HEAD chef Spencer Burge made headlines when he created a one-off dish at the Fence Gate Inn in 2005.

For Spencer had produced the ultimate pie. Serving eight people it cost £1,000 a slice.

Spencer’s take on the traditional steak and ale pie used some of the world’s most expensive delicacies from bottles of Chateau Mouton Rothschild worth £4,300, to truffles and Chinese matsutake mushrooms which were normally kept under armed guard.

Spencer, who trained with top chef Albert Roux, said: “We enjoy developing new takes on old classics.

“We wanted to create a real luxury dish using the highest quality ingredients money can buy. It’s taken a few attempts to get this right, but we’ve finally got there.

“The final dish is full of wonderful flavours thanks to the melt in the mouth beef fillet, rich red wine, and the characteristic aromatic taste of the truffles.”

The Upper Crust Steak Pie contained Japanese Wagyu beef, considered to be the most tender, truffles, mushrooms and was topped with gold leaf. The delicacy was served with fine champagne.

Fence Gate boss, former butcher Kevin Berkins, had to negotiate with the Environment Agency for three weeks before the mushrooms could be imported.

Kevin said: “It is really a one-off venture, but obviously we’d gladly sell it to other customers if we were given a request.”