WATCH Worthing chef Jonathan Nulty create his new British tapas and see taste test

Jonathan Nulty, who is known as Jean de Rien the singing chef, launched The Outside Dining Room at Worthing Pavilion Bowling Club on March 3 with an evening of British tapas.

He invited me into his kitchen on Wednesday to chat about his new offering and taste some of his dishes. He also talked me through the making of his cauliflower cheese, using Sussex Charmer cheese.

The club, in Pavilion Road, is open seven days a week and the catering is available for everyone, not just members. Breakfast is served every day, with a full English costing £9.50, veggie breakfast £9, eggs benedict £8.50 and American pancake stack £8.

Lighter bites like sandwiches and paninis are available at lunchtime and for main meals there is a Comfort Food menu, with options including shepherd's pie for £9, pie of the day for £9, chicken and mushroom stroganoff for £9 and fish and chips for £9.

Jonathan said it is nothing like the fine dining offering he had at The Dining Room but it does carry over all the quality and expertise the comes with being such an experienced chef. He said: "For years, my mum has always said what people really want is good homemade comfort food. We have created a menu of all the basics but done really well, made from scratch.

"One thing that we have done here that we have never done at the restaurant is the British tapas with dishes to share or have on their own. They are a good size and people have really enjoyed them."

The plan is to serve the British tapas on a Saturday evening to start with. Special events at The Outside Dining Room will include midweek mezze and the return of the food and drink quiz, for which The Dining Room was well known.

After watching Jonathan prepare cauliflower cheese, he gave me some of his dishes to try while it cooked in the oven. I tucked into his Sussex Sausage Roll, a butcher's sausage cooked inside a bread roll with mustard and onions. The bread is Jonathan's own recipe using fennel and parsley. What amazed me was how solid the sausage was inside and how good the bread was. So much nicer than pastry and so much less fatty than a normal sausage roll.

I tried the Cornish Pastilla, a pasty made with ox cheek, onion and swede. I was intrigued about the pastry, which is more solid than flaky pastry but less dry than shortcrust pastry. Jonathan explained it is his own recipe using half butter, half lard. It really works, it was a delicious pasty and the meat was so tender.

Patatas Brittas is a bowl of fried potatoes with a tikka curry sauce. This was made with Charlotte potatoes cut in half, so much nicer than the tiny cubes you often get with patatas bravas. Jonathan said they are cooked in a similar way to triple-cooked chips and I found this gave them a lovely crispy outside with a soft middle. The sauce was so tasty and not too spicy, just so flavourful.

These are good portions, so I was pretty full but by now the cauliflower cheese was ready so, of course, I had to taste it. I did have to admit that despite cauliflower cheese being a family favourite, I don't really like it. But this, this was nothing like any cauliflower cheese I've ever had! So rich and cheesey and what I liked was that you could still really taste the cauliflower. I may have to amend my previous statement!