Apparently, I volunteered to write the first ever Coastguard Blog. To anyone that knows me, this will be hilarious, due to me being a founder member of the ludites society, chef division. Truth be known, I’m not entirely sure what a blog is. My somewhat unreliable husband assures me that it will simply be an extension of my existing diary to which I responded by offering up my leather bound ‘hardcopy’ diary and asking where I should plug it in. That’s how I ended up here typing away for you lot so if I make any blogging faux pars, please understand I’m here under false pretences and the promise of a pint of Dark Conspiracy.
So, I guess I should introduce ourselves, not that I’m sure there’s anyone out there let alone interested in a strange family who live in the restaurant at the end of the world but seeing as I’ve no idea who you are, I have to start somewhere. I’m Sam and I cook, a lot, mostly for customers visiting the pub and restaurant I own with my husband Nigel and our two baby girls. And yes, it really is at the end of the earth, well ok, mainland Britain to be precise, bang smack on the beach under the white cliffs of Dover, 23 miles off the French Coast. Indeed, it’s called The Coastguard for fairly obvious reasons (it used to be called the Green Man a long time ago for less obvious ones..) and considering neither of us had a clue about running a catering business when we bought it, we’ve become quite famous.
Nigel wanted this blog to reflect life at The Coastguard, the banter in the bar, the food from our kitchen, the bizarre things that occur in this tiny bay, cut off from all TV and terrestrial radio signals and where your mobile welcomes you to France as soon as you turn down the hill towards us. So I suppose you can treat this blog like your local – pop in for a chat at the bar, try one the recipes for our famous dishes or just live through the day to day trials and tribulations of the family pub at the end of the earth.
