Published at 09:04, Saturday, 03 March 2012

TV chef and cookery writer Peter Sidwell is relaunching the restaurant at Rheged, near Penrith.

Star turn: Peter Sidwell has teamed up with Westmorland

The Keswick-based chef, who presented the Channel 4 cookery series, Lakes on a Plate, aims to open the new-look eatery later this month.

The venue is being redesigned and the menus are being completely revamped to include some of the favourites from the Good Taste gastro cafe in Keswick he used to run.

“I’ve partnered with the Westmorland Group and we’re working to rebrand the restaurant,” he explains.

“We’re giving it a fresh new approach, with more modern, family food and more family-centred.

“I’ve had a lot of feedback from my old customers about it and I asked them what they would like to see on the menu.

“So we’ll include things like the posh fish finger sandwich and a wild boar burger with Grasmere gingerbread.”

It’s not just the food that the chef is revamping in time for the restaurant reopening on March 19, he is also overseeing the coffee range that will be on offer.

It is a busy year for the chef and for Rheged’s parent company, Westmorland Ltd.

The latest cookbook from Peter, who still runs a cooking and catering school in Keswick, has just been released, titled Simply Good Pasta.

He is also working on another book due out in the summer and is developing new TV shows.

And the revamp at Rheged is just one project that Westmorland Ltd is working on.

The firm, which also runs the award-winning Tebay services on the M6, was reported last week to be in talks with banks to secure £40m funding for a new motorway services area on the M5 near Gloucester.

Like Tebay, it will sell locally- sourced produce and part of the turnover will go to local charity projects.

Chief executive Sarah Dunning told This Is Money: “Our approach is different. We believe in keeping a local feel and our Gloucester services will do just that.”

Westmorland Ltd claims the services will create 300 jobs and bring more than £30m worth of investment to the area. Turnover at Westmorland for the year to July 3, 2011 was up from £38m to £47m. Profits were down from £2.3m to £1.6m.

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