David Everitt-Matthias

	David Everitt-Matthias

David Everitt-Matthias is the kind of two-Michelin-starred chef that the famous Red Guide had in mind when it introduced its second and third stars 70 years ago. He's a totally dedicated craftsman, always at the stove and working only with the best raw materials he can find. Le Champignon Sauvage in Cheltenham, which he has run with his wife, Helen, for the past 14 years, is a small, provincial, family business, to reach which most customers have to "make a detour". It's not locked in to the media circuit, nor is it a licence to print money.

He manages food costs by meticulous but flexible preparation, storage and using everything he buys, rather than by a mechanical system geared to an inventory. Pierre Koffmann, he claims, taught him how to value every last bone and sinew that he bought. He says: "He would buy something cheap and create something super out of it."

To do this, chefs need a mixture of classical larder skills (Everitt-Matthias is a former Ealing student and was once National Chef of the Year) coupled with the ability to realise the full culinary potential of any food item they handle.

At a time when many chefs opt for portion-control purchasing, Everitt-Matthias insists on his chefs learning butchery - he sent his second, Anthony Rush, to work a stage in a traditional butcher's shop. Chefs, he believes, must understand and esteem cheaper cuts of meat as highly as more expensive ones. Knowing how to work with them is an essential step on the road to becoming a thoroughly trained professional.