This is my kind of pub

Villagers in Haddenham recently saw their local pub, the Green Dragon, briefly masquerading as the Welsh Wok for the filming of a popular TV reality show. The rest of us will see the transformation, too, in a few weeks' time when the second series of Raymond Blanc's The Restaurant is aired on BBC2. Whether the Welsh Wok wowed the palates of its customers — and more specifically of Raymond and his judges — we shall have to wait and see. One thing's for certain, though — back in business as the Green Dragon, the place is very definitely a winner.

On our first visit recently, Rosemarie and I took along as our guests two friends who live in a village just down the road. All four of us had superb meals. The next day, in an emailed message of thanks, which I am sure she will not mind me reproducing, Clico enthused: "I am very excited to think that the Green Dragon is within a few miles of us here and would like to close down the kitchen and eat there from henceforth."

So who have we to thank for all this delight? The identity of the man in the kitchen was unknown to us until the end of dinner. But once I had shaken off the cloak of anonymity — an ill-fitting, unbecoming garment, I find — and expressed our enjoyment at the food, the delightful young waitress asked if we would like to meet the chef. Out from the kitchen stepped the familiar figure of Derek Muircroft, previously the kitchen wizard at the Swan at Tetsworth and before that at Michael North's Michelin star-winning Goose at Britwell Salome.

Derek had moved to the Swan in October 2006 when Michael took over the catering operation there. (He cooked a fine dinner for us with Michael on a night when, we noted, the discerning parents of Heston Blumenthal were also voicing approval.) Michael left him in charge soon after when he expanded to run the Nut Tree at Murcott, which was recently reviewed very favourably in this column and is near certain, I'd say, to regain Mike his star very soon.

Derek and his sous chef Bryok Williams both left the Swan a month or two ago when Mike ended his contract with this antique centre-cum-restaurant. This was slightly disappointing for them, since accolades had been in the offing there too. They were wisely recruited by John Phipps when he and an associate bought the Green Dragon in May — just ahead of its telly transformation — as the first of their Oak Tree Inns.

d=3,3,1John, who has a background in corporate IT at a senior level, wanted a change in his working life. He aims to expand the chain to five or six pubs, all with first-class food and drink, but very definitely not what one would call gastropubs or restaurants.

At the Green Dragon you will find such popular real ales as Loddon Hoppit, Brakspear's bitter and Sharp's Doom Bar (a Cornish beer named after an infamous sandbank at the mouth of the Camel estuary in North Cornwall). As for food, Derek told us it had meant goodbye to the foie gras and truffles of his dishes at the Swan for slightly more day-to-day ingredients.

But it's his take on these, the delicious combinations he achieves, that already has discerning customers clamouring for tables at the Green Dragon.

My starter, for instance, was an utterly delicious mixture of wood pigeon and beetroot, alike in their colouring but so different in flavour. Generous quantities of both were served warm in a well-dressed salad with croutons.

This was a blackboard special, as were Clico's ballotine of confit Gressingham duck with hazelnut and aubergine pickle, and her husband Gerald's roast lamb sweetbreads beguilingly (and unusually) teamed with tartare sauce. Rosemarie stayed with the regular menu for her starter of pork and black pudding terrine with sauerkraut and piccalilli dressing. This, too, was served warm — so important, of course, if one is to enjoy the full flavour of a dish such as this.

For my main course I had fillet of organic Shetland salmon. This was a good chunky piece of fish, high-baked (as one might say of bread or biscuits) yet moist and flaking beneath the crispy skin. It was served with samphire — nicely crunchy — sauté potatoes and butter sauce.

Rosemarie enjoyed the simple delights of fish and chips, which I read somewhere the other day supplied the nation's favourite smell — demonstrating, if nothing else, that mass opinion can't be trusted. This fish here was hake, in a well-cooked — let's say high-fried — batter placed beside enormous hand-cut chips with lovely soft centres (she gave me one!).

More by accident than design, both our companions stayed with the animal of their first course. Gerald followed his sweetbreads with a more familiar part of the lamb, if served in a novel way. His boned shoulder was the meat ingredient — unminced and braised — of a splendid shepherd's pie. It was topped with smooth mash and served with peas and rich meaty gravy.

d=3,3,1Clico went for more confit duck, a leg this time, served with borlotti beans, spinach and beetroot sauce (clever, eh?). She emailed: "My two courses of duck were simply delicious, even if I did start to quack as the evening wore on."

Presumably, like the starter ballotine, this was Gressingham duck. No doubt somebody will by now have told Derek that Haddenham's ponds, just along the road, are the home of the Aylesbury duck. Local sourcing, if you please!

In three cases room was found for pudding (I settled for decaf coffee). Gerald had strawberries marinated in vanilla with basil ice cream (yes, you read correctly — a super taste). Clico had poached peach with home-made gingerbread, raspberry sorbet and goat's cheese cream. Rosemarie had chocolate and sour cherry brownie with cherry sorbet.

I had the look of someone who wished he wasn't on a low-sugar diet.

My starter was an utterly delicious warm salad of wood pigeon and beetroot, alike in their colouring but so different in flavour THE MEAL (FOR FOUR) Pigeon salad…£6.50 Confit duck…£6.50 Sweetbreads…£6.50 Pork terrine…£6.50 Semillon/Chardonnay…£14.95 Malvern water…£3 2gl Shiraz/Cabernet…£8.50 Poached peach…£6 Chocolate brownie…£6 Marinated strawberries…£6 Hake and chips…£9.50 Organic salmon…£12.95 Shepherd's pie…£12.95 Duck confit…£11.95 Spinach…£2.50 Green beans…£2.50 The Green Dragon 8 Churchway, Haddenham HP17 8AA 01844 291403 www.greendragonhaddenham.co.uk)