Personable chef and a group of mates take over a country pub and B&B and start cooking up a storm.

They wander through the woods and come back with armfuls of wild mushrooms and pick berries from the hedgerows to make jams and puddings.

Local farms and businesses supply meat and produce and in the autumn locals walk into the taproom with a brace of locally-shot pheasants under their arm.

There's land earmarked for pigs and chickens, a herb and vegetable garden and you can book a hog roast on Saturday nights.

And because it's a local pub with local food for local people there's local beer on the pumps.

Like it? It's all there bar the cameras down at the Robin Hood Inn at Little Matlock, Stannington, where chef Peter Wilkinson heads up the Foodie Five.

There's his missus Rebecca, an accountant, who cooks the books (only joking), restaurant managers Carl Grayson and Ruth Ledger, and Carl's wife Liz, a schoolteacher. All have put their cash into the new venture which started in March.

The Robin Hood dates from 1804 and is a square, solid-looking building surrounded by trees on the road to nowhere. Don't believe your sat nav, the pub is in the middle of Greaves Lane, which is blocked off, and you can only approach from Malin Bridge.

It's a quiet night when we drop in although it's been a busy week before with the Robin Hood's "Olympic Games" and loads of family fun.

The door is left open and there's a welcoming feel as soon as we walk into the roomy bar, now kitted out as a restaurant.

Peter, who has cooked around many local restaurants, had looked long and hard for his own place and he and Rebecca live over the shop. While food is the mainstay of the business, the Robin Hood doesn't yet aim to be a gastro-pub, concentrating on pub classics and the odd fancy dish.

There are pigeon breasts (from Bradfield) with parsnip puree, haddock timbale and risotto but during the week most customers play safe with fish and chips, pies and home made burgers. At weekends the more adventurous eaters arrive.

Does that worry Peter? "He's the kind of chef who'll be happy to make someone an egg sandwich if they ask," says our barman-cum-waiter.

We begin with a lovely smoked haddock risotto (£5.95) with peas, splendidly fishy and well seasoned with every grain of rice separate.

I'm less excited by the oddly named crab fishcake (£5.25), nice and crispy on the outside with a too smooth and muted flavoured interior but it is perked up by a salad and lemony creme fraiche.

Both dishes serve as starters or mains, most of which are under a tenner although we gravitate towards the more expensive.

I fancy the pork chop with cider sauce but as I speak it's been changed to rolled pork belly.

"It's a sort of a confit without being one," says Peter. With crackling? "I'll try my best. It doesn't always come out."

It does come out and the meat is as tender as a baby's bum. There's plenty of interest.

The pork (a little pricy at 12.95) has a lovely topping of melted tomato, or fondue, there's a parsnip mash, parsnip crisps and jolly decent sauce.

My wife's veggie dish is equally busy, layers of aubergine, pepper and mozzarella stacked on a crisp potato rosti, scattered with battered shards of red pepper, moistened with a good tomato sauce and "a really lovely red onion marmalade," she enthuses.

"The aubergine is probably the least interesting component," she says, finishing it all. Again, the price at £11.95 might raise your eyebrows but it's good stuff.

All the sweets are homemade and well worth having.. The raspberries for the sorbet came from down the road and there's a ball of strawberry ice cream served up with it in a sundae glass.

Peter's twist on a Bakewell tart comes with some nice moist frangipane and a blackberry jam from the hedgerow. Both £3.95.

We paid £43.25 for food and thoroughly enjoyed it.



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