Chef Gabor Pusztai spent five weeks working at Noma in Copenhagen, rated the best restaurant in the world. Katharine Capocci went to meet the chef making his mark at the Duke of Wellington gastropub near Corbridge.

GABOR PUSZTAI is talking about the five weeks he spent working as a volunteer “stagiaire”, or intern, at the two Michelin-star Noma in Copenhagen, officially rated the world’s best restaurant.

An exhausting and demanding work experience, if ever there was one. Expensive too, but unforgettable.

“We worked 16-hour days. My kitchen started at 8am and we worked until early morning, half past midnight,” says Gabor, 36, a Hungarian national, in his accented English.

“I was in the preparation kitchen and on different sections. It was very pressured. Every single ingredient had to be perfect, everything!”

The Danish eaterie famed for using foraged finds in its 12-course meals, has been voted the world’s top restaurant by Restaurant magazine three years in a row.

The groundbreaking restaurant, run by exacting chef Rene Redzepi, serves up delicacies such as fresh milk curd and blueberry preserves, sea urchin toast and brown cheese with sloe berries.

Gabor, who has an incredibly understanding girlfriend, spent £3,000 of his own money supporting himself through the five-week stint.

It was money well spent, though, according to Gabor, for the experience alone, and the culinary techniques and ideas he has picked up.

And it’s precisely the sort of knowledge and techniques he is bringing to bear in his role as head chef at the Duke of Wellington Inn, in the village of Newton, near Corbridge in Northumberland.

Not that Gabor will be serving up sea urchins any time soon at the Duke, but foraged finds do make their way into the garnishes of his hearty solidly modern British offerings.

“I don’t want to do Noma, here but it has given me ideas!”

Gabor, who lives in Jesmond, and has a Hungarian partner, Katie, also living and working in the North East, went out to Noma in April last year.

“You go there and you have more than 15 years’ experience, but you start from nothing. It was a very hard job.

“I was involved in preparation as a stagiaire. Basically, they teach you and train you. In the morning we went foraging. They always picked two people and we would take flowers, herbs and everything in season.

“It was very interesting. We would go to the seafront and pick, for example, pea shoots.”

He followed up his stint at Noma with a few days at another Danish restaurant, Relae, set up by ex-Noma staff. “It’s absolutely amazing. The people are gorgeous. I really enjoyed it.”

Gabor is passionate about his craft and loves nothing more than a culinary challenge to stretch himself.

With that in mind, he will be serving up a 12-course tasting menu for lucky winners of a Culture Club competition run by The Journal, when he hosts a tasting night with a difference on March 6.

He is finalising the menu as we speak but it will offer diners a flavour of the sort of locally-sourced and fresh, seasonal dishes he prizes.

A gourmet dinner for Valentine’s day was a sell-out, and diners feasted on the likes of starters of homemade black pudding with scallops and cauliflower puree, and crab cakes with spicy tomato chutney. Mains included rack of lamb and confit lamb shoulder with creamy celeriac, spinach and Madeira jus, and roast and braised duck with roasted onion potato cake, slow-cooked red cabbage and honey-roast parsnips. Desserts included pistachio cake with raspberries and chocolate sorbet and chocolate fondant with toasted marshmallows and mandarin ice cream.

The rustic restaurant and inn with rooms is proving a magnet for foodies from the county and beyond. It has attractive contemporary interiors and also offers beautiful Tyne Valley views.

The critically-acclaimed eaterie also appears in Michelin’s Eating Out in Pubs guide 2013.

Gabor, who hails from Keszthely in the south of Hungary and had a role as a national competition team chef, has worked in the UK since 2005. “I was a head chef in Hungary working for a big company. I wanted to learn more of the English language and use more fresh and different ingredients.

“My plan was to take home my knowledge and pass it on to the young ones. But that was eight years ago and I’m still here. I really do like it here. I like the markets, I love the fish, it’s amazing. We have no sea fish in Hungary. We have salmon, of course, from the lakes. So here I like to put on a fish dish every day.”

Gabor started out working in the restaurant of the George Hotel in Jesmond before cooking stints at Blackfriars in Newcastle, the Fisherman’s Lodge in Jesmond, Seaham Hall with Kenny Atkinson in its Michelin star days, the Black Horse gastropub in Beamish and the Grosvenor Casino in Newcastle, where his girlfriend Katie works as a waitress. He says the training on everything from hygiene, planning, and health and safety, was excellent and the food, although simple, was also very good.

He took on his role at the Duke last summer after previous incumbent Andy Moore, formerly of the Black Bull Inn, at Moulton, in North Yorkshire, left. Prior to Andy, South Shields chef John Calton, a BBC MasterChef: The Professionals finalist, was at the helm.

Gabor adds: “At The Duke I change the lunch menu nearly every second day. It’s fresh ingredients, seasonal food, using local produce. I’m still looking for the local farmers, I’m building links with people.

“I want to use more fresh cheese, berries and local pork. I want to make more pies too – like pork and pickled berries.”

Here’s Gabor’s robust recipe for rabbit casserole for meat-lovers. With this recipe you could ask your butcher to prep the rabbit meat for you.

2 rabbits (skinned and cleaned and cut into pieces – ask your butcher)

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 onions, sliced

4 slices streaky bacon, cut into 3cm pieces

2 tablespoons plain flour

1½ cups chicken stock, preferably homemade

½ cup white wine

1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

½ cup cream

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1 sprig thyme for garnish

1) Preheat oven to 175C.

2) Ask your butcher to cut each rabbit into eight even-sized pieces. Wash the meat and pat dry.

3) Heat half the oil in a 2.5-litre flameproof casserole dish. Brown the rabbit in batches, adding oil when necessary, then set aside.

4) Add the onion and the bacon to the casserole dish and cook, stirring for 5 minutes or until lightly browned.

5) Sprinkle the flour into the pan and mix. Stir with a wooden spoon to deglaze the pan. Add the stock and wine, and stir until the sauce comes to a boil.

6) Return the rabbit to the casserole dish and add the thyme.

7) Cover and bake in the oven for 1¼ to 1½ hours or until the rabbit is tender and the sauce has thickened.

8) Combine the cream and mustard, then stir into the sauce in the casserole.

9) Garnish with thyme sprigs and serve.

This recipe is wonderful with mashed or sautéed potatoes.

I really do like it here. I like the markets, I love the fish, it’s amazing. We have no sea fish in Hungary