A CHEF has cooked up pub grub fit for The Ritz Hotel using ingredients worth more than £8,000.

Spencer Burge 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 are normally kept under armed guard.

The culinary tour de force is Spencer's take on the traditional steak and ale pie and serves eight people at £1,000 a slice.

Spencer, head chef at the Fence Gate Inn, Fence, 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 contains Japanese Wagyu beef, considered to be the most tender, truffles, mushrooms and is topped with gold leaf. The delicacy is 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, 58, said: "The Wagyu beef is the most expensive beef in the world and it is also the most tender.

"It is really nurtured and massaged twice a day, but we have also used matsutake mushrooms which come from China and are usually kept under armed guard.

"We have replaced the traditional mushrooms with truffles which have a very pungent aroma, they are very aromatic.

"The businessmen tasted the pie yesterday and described it as fantastic.

"It is really a one off venture, but obviously we'd gladly sell it to other customers if we were given a request.

"We have added all sorts of ingredients into it which make it special, such as a couple of premier bottles of Chateau Mouton Rothschild red wine.

"We have also covered the pie with gold leaf to make it that extra bit more luxurious."