Food and drink

A statement on The Goose's website explaining the departure of Ryan Simpson and his team
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Mass walk-out at Michelin starred restaurant

By Natalie Slater
February 09, 2010

An award winning chef and his team have staged a mass walk-out of a South Oxfordshire restaurant after a dispute over the menu.

Ryan Simpson, head chef at The Goose in Britwell Salome, left the restaurant on Friday night with the rest of the team which won the Michelin star only three weeks ago.

The 27-year-old chef said: "The whole team has walked out because after we won the star the owner Paul Castle wanted to change everything and wanted us to serve burgers and chips and pub grub.

“He claimed the business was not making sufficient funds and he wanted to change it more into a pub which is not what the Michelin star is about.

Maziar Yazdanian, spokesman for Paul Castle, said: “Due to a disagreement between Ryan and the owner of The Goose, Mr Paul Castle, regarding the operations of the business, Ryan chose to resign his position unexpectedly as Executive Chef.

“Ryan asked the other staff members from the kitchen to resign too. As a result of which, The Goose has been forced to close. It will undergo a refurbishment and reopen on March 1. It will be run by Paul Castle as a gastro pub in an identical manner to when it originally won a Michelin star.”

For more, see tomrrow's Reading Post.

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Well it made the London Times

Nimrod Maximus
10/02/2010 at 15:29

Retro Jon, it's currently the second most viewed story on the site so people must be interested.

JC, Woodley
10/02/2010 at 07:58

Who knows how much the chef was exaggerating what the owner had requested. There's burgers and then there's burgers. I doubt he was seriously asking Michelin starred chefs to dumb down as much as they're suggesting.

JFK
9/02/2010 at 23:56

Sorry but my computer is obviously having a malfunction.....I could have sworn I logged onto Get Reading. What has this to do with Reading or the greater Reading area? We all know that the Evening Post, Reading Post or whatever you want to call it this week has dummed down, but surely there are local news worthy stories? Next time I want to hear what's going on in Reading, perhaps I should log onto Get Oxon and the rest of the Thames Valley.com instead? Please, please, please stop trying to please the whole region like Meridean News and concentrate on quality news coverage for the people of READING!

Retro Jon, Woodley
9/02/2010 at 22:50

Perhaps Britwell Salome wasn't the place to have a restaurant like this, after all before the toffs took over it was a lovely village pub. These sort of places should be in places such as Henley, where the rich and over-payed can afford £80+ for a meal that doesn't even touch the side of the plate!

dodger, south oxfordshire
9/02/2010 at 16:06

I can understand the walk out - all that time working on an award winning menu only to be told to cook burgers and chips? I don't think any of us can blame the change of menu if the place has been losing money, but why was the departure unexpected after that?

Nowtas, Reading West
9/02/2010 at 14:11

Roger the pub closed so they don't have a job now .... So the chef wanted to continue the fine dining menu at the exspense of losing money .... great business mind there chef ...

The Racing Snake
9/02/2010 at 13:53

If its a decent restaurant one would certainly journey 15 - 20 miles - the owner should take a franchise on a McD's - the heathen!

I'm sure the chef and his staff will be in demand.

Take a Chill Pill!
9/02/2010 at 13:27

it's just past watlington, which makes it about 15 miles, those chefs should count themselves lucky they have a job.

rogerjolly, reading
9/02/2010 at 12:38

I didn't realize that you could run a gastropub in an identical manner to a michelin starred restaurant and still make money. Those other gastropubs have obviously been missing a trick!

DM
9/02/2010 at 12:30

I was thinking just the same thing!

Wabbit, Reading
9/02/2010 at 12:15

Whilst this is interesting, why is this in the READING Post? The restaurant is nearly 20 miles from Reading... Are some of these guys from Reading?! Am I missing something?