It's a little disconcerting for a Brit to be sitting at the bar of a bistro brasserie in Washington listening to its American chef enthuse about bangers-and-mash, cock-a-leekie, and the best kind of potato topping for a shepherd's pie. But a conversation with Wesley Morton, chef of the New York Ave NW gastropub AGAINN heads down those avenues with side trips into discussions of his favorite watering holes in London.

When he was hired to head the kitchen he and owner Mark Weiss agreed it was vital to spend time in the British capital to see what was happening in contemporary English kitchens for themselves. Because these days, English food is as far as you can get from beef cooked to the color of cardboard and vegetables boiled to pulp.

As was confirmed as they ate their way through St John's, the casual restaurant of Fergus Henderson, father of nose-to-tail eating, via the full English breakfast at the Wolseley (one of Madonna's favorite hang-outs), to the long established Rules which has filled the stomachs of writers and politicians since Lloyd George knew my father (English joke).

He raves about Tom's Kitchen. "I've been a huge fan of his food for a long time." And did he visit Borough Market just over the Thames from St Paul's Cathedral? His enthusiasm for this remarkable farmers market nestled against ancient Southwark Cathedral is as sparkling as the range of produce it sells. He even knows what the Brits mean by "chish-and-fips." (Take your time - you'll work it out.)

Until he began at AGAINN, which, while sounding like a terrible pun, is apparently the Gaelic for 'chez nous' - 'at us' or 'with us', Morton cooked predominantly French white-tablecloth food. He's done time previously in Washington, at Citronelle and Circle Bistro. And he's staged at The French Laundry and DC's CityZen. Before returning to the capital, he was cooking at Navio in the Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay, Northern California's only AAA Five-Diamond resort.

He grew up speaking French at school in Louisiana until he was 14, with French-influenced dishes like étouffé Creole on the family table. Not the kind of cooking he wanted to do, though. "I can go home to eat that." One of his relations was a butcher, so all the family meat came from  local farmers and all the vegetables they ate from the family lot. It's meant that for supplies for AGAINN he's gone to a circle of 30 local producers to get everything from shellfish to pork, lamb and greens.

He sits at the zinc-topped bar, faux fox heads staring at him off dark panelled walls, rentable whiskey lockers in the background, and talks about how impressed he was with British food. "England's so close to France. Everything goes back to French food - and the Italians tell you the same thing. But the British put their own stamp on it. One thing I really appreciated was there was nothing dishonest. There are no fancy names, it tells you what it is. 'Bangers-and-mash. Fish-and-chips'."

There was something else in particular that impressed him: "One thing blew me away - the value of the service. Wait staff were well informed and extremely friendly. People served because they love to serve."

If he has any time off, he spends it with his son who will be four in March. But it's hard to imagine he has much of that at present. He came back from London with his head full of ideas based on the British gastropub menu. He wants to produce top-end comfort food, with plenty of braising ("There's something very fulfilling about braising"). He cooks a good deal of pork, picking up a whole pig in once a week from a farmer at the H Street market where he also buys geese and chickens. "Everything is butchered in-house." He's salting hams to serve in thin slices. A stockpot is on a constant bubble. He hopes his customers will be reminded of eating in their grandmother's house. "Food is very personal. It brings back memories."

AGAINN,  1099 New York Ave NW, 202 639 9830.

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