy a good meal and a
bottle of wine before going back to their boat?
He’s certainly got the measure of his market, but
that doesn’t mean he feels he can rest on his laurels.
“If you close, go on holiday, go away, everyone’s
forgotten you. That’s the kind of world I live in,”
he laughs, “paranoia! But if you didn’t have that
paranoia you wouldn’t be as good as you like to think
you are. You need that edge to keep putting it out.”
Ganders - Upper Green Road, St Helens.
Tel: [phone]

Island Life - www.isleofwight.net

101