From starting out carrying out work experience at the Celtic Manor Resort, Steve White is now getting rave reviews as head chef at the city's Ruperra Arms. Fran Gillett finds out more.

FOR head chef Steve White at the Ruperra Arms in Newport, the phone does not stop ringing.

Bookings for the high-end gastro pub, which celebrated its first anniversary in October this year, are made up to two weeks in advance with parties of 35 already booking for Christmas.

Walk into the Bassaleg pub on a Friday or Saturday night and the 50-seater restaurant will be at full capacity, serving up to 70 each evening as tables get turned around.

Chef Mr White, who has worked in every hotel kitchen in Newport as well as having cooked for the Queen, puts the success down to word of mouth.

He said: “It’s been excellent, it’s gone from strength to strength. We didn’t do any advertising at all but it’s been so busy.

“We even were giving out the wrong phone number for a while, but it took off because of word of mouth, that’s the key.”

Jonathan Thomas, who owns the Ruperra Arms, hired Mr White last November and for a while he was the sole chef in the kitchen.

“It was just myself until last Christmas,” Mr White said. “I remember the owner was in his suit washing dishes in the kitchen. I was doing seven days a week then.”

Mr White is no stranger to hard work, after starting out as a 15-year-old on work experience at the Celtic Manor before finally working up towards his first head chef post in Newport when he was 28.

The Newport food-lover said he first got the bug for cooking from his mother and grandmother, who were both chefs themselves.

“I have always loved cooking with mum and think I’ve always loved the trade since I did the Celtic Manor.”

He enrolled on a course at Crosskeys College before getting his first job as a trainee chef, later going on to work as the pastry chef at the Celtic Manor.

The 38-year-old also cooked for the Queen when she visited the National Museum of Cardiff (“it was lovely to have that on the CV, to have a special customer”) as well as the G8 summit.

It is perhaps because of Mr White’s stellar CV which has quickly earned the Ruperra Arms such an excellent reputation, with the restaurant now voted number five on website TripAdvisor.

The father to Joshua, nine, took up the helm of the team of three chefs at the pub, formed by sous-chef Jamie Davies and junior sous-chef Saul Willis.

The pub aims for high-end food and gourmet meals, intertwined with traditional pub classics and more unique touches, such as the restaurant’s Vimto-flavoured candyfloss.

The menu for the restaurant, which will be starting its application for an AA Rosette in January, was thought up by the chef team, building on successful dishes they had worked with in the past.

Mr White said: “We wanted to try and up the ante, go more high end rather than just normal pub food. We sat down and looked at our dishes and thought what we could match with what.”

In 2012, Mr White won a UK-wide competition when his braised oxtail and wild mushroom pie was announced as Britain’s best pie.

He said: “We had so much background we didn’t really have to test out recipes. I put my pie on the menu everywhere I have been.”

Ideas for matching tastes are the golden currency in the job of the chef, as well as the ability to use locally-sourced and seasonal products.

Asked about his favourite dishes on the current autumn and winter menu, Mr White cited the braised shin of beef wrapped in cabbage and parma ham, as well as the duo of swordfish and hake with clam risotto.

The restaurant also uses their specials board when the chefs want to try out different dishes, and is building a reputation for its more unique desserts, like the peanut butter parfait which comes in between two wafers and with a caramelised apple.

In January the Ruperra is hoping to launch gourmet evenings, where visitors can enjoy a six-course tasting menu, and a pudding club where chef Mr White will give demonstrations.

Known for its celebrated Sunday lunches, the pub has also just introduced its takeaway Sunday lunches where customers can collect orders of gourmet roasts from the pub and take them home.

“The Sunday lunch takeaways have really taken off,” Mr White said. “They tried it in London, it’s like Sunday lunches on wheels. We also do takeaway fish and chips in traditional boxes with paper.”

Despite the long 13-hour days, Mr White clearly loves his job, the Ruperra Arms and cooking, even choosing to make a roast dinner for his wife, Rachael, and son Joshua on his day off.

While he said he enjoys gourmet food, Mr White said he’s a fan of traditional food like old school cottage pies and stews – as well as takeaway fish and chips cooked the old-fashioned way, in beef dripping.

Emotions in the kitchen of the Ruperra Arms can run pretty high and with often up to 70 hungry mouths to feed, the pressure can mount.

“When it does get busy most chefs feel the pressure. There’s a lot of male aggression in our kitchen, a lot of testosterone and a lot of shouting and screaming.

“But you love your job and most chefs, and myself, thrive under the pressure.”

For a pub so focussed on producing good quality food, every customer counts.

“It’s heartbreaking getting a bad review. It brings down the morale if someone brings back a dish that they say wasn’t cooked properly. But you just have to pick yourself up.”

But when your restaurant is raking in rave reviews and attracting customers from the corners of Gwent and even as far as Singapore, picking yourself up cannot be hard.

For the team at the Ruperra Arms, it is clear customer feedback is top priority. The best things about Mr White’s job?

“I love talking to people, seeing the reviews and seeing how they enjoyed the food. It makes the job really worthwhile.”