There are some nice little local references among the hors d’oeuvres, or amuse-gueules, served with drinks while you wait for the meal. Pierre Koffmann and Bruno Loubet spring to mind, from Gascony and south-west France respectively.Perhaps there is more than a little leger-demain here. Last year he opened a second establishment, a super-modern brasserie in the heart of Preston. As a cook, Paul doesn’t lack refinement, but he has a hearty style reminiscent of some great French chefs who retain links with their local origins. “You could only get scallops swollen with water, and fish in an advanced state of rigor mortis.” He met a haulier called Chris Neaves who shared his interest in quality, and now Neaves has become a leading fish supplier in the north-west.Paul is a magnificent cook and inspires a loyal and intelligent team. As more and more praise is heaped upon him, his cooking goes from strength to strength.

He also buys plum tomatoes and kale grown by patients at Whitting-ham, the nearby mental institution.Fish was initially a problem “Fleetwood was on its knees,” Paul says. He encouraged a vegetable supplier, Eddie Holmes, to build up a business for “Queer Gear”, as they call unusual veg in Preston market. He had worked with poulets de Bresse, quality French chickens, and so he persuaded Reg Johnson – a poultry farmer at Goosnargh, a few miles away – to produce corn-fed chickens. I just put my head in my hands; I could have cried.” Somehow, and he has no idea how, they managed to reopen 48 hours later.In six years he has built up lines of food supply where none existed.

However, by the time he had converted them, he had spent pounds 250,000. “Nine days after we opened there was a gas leak and the kitchen went up in flames. “I knew I wanted to buy my own place, so my idea was to learn the business and make links with local food suppliers.”He chose Longridge as the site for his restaurant for no other reason than that the two quarrymen’s cottages in the centre of the village were going cheap. It wasn’t uncommon to be out in the vegetable garden digging up baby leeks and carrots at 8pm.”His aim was always to return to his native Lancashire, and his first job was head chef at Broughton Park near Preston, running a hotel kitchen at the age of 26. He moved to the Connaught Hotel in London, where he became part of Michel Bourdin’s brigade of 50 classic French cooks. Then he moved to Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons to work under the mercurial Raymond Blanc, an extreme contrast in style.”I learnt the disciplines of the French kitchen from the Connaught From Raymond Blanc I learnt a passion for fresh produce.