Mike North discusses the recent refurbishment of his Michelin-starred pub and restaurant The Nut Tree in Murcott which he runs with his wife Imogen

Imogen and I were fortunate enough to buy the freehold of The Nut Tree Inn, Murcott in 2006.

When we arrived, we had spent all of our money on buying the pub so we “made do” with what we had and could afford until we were in the position to make improvements.

In 2010, we tore down the existing conservatory and added a new 40 cover dining room.

Since then we have added central heating, re-thatched the roof and landscaped the patio and gardens as well as general upkeep on a building that dates back to the 15th century.

The only area we hadn’t really touched was the kitchen. Considering this is “where the action is”, the kitchen was very small, had low ceilings, was very hot and generally not a nice space to be in for long periods of time.

The kitchen equipment was on its last legs. It had had a good innings and had served us well over the last eight years but the time had come to replace it.

We had two choices – we could replace like for like, close for two weeks and still have a small, cramped space or we could bite the bullet and do a proper job that would mean closing for longer, and cost more money, but would last 35 years.

We closed after Mothering Sunday for six-and-a-half weeks. The next day, our kitchen came down.

One of our regulars, Dick Franklin of Speedcut Contractors, was in charge of the building side. Although a new building was being built it involved linking in to the existing services which had been there in excess of 30 years. New pumps had to be added to increase our water pressure, completely new electricity supply replacing the old and upgrading to 3 phase.

Sections of our thatch had to be taken down to make room for the new roof, new drains dug out.

All of this was handled with excellent efficiency by a really great bunch of builders.

The next bit was the most exciting bit for me. Five years ago I drew a picture of my dream kitchen and this was where I was about to see it come to reality.

It started with the floor being screeded and stainless steel plinths going down for all the kit to stand on. This enables us to have no table legs on the floor so no water, grease etc can get trapped underneath. Next came a heavy duty resin floor, the likes used in big commercial kitchens with gulleys and drainage to enable us to hose down the whole kitchen after service with ease.

The extraction was the next bit of kit to arrive. All suspended from the ceiling this both extracts hot ‘dirty’ air rising from the stove and replaces it with clean air making the air quality excellent and also elimating drafts. This is also beneficial to the rest of the pub as the log burners now don’t smoke out.

Next came the ‘piece de resistance’. A bespoke stove built to our specification Mary, chef, and myself went to Izeaus, France, to see it in production. This is all electric, not induction, made from stainless steel with mirror polished trim!

Once the stove was in place, the space quickly began to take shape: a seamless working surface, undercounter refrigeration from freezers, combi ovens and dish and glass washers were speedily installed to complete our dream kitchen.

Me, Imogen and our kids live at The Nut Tree and were on site for the whole process.

We now have a kitchen that we are proud of and will keep up with the demands we plan on putting it through over many years to come.

Our aim at The Nut Tree is to continue living and working here with the hope of carrying on and improving our little pub.

We would like to thank all of our customers for their support over the last eight-and-a-half years and their patience in the time we have been closed without you we would not still be here let alone making the changes and improvements that we have. We hope to see you soon.