Classic and traditional British dishes used to be the butt of a joke for many of the world’s gourmands – boiled-to-death vegetables, stodgy stews and greasy, heavy food were the go-to descriptions for our nation’s cuisine. But over the past decade, that has completely changed. We started to look at the things that made British food fantastic – the incredible produce, the simple recipes and full, rich flavours. Today, the UK is home to some of the best restaurants in the world – and many of them are serving rustic regional British dishes that celebrate the good and the great of our cuisine.

The fourth chapter in our first ever cookbook showcases just how good classic British cooking can be. With an impressive roster of ten incredible chefs to call upon, the twenty recipes featured in the chapter are a testament to British cooking at its very best – unfussy yet refined, delicious yet familiar, beautiful yet rustic. All the chefs below appear in the Classic British & Pub Food section of our book – read on to get to know more about them.

In the heart of London’s trendy Soho, Jeremy Lee has been the poster boy for impeccable British cooking for years. His lauded restaurant Quo Vadis serves dishes which may look simple on the menu, but taste out of this world. With a focus on quality of ingredients above all else and a wonderfully warm, friendly manner, Jeremy is one of London’s most celebrated chefs.

No one has championed rustic Irish and British cooking like Richard Corrigan. Taking humble ingredients and giving them the same care and attention as the most luxurious lobsters or fillet steaks results in some incredible food, and his busy Mayfair restaurant has been incredibly popular for the past ten years.

On the Isle of Wight, Robert Thompson has been steadily turning his eponymous restaurant into a sole reason for making the trip to the island. He won his first Michelin star at the very young age of twenty-three, but after relocating to the Isle of Wight and opening Thompson’s in 2015, he has become known for utilising classical technique, modern light flavours and impeccable British ingredients to create wonderful dishes that simply taste amazing.

Up in Fife, Geoffrey Smeddle combines the rustic and the refined to cook stunning fare that champions the produce of the east coast of Scotland above all else. His restaurant The Peat Inn is a wonderful eighteenth-century building which serves up Michelin-starred food that changes with the seasons. Ingredients such as game, berries, hake and elderflower are cornerstones of his kitchen, and they’re plated perfectly.

Frances Atkins’ Yorke Arms is a stalwart of classic British cooking, with Yorkshire ingredients and flavours at the forefront of everything she does. Being largely self-taught means she has a playful, free-spirited approach to cooking, which brings traditional dishes such as pies, tarts and cakes bang up-to-date.

Norfolk produces some fantastic ingredients, and Galton Blackiston is the county’s most prominent chef, taking local produce and transforming it into impeccable Michelin-starred cuisine. His restaurant Morston Hall is a destination in its own right, and his combination of traditional dishes and internationally influenced cooking produces unrivalled results.

Bristol and the surrounding region would be a lot less popular with foodies if it wasn’t for Josh Eggleton. From his Michelin-starred pub The Pony & Trap in Chew Magna to his Salt & Malt fish and chip shops and veg-first restaurant Root in the city, he has single-handedly transformed the local food scene for the better. Taking beloved classics, reinterpreting them and adding modern flourishes is his speciality, and the resulting flavour and texture combinations present on his plates are a joy to experience.

As the proud owner of The Pipe and Glass Inn, east Yorkshire’s only Michelin-starred restaurant, James Mackenzie produces seriously refined versions of the dishes we all know and love. His fantastic relationships with local suppliers means he has access to incredible ingredients, which he then turns into simple, familiar food that provides the perfect example of Britain’s thriving food scene.

After a spell working at The Fat Duck, you’d be forgiven for thinking Emily Watkins’ food is full of cutting-edge, experimental techniques – it is, in fact, the opposite. At her charming pub-restaurant The Kingham Plough, Emily takes a look at what’s available locally, gets it into the kitchen and cooks simple, refined, delicious food that appeals to all.

For tasty, comforting food in rustic, unfussy surroundings, you can’t get better than a meal at Dominic Chapman’s The Beehive Inn in Berkshire. His aim is to take beloved dishes we think we know and, rather than change or evolve them, simply make them taste as good as can be. His love for British ingredients mixed with a passion for worldly flavours results in some of the most delicious food in the UK.