Chefs lament the demise of food bible that made postwar British life better

Anger and sadness as Waitrose closes The Good Food Guide, the gourmet restaurant-goer's friend for the past 70 years

In his first job in a pub kitchen as a teenager, someone handed Gareth Ward a copy of The Good Food Guide. I knew nothing about food or restaurants, but I read it cover to cover like it was a fairystory. It blew me away. It was a world I didn't even know existed," he said.

Ward, now the chef-proprietor of Ynishir on the mid-Wales coast, decided he wanted to be No 1 in the guide's top 50. Last year, Ynishir was No 4. I was so close, and now it will never happen."