Meet the man behind the Midlands’ best new restaurant

Paul Foster

Quitting your job and putting all your savings into a restaurant that may not succeed is risky for anyone to do. But thankfully, sometimes it just works.

Paul Foster, the man behind Salt in Stratford-upon-Avon, is currently celebrating success thanks to being named the best new entry in this year’s Good Food Guide – just five months after opening its doors.

The owner, and chef, thinks that the restaurant has become a success due to not tailoring it for tourists. After all, in Stratford-upon-Avon is a huge hub for tourism. He said: “We haven’t tailored our menu for tourists as we aren’t targeting them.

“It’s a risk, but I don’t want to get into the pre-theatre scene, we are a premium restaurant offering a product and we are not just going to put on steak and chips just to try and get people in. There are plenty of places in Stratford that offer that, and I don’t want to compete and I can’t compete, as we are about quality and premium.”

Paul and his wife Rhiain, who he says is wonderful to work with, are hoping that the award will give them and their restaurant on Church Street a wider reach. He said: “We’ve been so busy and had our heads down, so it has come as a real pleasant surprise. We don’t cook for accolades and awards but when they come its lovely, but we definitely didn’t expect it.

“Good Food Guide has such a great following, so this will give us a wider reach. We want to look after the locals and this recognition is going to put us on that path.

“It’s not just about the ego of the owner and the chef, it’s a team thing and we have worked hard for it so it is obviously something that we can all be proud of. The award will be great with attracting new staff as well.”

Paul has been on the culinary scene for 18 years. After learning how to cook at his parent’s pub in Coventry at a young age, he went onto work at a number of restaurants around the world, including head chef at local venue Mallory Court in Leamington Spa, before deciding to open his very own place in 2016.

After launching a crowdfunding campaign via Kickstarter, the dream soon became a reality. With an impressive £100,000 raised, with additional help of investors, Salt was born.

Paul describes the restaurant as ‘relaxed fine dining’; “We aim to take away a lot of the formalities of fine dining. The food and the standard of the food is all there, but it is not a waiter standing over you and making you feel uncomfortable”, Paul explained, “There is much more atmosphere in the restaurant and we want people to feel comfortable and not feel like they have to wear a suit.”

Paul, being a local man, has seen the Midlands’ culinary scene grow in recent years, and he is happy to be a part of it. He said: “The culinary scene at the moment in the Midlands is great. There are a lot of diverse restaurants in Birmingham, but they are now stretching out into the suburbs too.

“We have so many good pubs and stand out places and you could easily eat every style of cuisine to a decent standard in the Midlands at the moment.”

Despite taking a risk or two with Salt, and now celebrating its success, Paul isn’t getting ahead of himself just yet. He said: “It is early days. We want to do something else in the future but we have only been here for five months.

“There are no plans currently, but I would love to open more restaurants in the future. But that’s way off, I might change my mind next week.”

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