A CONCENTRATION on locally-sourced produce combined with an innovative fusion style of cooking is the focus for a chef who has taken over one of Craven’s most popular restaurants.

Richard Wright has taken on The Brasserie in the Courtyard at Settle and is confident he can maintain and enhance the reputation the establishment has gained over the last three years.

The 34-year-old, from Harrogate, trained in his home county before moving south to pick up experience with some of the best chefs in Oxfordshire and Berkshire.

Richard also worked at The Crooked Billet at Stoke Row, near Henley on Thames, renowned as one of the country’s top – and earliest – gastro pubs.

Richard says: “I learned a massive amount there – it was amazing. The menu was huge and it was very hard work, but great experience.

“Chefs in the south seem especially willing to try out new things and I have tried to bring a sense of adventure to my own cooking. For me, though, some southern chefs are a bit too adventurous and it doesn’t always work. I am always interested in new ideas but in cooking it’s all about getting the right balance between innovation and tradition in my view.

“At The Brasserie I am trying to create dishes featuring unusual flavour combinations that are a little different but rooted in the best of Yorkshire and England – a fusion between east and west.”

Richard decided to return to North Yorkshire in 2006 and has worked at some of the area’s renowned gastro pubs before deciding that the time was right for him to take on The Brasserie.

It is part of the Courtyard development, a barn conversion which features several other complementary businesses.

The philosophy behind The Brasserie’s eclectic menu is to use as much locally-sourced produce as possible, Richard says.

“Our meat is sourced from Blue Pig at Mearbeck Farm in Long Preston, which is among the very best you can get – the black pudding is the best I have ever tasted! We cure our own salt beef, smoke our own salmon, and bake our bread and our cakes fresh each morning.

“Our cheeses come from our neighbours at The Courtyard Dairy, and they are of the highest quality. Wine merchants Buon Vino advise us on the best wines to recommend with our dishes.

“I am a great believe in keeping it local, not just in the restaurant business but in the economy in general – then we all benefit.”

Richard says he intends to build on the reputation for fine, unpretentious food in a friendly atmosphere that The Brasserie has gained since it opened in 2012, and adds that it is important to keep things seasonal, as well as fresh.

“The specials board is changed every week and the main menu every two months as produce comes in season, which helps us to reflect the best that the Dales can offer. We are very lucky to be in a county that has such fantastic produce and we want to make the most of that.”