Claire Alexander at The Killingworth Castle's on-going tale of relaunching a country pub...

There’s nothing better than a heated debate with chefs over culinary terminology. The latest saga involved salt cod & crab fishcakes the chefs were calling “bonbons” (a sweetie, no?). However, it turns out to be the current bestseller, customers have gone bonbon crazy and I am now the butt of all menu jokes: “How about a pork loin Toblerone…?”.

Laughs aside, it’s important to get menu descriptions right to showcase our chefs’ skills without pretentions. Our two AA rosettes at our other pub, The Ebrington Arms near Chipping Campden have just been reconfirmed for the third year running and we wait with bonbon breath for the inspector at The Killingworth Castle.

The food side of the business is taking off thanks to lots of repeat custom, down to location (Wootton is two miles from Blenheim and Woodstock) and head chef, Phil Currie and executive chef Andrew Lipp who’ve worked hard alongside the rest of the team to turn around a business that only 10 months ago was a derelict building. The menu appeals to a wide demographic – most parties have someone who only wants steak with others more adventurous. Most popular dishes recently are butter poached Attwell Farm chicken breast with mushroom dauphine potatoes, rainbow chard, girolles and tarragon and old faithful beer battered fish and chips. Our last three monthly Food Nights have sold out with waiting lists. Next up is Fish Night (Oct 8), Game Night (Nov 12) and we’re running festive specials throughout December. We’ve been encouraged by people driving the 10 miles from Oxford to eat, locals loving their local and thanks to Lotus up the road, Friday afternoons have a regular party feel!

Chats over the bar have resulted in people kindly bringing us in great historical pub photos and folklore – another step in bringing our pub back to life. I met a wonderful lady who used to run The Old Parsonage in Oxford whose relative used to be landlady here. We’ve heard about Churchill and Morris’ test drives out to the Killingworth for lunch before driving their motors back to Blenheim. And I met some local ladies who didn’t see each other for a year when the pub closed and are really happy to be meeting here again. Creating a “hub” is what it’s all about and the locals have embraced an Aunt Sally team, Sunday night music and the monthly quiz is always packed.

More proof I hope that pubs CAN work as a space for the local community AND gastronomy fans alike. You never know who you’ll be rubbing shoulders with and that’s part of the fun. It’s just that now it’s likely to be over bonbons AND real ale!