HE may only have been head chef at the Ventana Grand Cafe for a few months, but Steve Golding is already making his mark on the menu.

After 20 years at Ascot, working as an executive chef at the 2012 Olympic Games, catering events for the Queen and scooping the prestigious Crafts Guild Chef of the Year award, Steve brings a wealth of experience to the restaurant, located at Bournemouth's Cumberland Hotel.

Cooking for 100,000 people a day at various outlets eventually takes its toll and, a year ago, Steve and his partner decided it was time for a change, and made the move to Dorset - a county they fell in love with during numerous previous visits.

"I've done various consultancy jobs since I've been here, then the opportunity with Cumberland and, especially this restaurant, the Ventana, came about," he says.

"I liked the idea, I liked the people, I liked the staff and the management - it just worked for me really. I felt that I could give a lot."

Steve's first task was to completely re-brand the menu, but he was careful to retain some elements of the dishes popular with regular hotel guests and local residents.

"My first thing was to have a real think outside the box about my experience from where I've come from, what I can do to enhance this restaurant, to make it a major food destination in Dorset," he enthuses.

"I did a lot of research on the old menu, and I did a lot of listening. You don't want to alienate regular customers. We are quite flexible - if someone said they wanted something from the old menu, we would try our best to accommodate."

That said, the menu is now completely different. Steve has adapted favourite dishes with a more modern style, and introduced entirely new concepts, including Dorset oysters and a stylish cheese trolley.

"They've never done oysters and we are doing really well with them here," he says.

"It's local where possible, seasonal. There's Dorset crab, Dorset scallops, Dorset lamb, charcuterie from Christchurch. We have five local cheeses and I have to have two of my favourite cheeses in the world from just outside Ascot racecourse, so they're guest cheeses."

The menu features a broad range of dishes to appeal to all tastes. The most popular so far has been the Ventana Signature Variations of Dorset Lamb, which features a braised lamb shank shepherd's pie, rump of lamb hot pot, lamb and mint toad in the hole with pea puree and roasted beetroot.

Coming a close second is the restaurant's fish and chips - standard battered cod during the day, but adapted for the evening menu to feature Tempura prawns, monkfish scampi and cod goujons.

"It's modern, in some forms eclectic, it's honest food," says Steve of the new menu, "I'm not trying to be something that we are not.

"I tend to match plates with food as well, I'm really into my aesthetics, so that's really key for me.

"We've brought a lot of innovation to the restaurant."

:: cumberlandbournemouth.co.uk/ventana-brasserie

SIGNATURE DISH

Ventana Signature Dish - variations of Dorset lamb

This dish features three elements of lamb.

A braised lamb shoulder is slow cooked and then picked down to make as stew, served in a ramekin topped with creamed potatoes to make a mini shepherd's pie.

Rump of lamb is sliced thickly and served with slices of potato as a modern twist on a hot pot, while lamb and mint sausages are placed inside a Yorkshire pudding to create the toad-in-the-hole element.

Serve the dish with roasted beetroot topped with pea puree for a splash of colour.