SIX hundred people flocked to the opening of a new steak restaurant with links to celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay at the weekend.
Although the famous chef could not make the launch of the Rare Cow at the former Chequers pub in Writtle, owner Richard Lester invited a lookalike to entertain the crowds who enjoyed free drinks and tasting sessions on Sunday, along with special guest and boxer Ben Jones, the WBO European super-featherweight champion.
Mr Lester, who runs a cruise ship holiday company, says he has realised a dream by opening his first restaurant after becoming a cult online food reviewer.
"I started doing food reviews about three or four years ago and I became quite famous in London for doing them," said the 44-year-old of Great Baddow, who has completely revamped the former pub, which shut last year.
"I got almost 400,000 followers on Twitter and soon became friends with Gordon Ramsay and a few other celebrity chefs.
"We were always saying how there was nowhere to get a really good steak in Essex and that you had to go to London to get the best beef.
"I suggested Gordon opened a restaurant in the county and he said he had too many overseas commitments and then said 'Why don't you do it?' So I did."
Fed up with chain restaurants selling what he refers to as mass-produced beef, Mr Lester says he only deals with the finest RSPCA- approved cows that are allowed to roam free on grasslands in the Essex countryside, the Yorkshire Moors and Cornwall.
He is helped by his fiancée and business partner, Svetlana, a former veterinary surgeon from Russia who used to work in animal welfare at Harrods.
The 70-seat restaurant also serves fresh fish delivered from Cornwall the morning after it is caught, including lobster and the restaurant's self-styled "enormous king prawns".
Mr Lester has even recruited Andrew Wan as his head chef, a former apprentice of Gordon Ramsay at Claridges, while the 12 waiting staff, all employed locally, were trained by one of Ramsay's award-winning maître ds.
With people queuing outside to get in on Sunday, Mr Lester says he was thrilled to cater for villagers. "I couldn't quite believe how many people turned up; we had people queuing. It was great to introduce ourselves and to be able to show them what we've done to the place."
