Masons Arms, The

Mark Dodson, for twelve years head chef at the Waterside Inn, and his wife Sarah, finally succumbed to the siren call of the wild in 2005, and bought The Masons Arms in Devon.

From three-star Michelin chef to chef-proprietor of a smallish pub in a remote part of a remote county is a pretty giant step, and the story of their first six months has been well catalogued, with the accolades already rolling in.

Starters of wild mushroom risotto, artichokes and olives, loin and confit of rabbit with celeriac and vanilla, smoked haddock with a poached egg, warm shallot potato and roquette salad set the scene. Amongst the main courses look out for fillet of Glenarm salmon with orange and star anis butter, Devon beef fillet with braised oxtail and leaf spinach, or roast sirloin of Devon red ruby beef with garden vegetables, red wine jus and horseradish cream.

For desserts think poached peach with raspberry cream and lime syrup, or rhubarb and sweet wine trifle, and most certainly not forgetting a platter of those memorable Devon and Somerset farmhouse cheeses, followed by coffee and homemade fudge.

When I consider that there are remote restaurants on the west coast of Scotland, with massive journeys to reach them, I can only be thankful that quality always tells, and that it will protect the Dodsons in their relatively well populated corner of Devon just as well as it does the Scots. They are 20-25 minutes north from junction 27 of M5. It's worth every mile.