A CELEBRATED Herefordshire chef has returned to the heat of the kitchen after stepping away from the stove.

Stephen Bull, who has won two Michelin stars at previous restaurants, has returned to the creating culinary delights after employing a series of chefs at the Butcher's Arms in Woolhope.

Mr Bull, who previously ran the Lough Pool Inn in Sellack, took over the Butcher's Arms a year-and-ahalf ago and felt the time was right to return to his first love.

"I sold the Lough Pool five years ago and needed something to do," said Mr Bull.

"Chefs are an active people and are used to working long hours. After I sold the Lough Pool I set up a pub in Cambridge but that pretty much runs itself.

"I was missing the heat of the coalface. Now that my kids are fleeing the nest I have more time to spend doing what I really like and I'm not ready to hang up my ladle yet."

The return to the kitchen at the sixteenth century black and white pub has been a welcome one for the chef who won Michelin stars for his restaurants in Richmond and Chelsea.

"The Butcher's Arms then came up for sale and as I live in Much Marcle it's only a 10 minute commute," said Mr Bull, who hails from Abergavenny. "The pub was closed when we brought it.

We are now a food pub and I've been enjoying it."

Mr Bull now has been in the restaurant business 35 years and has set up pubs in north Wales, Richmond, Marylebone, Clerkenwell, Chelsea, Covent Garden and the Wallace Collection in Manchester Square, London.

He has also written Classic Bull: An Accidental Restaurateur's Cookbook after quitting his job in advertising.

"I used to look after the Olivetti business account and that took me to Italy. I had never really been interested in food until I ate in Turin and Milan. It was a complete relevation about how life enhancing good food can be.”