Restaurants Archives - Page 2 of 15

Pickled Onion Monster Munch Beurre Blanc, Mr Springsteen?

Readers of this blog will know my admiration for the leftfield ingredient crusade of second generation Asian food guru Gurdeep Loyal. Sharing his culinary conceits is like ‘coming out’ in the kitchen That’s how I found myself preparing his ‘Aloo Chaat Wedge Salad with a Pink Peppercorn Ranch Dressing’.

Potatoes and chaat masala meet American iceberg lettuce dressing. His aim? To marry the “same splendidly kitsch garnishing skills as Indian street snacks” with the “Fanny Cradock meets breakfast buffet school of culinary arts.” Cue, in his debut cookbook Mother Tongue, some ‘visual mood board’ fantasy about the iconic Fanny sporting a sari on Christmas Day!

What has all this to do with my surprise encounter with fine dining Monster Munch (more later) in the Huddersfield commuter village of Kirkburton? Less fusion, but a restaurant chef operating with a similar panache and sense of humour.

For all I know, behind the blinds here some bungalow kitchens may still pay retro homage to Fifties telly chef Cradock (and her monocled hubby Major Johnnie). On the flipside, in pursuit of home molecular gastronomy. hipster newcomers may be plying their Sous Vides and Thermomixes.

There’s certainly a state of the art Thermomix in constant use by chef Will Webster in Kirkburton’s prime dining spot, Norman’s Neighbourhood Kitchen, which was sprinkled with unexpected stardust in May when the touring Bruce Springsteen and his actor mate Stephen ‘Boiling Point’ Graham dropped in for lunch just days after it had gained its AA second rosette.

Among the small plates they ate was Isle of Wight tomatoes with sherry dressing, a pangrattato topping and wild garlic ice cream. Graham described it as “Mad Merlin Stuff”. I loved the dish too on my more recent visit; wild garlic being out of season, Thai basil was substituted in the soft scoop.

Celebrity trolling was not the reason for my lunch. I was catching up on a long-time recommendation from my friend, Amanda Wragg, Yorkshire Post restaurant reviewer, who had given Norman’s her Meal of the Year accolade in January. Just six months after Webster left Halifax’s Shibden Mill Inn to join former front of house colleague Ollie Roberts. The pair now have a four-strong kitchen, all of whom appear to be partial to snacking on Monster Munch (more later). Whether the restaurant dog Norman also gets a treat, I’m not quite sure.

This is not just about me playing catch-up. The day after my visit that same Yorkshire Post published a piece trumpeting how trendy and prosperous the village is these days. And Norman’s is not alone as a food mecca. Folk queue every day for the puff pastry heritage meat sausage rolls at celebrity chef Tim Bilton’s upmarket Butcher’s Larder further down North Road. To think, I’d always hurtled along Penistone Road past the Kirkburton turn-off.

Similarly, I’d tended to ignore the Shibden Mill Inn, though it’s only a 40 minute drive from my home. I’d certainly never associated its top-end dinner menu with the word playful. Will, who spent most of his six years there as head chef, has found new creativity with a smaller team to juggle ideas with.

Hence the creation of Pickled Onion Monster Munch Beurre Blanc (got there at last). If a current dessert – white chocolate and salty chicken skin fudge – sounds wacky it follows in the footsteps of a signature sauce based on a kids’ snack shaped like monster claws.

“The pickled onion version was the most popular snack among the team,” says Will. “That’s the inspiration. We played with crushing them, adding onion powder and a touch of extra vinegar and it worked. Extra flavour came from diced pancetta and charred sweetcorn… the Munches are corn-based.”

Stone bass and clams have previously benefited from its gorgeous, gloopy intensity. Flakey halibut was my dish on the day – dish of the day. I overdosed on bacon and creaminess by also ordering a tartiflette, a favourite potato dish of mine that perhaps belonged more to an Alpine ski resort than sweltering midsummer Yorkshire. A prawn crudo with strawberry, elderflower and more chicken skin might have fitted the bill better.

I don’t regret, though, the nibble I ordered with my glass of Sicilian white Grillo (from a well-chosen, well-priced list). It’s a swallow-in-one but deserves to be savoured, the tiny rare beef tart with mushroom xo sauce and a whoosh of shredded horseradish.

I squeezed a walk-in counter in the window; the rest of the 40 cover dining room was full. Mostly a demographic that could probably recall when Monster Munch was a new snack craze and this had been the industrial West Riding.

For corn snack completists Wikipedia offers a comprehensive history of Monster Munch, briefly called ‘The Prime Monster’, majoring on mega bag size. In brief, though, four monsters were created in contrasting colours with varying amounts of arms and eyes. Each representing a different flavour. Even after Walkers Crisps took over the brand Pickled Onion remained the pick as it does to this day. Confession: I’ve never tasted a Monster Munch.

*The Pink Gibson brings a touch of Monster Munch to Hawksmoor*

The closest I have come till now was when upmarket steak house Hawksmoor revamped their cocktail list last October. My favourite among the newcomers was ‘The Pink Gibson’, their take on a dry martini that substitutes a pickled onion for an olive as garnish. Boatyard Vodka, Audemus Umami gin, Aperitivo Co dry vermouth and pink pickled onion juices were the new version’s constituents. Hawksmoor’s head of bars Liam Davy rhapsodised: “It’s a classic dry martini which we have found a way of making taste like a pickled onion Monster Munch…it’s an incredibly refreshing quite savoury drink.”

So there’s a trend going. “Monster, monster” as that football agent geezer Eric Hall used to say.

Norman’s Neighbourhood Kitchen, 22A North Rd, Kirkburton, Huddersfield HD8 0RH. #Good Food Guide 100 Best Local Restaurants. Norman’s is shut for its annual break from August 23, reopening on September 9.

21 August 2025/by Neil Sowerby

Food, Restaurants

In their own words: why female head chefs are flourishing around Manchester…

IT’S the 25th anniversary of Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential, which lifted the lid on the boiling point world of high testosterone professional kitchens. It remains a riveting, rock and roll read, but the complete invisibility of the ‘gentler sex’ still rankles.

By the time he was a globe-trotting telly phenomenon Bourdain was renouncing that macho persona. In one 2017 magazine interview he admitted: “I found myself in this very old, very, frankly, phallocentric, very oppressive system and I was proud of myself for surviving it,”

Fast forward to 2025 and there’s still a market for dishing the dirt on kitchens’ steamy, dark side. Slutty Cheff’s anonymous Instagram account has 43,000 followers for its tales of sex, drugs and chicken breasts. There’s a book out and maybe a film to follow.

Each to his (or her) own. I’d recommend instead last year’s A Woman’s Place is in the Kitchen by high-flier Sally Abé, which “lifts the lid etc” from a feminist perspective. Calling out continuing discrimination against women in the industry, her autobiography hit a raw nerve. Not that it deterred white male superstar chef Jason Atherton from declaring in a February interview: “I haven’t seen sexism in the kitchen.”

This tone-deaf dismissal sparked an open letter from 70 prominent women chefs calling for an end to sexism in hospitality. Signatories included Abé and leading North West chefs Stosie Madri (Parker’s Arms) and Mary-Ellen McTague (Pip). Less than a week before, the 2025 Michelin UK Awards in Glasgow had paraded on stage the 22 new one-star chefs; only one, Emily Roux, was a woman and she had accidentally been fitted with a male chef’s jacket, it turned out. A compensatory video featuring female kitchen experiences was embarrassing.

The workplace numbers do tell a tale, though. Just 13 per cent of kitchen staff are women; under half that in the Michelin sector.

Thankfully this perceived talent imbalance is all bollocks (if you can bear with the gender-led expletive)

Maybe too sweeping a statement, but this article has been inspired by a new generation of talented chefs who are heading up the kitchens of many of Manchester’s finest indie restaurants. Take Higher Ground’s Rosie Maguire. Just two years after joining (from Michelin-starred Mana) the 27-year-old was appointed Head Chef and this year was shortlisted for Chef to Watch at the National Restaurant Awards. She was also on Code Hospitality’s ’30 Most Influential Young People In Hospitality’ list.

Her grill expertise combines with an extra-curricular project studying and recording the Dexter beef breed the restaurant sources from Jane’s Farm. Further Higher Ground commitment to female talent is evidenced at their natural wine bar offshoot Flawd, where Korean head chef Seri Nam uses advanced fermentation techniques for her small plates menu.

Eight female head chefs tell it how it is…

To gauge their career experiences I have interviewed a cross section of female head chefs around Manchester: Mary-Ellen McTague (Pip at Treehouse Hotel), Ruby Jary (Madre Group), Jessica Furniss (Where The Light Gets In), Caroline Martins (SAMPA Project), Rachel Stockley (formerly of Baratxuri and another sexism letter signatory), Beth Hammond (Tawny Stores), Fabiola Bonacci (Tast Catala) and Alison Beardsley who, as Harvey Nichols head chef Alison Seagrave, was the first female Chef of the Year (2007) in the Manchester Food and Drink Awards. The only others to scoop the award are Mary-Ellen (twice) and Rachel.

And did you fall in love with food by your mother’s stove?

What follows are snapshots of their answers to issues I raised. The questions ranged from… How did you start in hospitality? Has being a woman made it harder to succeed? Have you encountered sexism? Is all this changing? Why suddenly so many female head chefs? As one, are you committed to easing your team’s work/life burden? Which chefs have inspired you along the way? Does Michelin matter? Most embarrassing kitchen moment? Your style of cooking/signature dish? Top kitchen tip? What do you like to eat off-duty? Hospitality is an a perilous state – what can be done to rescue it?

MARY-ELLEN McTAGUE

46, started her career at Sharrow Bay in the Lakes, then worked for Heston Blumenthal at the Fat Duck, Bray. After Ramson’s in Ramsbottom, she opened Aumbry in her home patch of Prestwich, The Creameries in Chorlton and is now exec chef of Pip in Manchester’s newest hotel, Treehouse. She is co-founder of Eat Well MCR, a hospitality collective that has delivered over 130,000 meals to people sidelined by poverty.

Is the head chef trend encouraging?

I think if you look at London there’s a similar pattern in the last 10 to 15 years, more female head chefs and more diversity in general. Which is good. Possibly it may be more a city thing. Really, anti-social hours is a big issue. We are busier in the evenings and at weekends. You can’t access normal child care if you’ve got children unless you’ve got family who live close by. My Auntie Steph is currently picking up my son from school and then collecting his prescription.

Fairer conditions?

It’s still a struggle. What’s good about working for a big company like this (Treehouse Hotels) is the financial burden is on the company and the requirement to create reasonable working conditions. When you’re an independent it’s really hard, the margins are so squeezed in cooking. When we first opened Aumbry VAT was 12.5 per cent and that was really hard but just about doable. The economics make it hard for a small business to be as flexible with staff as they would want to be.

Harder to succeed?

Oh yeah, you had to suppress things, show no weakness, work twice as hard, be twice as good as your male peers to get half the recognition. The Fat Duck was the only kitchen where there was at least one other woman. Heston was a really good boss and I didn’t feel I was being treated any differently from the boys.

At least these days most young women working in kitchens expect there to be other women around. When I started (at Sharrow Bay) it was “what fresh hell is this? They had never had a woman in the kitchen before. It was 25 years ago. When you talk to chefs like Ruby and Rose they’re a different generation. They’ve got a whole different perspective. It’s ridiculous to say there’s no sexism in kitchens but hopefully they will have experienced less.

Even now only a quarter of my brigade here is female. The more women there are in kitchens the better it will be for all women in kitchens.

What made the early days so bad?

There were a number of things that shocked me. One was how hard it was. I thought I’d worked hard in housekeeping, front of house but the kitchen felt absolutely like a baptism of fire. Thew tolerance of working in hot conditions, hunger, needing the toilet, completely ignoring any of your own physical needs. I was like ‘wow this is mad’.

There were three head chefs. Two of them took a year to speak to me directly. It was always via other chefs. Like having an alien in the kitchen. Obviously in those days I was completely useless, a total waste of space. Eventually it was fine when I became a needed member of the team; I moved up as people left.

Have you shouted at staff?

Yes, I try not to. It’s not an edifying thing that you are so stressed you are shouting at someone. As you get more experienced you see trouble coming. Nowadays I try to be a more mentoring figure.

Most embarrassing moment?

It was at the Fat Duck. I was on the section where we did foie gras and duck liver parfait. I went to take my next parfait out of the fridge to start plating up and it was an empty terrine mould. Someone had just put it back in the fridge and I should have checked. We’d already had one order and for Heston this happening was an absolute no-no.

At that time he had a little bistro at Bray Marina; they also had parfait. He called them and they brought some up. It was like Fawlty Towers. He looked at it and said “we can’t serve this/“ They then got balled out. So I not only got myself in bother but a whole other team too. They hated me.

I thought this was game over, that’ll be me out of the door. I’d been there just three months. Perhaps I was so devastated they couldn’t bear to fire me. If I’d got sacked it could have changed the course of my life. That’s the one I think about at 3am.

RUBY JARY

English-born, 26, started at 19 as a commis in her sister’s Galway restaurant Ruibin. She trained in pastry at the university there, then worked in East London for three years, mostly at Manteca but also at Sager & Wilde. She moved to Madre in Manchester and went on to open Medlock Canteen, which sadly shut last month. She has just taken on an exec chef role under Madre founder Sam Grainger.

Why so many women head chefs suddenly? Down to a new wave restaurant culture?

I don’t necessarily think it’s ‘so many’ as women in the industry are still few and far between. I also don’t think there is any one particular reason that women are taking on head chef roles other than them being extremely talented as chefs rather than having anything to do with gender.

New wave? I think so because of the light that is being shone on the patriarchy in general and not just in the kitchen. I’d like to think that has filtered into restaurants and kitchens. This shift isn’t just a trend, it’s the result of women challenging a male-dominated kitchen culture for years.

Women are finally leading, innovating, and owning their space. It’s not just appreciation, it’s reclamation. I think it would be wrong of me to say I don’t have Michelin star ambitions but I don’t want them anywhere near me just yet! It is certainly an end goal for me, but I have a lot of ‘side quests’ to complete in my career first.

First job?

Working for my sister in her newly opened restaurant, I was blessed as not only is she my sister but as a teacher and a head chef she is the most kind, amazing mentor I could’ve asked for. No first job in a kitchen is ever easy but I couldn’t have had a better first environment.

Have you encountered sexism?

Of course. That’s just part and parcel of being a woman. I absolutely regard sexism as a problem and wouldn’t be the loud feminist I am if I didn’t. There are so many things fundamentally wrong with that Jason Athertoninterview, and it undermines everything women and a lot of men have been fighting for to keep our work environments safe. Sometimes people don’t actually realise they are or have been sexist, and by saying ‘sexism doesn’t exist in the kitchen’ it really solidifies that lack of self-awareness.

As a head chef is it your aim to lower brigade stress?

I would say, yes, I’m committed to that. I always think that I could be better, we all could. I like to show my commitment to my team by asking them what they want to work as opposed to just throwing hours at them and this is then reflected in their contracts. Also keeping up to date on your knowledge with certain apps/websites that track your staffing hours/costs (ours physically puts them in the red for doing too many hours) is important too. If I want a work life balance and don’t want to work all the hours under the sun why should I expect my team to do it?

What sparked your love of food?

I got into food because I love to eat. It was really that simple. My family have always been big eaters and good cooks. My older sister is a chef for over 15 years and now a restaurant owner; you can find my older brother cooking with his Kamado and pizza oven in his garden all year round; my mum is the one who started that all for us and she got it from her mum. She taught me how to make my first loaves of bread (proofing on the radiator is a core memory for me).

Your chef inspirations?

It changes all the time. At the moment I absolutely love Josh (The Whole Fish) Niland. What that man does to fish is just absolute wizardry! Other big inspirations for me are Asma Khan of Darjeeling Express, where the team are women that are not trained chefs, Anna Higham (The Last Bite, ‘best book ever’) and Ixta Belfrage. On a day to day, my sister Alice and my partner Archie (sous chef at Winsome, Manchester) inspire me to do more and step up my game. I have a huge list of pastry ideas on my phone. Heaven knows when I can try them out.

Your style of cooking?

I would probably say sweet and heavy. I’m an absolute sucker for sweets and carbs. Its the pastry chef in me. My signature dish is probably the deep-fried rhubarb pie and custard from Medlock Canteen. Again it always changes with the seasons, but my favourite ingredient right now is a British strawberry. Unmatched. Off-duty I really love with all my being a good curry and rice. Whether it’s Dishoom, home-made, Indian, Chinese or Thai. Can’t go wrong.

Most embarrassing moment?

Oh god where do I start? The fact that quite a lot of generic chef trousers are made for men has led to me ripping more pairs than I’d like to admit – and yes, during service in an open kitchen.

Top kitchen tip?

A pre service freshen up! Travel face wash, mouthwash and baby wipes, and a fresh set of clothes is an absolute must if you’re in a kitchen that does lunch and dinner service.

How to rescue hospitality?

More help from our local councils and government. Hospitality is a vital part of our culture, and the support for small businesses just isn’t there – this also falls under the umbrella of what our British government is doing to our farmers. The poor farmers are being crucified from every angle, so they cannot afford to sell to small local business and are being forced to sell to corporate companies. Which means our prices as buyers are then being hiked, which means we then have to charge more and it becomes unaffordable for your local people to turn into regulars.

JESSICA FURNISS

29, born in South West London, in 2019 she moved up from Cornwall to Manchester to work at the Midland Hotel while completing a patisserie qualification before becoming head of pastry at Pollen Bakery. Next move was to run the pastry section at WTLGI in Stockport; after a year she was promoted to head chef.

Why this female trend?

There are some incredibly talented women working here, attracted by the opportunities that are on offer and Manchester’s entrepreneurial spirit. It’s great to see and to be one of these women who are being recognised for their tireless efforts, creativity and mentorship skills.

To build a successful restaurant you need a talented chef team and to really entice this talent you need to build the right environment: one where you can learn, explore, joke, teach and most importantly cook. And from where I’m sitting I see so many female head chefs that have cultivated this environment.

Many restaurants in Manchester are focusing on culinary excellence rather than trying to win accolades. Sadly in this current climate, a Michelin star can often be something that ends up restricting your ability to adapt and innovate your restaurant. With always the pressure of it being taken away and the consequences.

So no starry dreams?

I respect all it has done for hospitality globally and, to be recognised for a green Michelin star at WTLGI is certainly gratifying. However Michelin does not guide my ambitions. My priority is the restaurant, our suppliers, our guests and the supportive community we have built in Stockport, whether or not that leads to a star.

First job?

As a commis in a hotel in Surrey. That job was eye opening, it showed me just how difficult it can be to be taken seriously as a young woman. Especially as that was 10 years ago and the head chef’s mentality was not healthy nor inclusive. I remember feeling so lucky to have been given the opportunity to work with these rather gruff but talented men that I felt the instant need to prove myself. Growing up in kitchen environments like that is an experience often described as “character building”. However I am almost certain I had enough character to start with. Would I have rather someone listen to and nurture my curiosity rather than berate and make light of it? Of course. Am I glad I have managed to model my leadership on more progressive behaviours than this? Damn right.

Have you encountered sexism?

Of course, I have. Even though we may be in 2025 sexism in the workplace is still rife. The unfortunate (depending on how you see it) thing is that sexism has evolved; it’s an undertone, a background noise and a gut feeling rather than the incredibly obvious heckles of the past.

At the end of the day women in this industry will suffer from a lack of understanding. Our bodies change every 28 days, that’s 20 services to endure, 20 times you’ll mask and put on a brave face whilst hormones are wreaking havoc on your mind and body. I think the problem is a lack of education on the matter, if we understand these differences we will have the resources to deal with them.

Are you committed to easing that pressure?

Absolutely. I think if anyone has answered this with a ‘no’ then that undermines all our efforts, doesn’t it? The concept of your cooking being valued on your suffering has to a great degree been ‘glamourised’ by TV and media. But it’s outdated and unnecessary. We are all aware of the high-pressure environment a kitchen can be.

Having to create and prep dishes in tight time frames, all while spending almost the entirety of your waking day standing up. That, as far as I know, has and will not change dramatically. But if by encouraging my team to take their holidays, book that doctor’s appointment during the work week, stay at home if they are unwell and spend time together outside of work, then yes.

We should also prioritise making the time we spend in this profession a positive, healthy and balanced one. Luckily at WTLGI we have the Landing (rooftop market garden), which allows us to take some time away from the kitchen in the fresh air and feel connected to our food sources. To get our hands dirty, hopefully in the sun and remind ourselves of the beauty in what we do.

What sparked your food passion?

This romanticism of cooking as a child is a funny thing. But the tattered old chocolate chip cookie recipe card my family friend has too willingly got out after a few drinks would suggest I was lucky enough to have my curiosity with food well nurtured from a young age. My well-travelled parents would always encourage us to try things and we were blessed with some excellent culinary experiences early on. My connection to food is still very grounded by my father, often sharing our newest cheese discoveries in depth. Every Christmas, I treat him and my stepmother to a gift voucher for an excellently curated restaurant, and look forward to his feedback.

Chef inspiration?

Anna Higham – her use of seasonal ingredients is second to none. Her dessert book,The Last Bite, has some truly incredible bits of information and I loved what she brought to Lyle’s in London. Out of all the forced rhubarb and custard desserts I’ve ever had (and will), hers was the best. Such a beautiful use of the raw ingredient to achieve a wondrous mix of texture. The combination of rustic refinement and simplicity she does incredibly well.

Your style of cooking?

My style is very much based on my experience of bakeries, giving me a controlled but curious approach to food, driven by seasonality and a respect for the origins of our ingredients. My favourite ingredients are flour, butter and eggs. The differences each of those commodities offers in variation, there are endless possibilities.

Signature dish? I am most excited for the next dessert I’ll be putting on to highlight the Landing berries. The tayberries and loganberries have come early with the good weather, so I’ve collected them up and preserved them to coincide with wineberries later in the year.

I plan to make a refined British classic: The Summer Pudding. Making a tarragon sugar shokupan and soaking in the fermented tayberry juice. Picking (daily) and romantically placing the fresh wineberries. A roche of creamy woodruff infused sorbet with a pool of sheep’s cheese whey sauce. Complemented with crystallised white chocolate, some fresh herbs and blackcurrant leaf oil. (Let me know when it’s on the menu, Jess).

My days off food is influenced by how tired I may be. In an ideal world I would be brining and roasting a chicken every Sunday, but I think we’d all know that’s not happening. If I’m cooking it’ll be highly influenced by the selection at Unicorn, Chorlton that day.

Most embarrassing moment?

Not sure I can remember a certain moment. The kitchen feels like a very natural habitat for me so I don’t tend to get embarrassed easily. Coming into the open kitchen environment of WTLGI, having been recently diagnosed with AuDHD was quite daunting. Feeling like all 80 eyes were on you and the pressure of telling the story of our farmers, beekeepers, fishermen and friends all felt very overwhelming. But in getting to know these incredible people involved in our project, I feel nothing but pure delight using my passion to explain to our guests who they are, the challenges they may face and why they should be supported.

How to rescue hospitality?

The UK sector is facing incredible challenges primarily due to increased operational costs and reduced support from the government. Changes that would really help would be to address the increased national insurance contributions and the reduction of business relief rates, as well as providing some specific support for hospitality.

I fear these issues will be the nail in the coffin for many independents as rising energy prices and inflation are already contributing to a toxic environment. The industry cannot afford to absorb these increases. And passing the costs onto the consumer isn’t the solution either.

There are some longer-term solutions which could help reduce costs. Smart water and energy management, for example. But when most businesses are struggling now, with many not even having three months of cash reserves and any resilience to stay afloat, overall something needs to change.

CAROLINE MARTINS

39, from Brazil, trained as a plasma physicist but gave it up after appearing on MasterChef Brazil. She moved to London to gain a Cordon Bleu diploma, working at Michelin-starred establishments Kitchen Table at Bubbledogs, Galvin La Chapelle and Pied à Terre. She currently runs SAMPA, a chef’s table restaurant in Manchester’s Northern Quarter.

Why this head chef trend?

With all costs rising, loads of restaurants are having to decrease their opening times, changing working hours to save on utility bills but also creating a better work/life balance. As a result, women are more encouraged to stay and work their way up the brigade. When I started we used to work from 7:30am to 1am. There wasn’t any work-life balance, it was pushing women away, especially the ones thinking of having a family/husband, etc…

Michelin stars?

I have ambitions for this ‘elite’ because that’s how I was trained as a chef and for me it would mean the UK is finally opening up to Latin American cuisine.

But I don’t think accolades appreciate women in general. It made me really sad to see only a couple of female faces at the last Michelin ceremony. So many talented women chefs are not even on the radar of many of the big awards.

First job?

My first job was as a stagiaire (intern) at two-starred Trenkerstube in North Italy. I was the only female chef there, but everyone was so nice to me. I always noticed staff are treated much better in hotels. Maybe because they’ve got an HR department? Also, because I was fresh out of culinary school, the chefs really took their time to teach me. Italians do fine dining differently. It never felt draining.

Did you encounter sexism later?

Oh yes. Sexism is behind the reasons I left most places I’ve worked in fine dining.

If you’re a female, head chefs try to stick you in the pastry section. Not giving you a chance to learn the other sections. I even got the head chef at one Hackney place back in 2019, telling me that the barbecue “is not a woman’s section”, because “women’s skin is thinner than men’s skin and if there’s a burn, it would take longer to heal”.

At another, Michelin starred, London restaurant one former head chef used to make sexual comments about one of the girls in pastry, very nasty sexual jokes for everyone to hear. She used to go to the bathroom to cry. When we reported the matter it was all swept under the rug. I got really upset and left the job. Often as a commis chef I kept being placed to the most insignificant jobs folding dish cloths, making coffee, polishing the whole stainless steel kitchen with baby oil.

I got frustrated and quit.

Many of these chefs now hold important positions in the industry. It seems that hospitality rewards sexist behaviours like that. It pushes away female interest to join.

In contrast, an inspiration for you?

Chef James Knappett (of Kitchen Table, London). He taught us about ‘urban foraging’. We would go out on our days off to collect delicious ingredients, such as meadowsweet, elderflower, wild leek and pineapple weed. Then he would use his creativity to come up with the most delicious dishes.

How did you first get into food?

With my Portuguese grandmother Alice, making bread from starch, and with my father Marcos learning how to barbecue for family and friends.My favourite off-duty food remains rice, black beans, steak, farofa (cassava crumble) and iceberg lettuce and tomato salad. Plus my fermented dedo-de-moca chilli sauce on the side.

Your own food style?

Brazilian-British Fusion. I try to match the best British produce with Latin American vegetables and fruits, and Brazilian techniques. My signature dish is barbecued Orkney scallops served with heart-of-palm (the core of the palm tree) and a cassava mousseline.

Most embarrassing moment?

Recently: I was explaining a beef+sugar cane molasses sauce reduction for my guests at SAMPA chef’s table, while saucing their dishes in front of them. I got distracted and sauced a vegetarian lad’s main course (smoked tofu), while he was trying to ask me not to. Luckily he was a good sport and I had time to make him another main course.

How to rescue hospitality?

VAT is actually what is killing restaurants in this country. You’re demanded to charge your guests 20 per cnet on top of what it really costs, but when it’s time to fill in your VAT return, you don’t get anything back, because there’s no VAT to claim back in food Ingredients. The same does not happen in bars, as all alcohol purchases are VAT-included. Something needs to be done very fast, or restaurants will keep dropping like flies.

RACHEL STOCKLEY

37, she started out 13 years ago as an apprentice at the old Palace Hotel kitchens, then rose to become head chef of Baratxuri in Ramsbottom for five and a half years. Since then she has become a freelance chef/consultant and is currently a home economist on the BBC series, Great British Menu. She played a chef in the Beeb drama Boiling Point.

Why so many more women now in head chef roles?

I am totally oblivious to the fact that it’s ‘recently’. I feel like it’s been like that for years; it’s just the spotlight is being shone more on them now. When i was at Baratxuri, our sister restaurant, Levanter, was headed up by a brilliant head chef, Yvonne Lumb.

Michelin star ambitions?

No.

First kitchen job? Was it easy being a young woman?

I took a job as an apprentice commis at 23 years old at the Palace Hotel because I finally realised that cheffing was the only thing I would be half decent at. So maybe coming into the industry not wet behind the ears and with a little bit of life experience of working in hospitality since 15 helped me to understand what chefs would be like. I’d had some horrible experiences in that period but in my first chef job the kitchen was split almost equally male and female. My exec chef was so fair and mentored me so well that I have to credit him for being such a good role model and instilling those key good practices into my work ethic.

For the first few years in different jobs I encountered sexual harassment, sexism, racism, the lot. It was a pirate ship. But when you’re a teenager and these are your first few jobs, in systems where you’re at the bottom of a pile, you don’t see any way of complaining about it.

What sparked your food passion?

My mum and dad always cooked for me growing up, it was extremely rare to have takeaways – only fish and chips. I probably started helping to cook dinner at eight years old and continued until I could do it all myself and that felt so normal that it never occurred to me to do it as a career. Until two failed attempts at different degrees and years cooking for all my friends in Uni.

Career inspirations?

I think for me mostly it was my peers at work. When I was a commis or a chef de partie you’d be watching the chef above you and thinking, right, that’s what I need to do, to get to the next step. I never had grandeur expectations, I just wanted to be respected within my kitchen and thought upon as reliable and someone that could handle big services and pressure.

Your own style of cooking?

I suppose I have been known for Basque style cuisine and cooking over fire. I think in general seasonality remains key to everything I cook and my favourite ingredients, of course, change with the seasons. Off-duty I like to eat Thai, Filipino food and reaaaaaaally good pizza.

Most embarrassing moment?

Not embarrassing for me but…. I had customers once at Baratxuri thank me for their meal and then say ‘compliments to the Chef; tell HIM, HE’S amazing!’ I also had another set of customers asked if I’d previously worked in the Thai restaurant around the corner and after I I’d said no, insisted that I had.

How to rescue hospitality?

Substantial government changes. It’s action right from the very top.

BETH HAMMOND

34, after travelling for much of her early twenties she started working for Richard Carver of Honest Crust, running his Little Window offshoot at Altrincham Market. She later joined the team at Flawd before creating the dining menu at Stockport’s Yellowhammer, bakery project of Where The Light Gets In. A year ago she realised her dream of launching her own casual destination, Tawny Stores in Marple (with an 80 per cent female team).

Why the female trend?

I think a big part of it is the kind of restaurants being built here are smaller, owner-led, value-driven spaces that are less about hierarchy and more about collaboration. That makes space for women to lead without having to mirror an old school ‘chef’ persona. Manchester’s food culture feels like it’s moving forward, even if awards culture still lags behind.

Michelin star ambitions?

Not really. I love great food and consistency, but the pressures that come with that world don’t interest me. I care more about creating a kitchen that people enjoy working in, that puts out beautiful plates without breaking people.

Have you encountered sexism?

I’ve had my skills questioned, been talked over, ignored, and been called ‘bossy’ when leading a team. It’s not every kitchen, but it’s common enough to still be a real problem. I’ve always been quite selective in places I have worked, looking for female-led spaces and kitchens (like Flawd) that appreciate work ethic.

I have a lot of women working for me and do believe women are more drawn to female led,-owned business to be heard and seen, and understood with life balances with children. No one should have to burn out to be taken seriously. We work hard, but I try to build in balance, fair rotas, breaks, time off. You can make good food without having to glorifying the stress that comes with it.

What sparked your food passion?

We are a family of foodies, Grandparents great cooks, Mother is a great cook, we used to come home from school and food network would be on the TV, my sister is a chef now living in New York and my other sister works with food as a developer at the Co-op.

Chef inspirations?

I love Flawed head chef Seri’s style of food and love that she has such skill, which comes from her Korean heritage, and then uses the ingredients available to her with these techniques. More well-known chefs, Gill Meller and Anna Tobias, cooks who let ingredients speak, who value simplicity, seasonality, and a sense of place.

Your own cooking style?

Seasonal, produce-led, no fuss. I would credit Richard Carver for this, who taught me the value of really good quality ingredients and that if you have amazing ingredients you really don’t need to do much to make them taste amazing. I do love Asian food from my travels, which often creeps into my dishes. I am often aware of my white privilege and don’t feel comfortable ‘elevating’ other people’s food which isn’t my own. So influence only and recognition. Off-duty dining? Thai, Vietnamese and Korean.

Most embarrassing moment?

Splitting the custard as my first task when I did a week at Where the Light Gets In.

How to rescue hospitality?

VAT being one of the biggest things to change, the model does not work for hospitality, especially for establishments who are always using non-rated products. People have to understand the rising costs for businesses and recognise why places are having to put up their prices.

FABIOLA BONACCI

36, after studying for a maths degree this Italian chef kicked of her career as an events chef in Pisa before, at 24, moving to Tarragon and Reus, where she mastered Catalan cuisine. After a spell in Germany she moved to London in the midst of Covid and rose to be head chef at tapas bastion Barrafina in Covent Garden. Tast Catala, Manchester outpost of Michelin-starred Catalan chef Paco Pena, is her next big career step. The majority of the menu is Paco dishes; she contributes weekend specials and her own signature dinners.

How has being female affected your career?

I had a lot of discrimination, from Spain to the UK. In Spain, one summer, I was working all week, without day off, from morning until night and my salary was less than the male chef who had my same duties and role. In the UK in 2022, when I came back from maternity leave, I found out that all the other male head chefs of the company (I was the only female) had a raise of salary while I didn’t get one. They also assigned another male head chef who was still on probation as my superior when, based on seniority, he should have responded to me. Honestly, sometimes it is quite hard to combine work and personal life, but I make it work.

What sparked your food passion?

I started to be at the stove when I was very little. I used to cook with my mum and grandma, and I fell in love with the smell, sound and flavours of the kitchen.

Chef inspirations?

Italian chefs like Massimo Bottura, Carlo Cracco, Antonino Cannavacciuolo. I watched how they work, their different styles and found them fascinating.

Michelin star ambitions?

In the past I was a bit more obsessed with stars. Now it would be wonderful to win one, but I’m enjoying my job as it is.

Your own cooking style?

I call my style ‘Spanian’, a mix between Italian and Spanish food. Mediterranean ingredients are my favourite, simple and tasty. And my comfort food, you guessed, Italian recipes.

ALISON BEARDSLEY

51, worked on a Bury Market butcher’s stall from the age of 13 and at 19 went straight from Hopwood Hall College, Rochdale to London, working as a pastry commis in a string of elite kitchens – including the Berkeley under the legendary John Williams, whose Ritz dining room is the current UK Restaurant of the Year. In 2003 she moved back to Manchester to open Harvey Nichols Second Floor, three years later promoted to executive chef. In 2009 she quit to open Macaroon by Alison Seagrave, a shop/cafe in Bamford. These days, with a family, she runs her acclaimed online bakery Macaroon by Alison Seagrave from home. Do check it out.

Why this female trend?

Because of their talent.

First job? Was it easy being a young woman?

It was the SAS Portman hotel, Marble Arch and I was just 19. It was around a 70/30 men/women split. My immediate team was two women and one man, so I had a good introduction into work life. I think I was lucky, I’ve always had great teams around me that all included women (including back at Bury Market).

Have you encountered sexism?

Yes of course. I’m a woman and sexism is everywhere, not just in kitchens.

I have always worked in a male-dominated industry, so I’m totally used to it. That doesn’t make it OK, but I’ve grown up with it all around me, so I know how to handle it. As head chef I used to give the brigade cans of full fat coke and bars of chocolate to get through busy shifts.

What sparked your food passion?

My Nan was a great cook/baker. I loved watching her and sometimes helping. We always went out to nice restaurants for family birthdays and celebrations. I was used to eating out from an early age and have always loved it.

Your comfort food?

I like simple home-cooked food like pies, chilli and curry and I love my slow cooker. I don’t own an air fryer yet.

Top kitchen tip?

When juicing a lemon, place it whole in the microwave for 30 seconds. You’ll get double the amount of juice.

How to rescue hospitality?

Its the cost of living crisis thats the problem, sky-high rent, rates and ingredient costs. We all feel it when grocery shopping. We all have less money to spend. I don’t go out for dinner as much, but I still want to go out. So it’s more cafes instead of restaurants, coffee, cake and breakfast instead as that’s cheaper. We still need to socialise and have treats but with a lower spend.

• Apologies to other Manchester head chefs not interviewed such as Lucie Sainerova at Australasia, Georgie Tamara Hewitt at MAYA and Danielle Heron of OSMA, all of whom are doing amazing jobs.

16 August 2025/by Neil Sowerby

Food, Restaurants, Wine

Secret SAMPA offers cutting edge Brazilian fusion and grape revelations

The underground world of SAMPA Chef’s Table is full of exotic flourishes. A Brazilian wonderland of toucan water jugs and vivid pink flamingo receptacles for your pre-dessert cashew apple ice lolly. That’s before chef patron Caroline Martins’s signature abstract expressionist finale – scrawls of coconut yoghurt, basil custard and mango across a slate, to be topped with meringue. That this performance takes place in a penumbral secret location in Manchester’s Northern Quarter adds to the sense of delightful disorientation.

A further mind scrambler. Where else in the UK would your pairing consist entirely of Brazilian wines? Former Great British Menu contender Caroline proudly flies the green, yellow and blue flag of her native land in the quality of ingredients she imports, so why not do the same with the wine list?

Compared with South American cousins Argentina and Chile, Brazil as South America’s third largest wine producer is almost as much a mystery as the new SAMPA venue. Hard to remember a bottle on our supermarket shelves – despite Brazil boasting more vineyard area than New Zealand.

A vinous voyage into the dark

Book a SAMPA dinner and you’ll get the location sent to you just pre-arrival. Presumably the same applied to the intrepid wine lovers who had signed up for a tutored tasting in the afternoon ahead of our evening meal. It was hosted by Go Brazil Wines’ Nicholas Corfe, who later poured his wares for us. He has championed the cause – along with national spirit cachaça – from his Suffolk base for 15 years. He cherry picks from small producers in the southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul.

Vines were first planted in Brazil by the Portuguese in the 16th century. Then, in the 19th, came Italian immigrants, mainly from the Trento and Veneto regions of the north-east. In the Seventies an international player, Moët & Chandon, arrived to introduce modern vinification techniques.

There was nothing rustic about the four wine matches at SAMPA. What did I make of them?

The dinner was bookended by two sparklers, Amadeu Laranja Nature Traditional Method 2020 and a Don Guerino Moscatel NV 2022, the former on the orange spectrum, the result of extended maceration, refreshing and surprising complex, the latter a sweetie with counterbalancing acidity, weighing in at just 7.5. per cent ABV.

I enjoyed both, but had less joy from Pizzato Sauvignon Blanc 2024. Grassy on the nose, it promised more than it delivered, its tropical fruit muted, the mouthfeel quite coarse.

In contrast a red from the same Serra Gaúcha-based winery, the Pizzato Nervi Reserva Tannat 2020 was a terrific example of a heady grape variety associated with Madiran in South West France. Uruguay has proved a natural home for it in South America, but, based on this example, Brazil is giving it a run for its money.

From the great 2020 vintage, it has been aged for 11 months in new French oak barrels. Result: concentrated dark fruit and spice, soft tannins, a hint of leather perhaps. It would have coped well with a meatier main than Caroline’s (delightful) galinhada chicken.

Pizzato own 45 hectares of vines split between their original Vale dos Vinhedos (Valley of the Vineyards) estate and the newer Dois Lajeados. The vines for Nervi are 25 years old, from the first plantings after the family switched from supplying grapes to big wineries to becoming an independent producer. Such a wine vindicates that bold decision.

Has maverick Martins found her perfect base?

Caroline Martins has made quite an impression since landing in Manchester some five years ago with husband Tim (who marshalled the troops brilliantly at the latest launch). She famously swapped a globetrotting career as a plasma physicist to go on Masterchef Brazil and train at Le Cordon Bleu in London. Check out the highs and lows of her career path in my recent interview with her, ‘Why female head chefs are flourishing around Manchester’.

A trajectory that has encompassed numerous Brazilian-British fusion pop-ups led her to the unlikely Northern Quarter combo of Calcio Sports Bar on Dale Street with Chef’s Table experience for just eight folk in the cellar. It was a fine dining homage to the food of São Paulo (Sampa is its colloquial name). Now she has found a new home for her project, spacious enough to almost double her covers and include its own art gallery. The current exhibition, ‘Saudade’ is by one Pete Obsolete (below).

Caroline continues to refine her playful food offering. I particularly loved the laranja lima (a chalkstream trout carpaccio) and the ‘Garstang white cheese with fig leaf and Dan and The Bees honey, both evidence of our immaculate British sourcing.

PS Beware the potent Brazilian chilli that lurks among the snack starters of pineapple and pickles. Diito the fiery yellow dip with the pichanha tartare. Oh and prepare for a slight fuggy atmosphere in the underground lair. Caroline does love blow torches and smoking dishes!

A 12 course tasting menu comes in at a remarkably good value £58 (£69.60 inc VAT). The drinks pairing is £48. For £30 you can bravely match the dishes with a range of Cachaças. Book here.

12 August 2025/by Neil Sowerby

Food, Restaurants, Wine

Viva Louis Vegas! American-Italian comfort food it’d be a crime to miss

“Fly me to the moon, let me play among the stars and let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars,” as Sinatra crooned.

One spring two decades ago we flew into what seemed like another planet – Las Vegas. We stayed on the Strip at The Mirage Hotel and Casino, whose major selling points were a daily erupting ‘Volcano’ and a ‘Secret Garden’, where we bonded with resident dolphins. Further highlights included renewing our vows at an Elvis wedding chapel (pink Cadillac, dry ice and a singalong with the King) and dinner at the place to be, Piero’s, which featured in Martin Scorsese’s Casino.

That mobster classic is celebrating its 30th anniversary. So many of its locations in the city have since bitten the dust, as has The Mirage, site for a new Hard Rock Hotel. The dolphin attraction had closed in 2022 after four had gone belly-up inside 10 months.

Through all this shape-shifting across Sin City Piero’s Italian Cuisine has survived, though its signature osso buco, fave of regular Frank Sinatra, hasn’t. You will find this braised veal shank on the bone, though, on the menu at Manchester’s Louis, a homage to vintage American-Italian cuisine, soundtracked naturally by ‘Ol Blue Eyes’, Dean Martin and their ilk.

OK, the Spinningfields business district outside lacks the pizazz of Vegas, but it’s also free of the gangsters who frequented ‘The Leaning Tower’, Piero’s rebrand for Casino. Mirroring the restaurant’s own checkered associations (and I don’t mean the table cloths).

In contrast to owner Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) taking goreish exception to one customer in The Leaning Tower, our real life Thursday evening at Louis was an absolutely joyous celebration of a fantasy fifties America. And like the Permanently Unique group’s other recent project, Fenix, the place was mobbed (sic) by 7.30pm.

New York, not Las Vegas, is the prime inspiration. Ippokratis Anagnostelis, exec chef behind the Fenix’s Mykonos-inspired modern Greek cuisine, travelled there with co-founder Drew Jones to find restaurant role models… but Scorsese movies such as Casino and Goodfellas are undoubtedly a key influence on Louis, too.

Drew has admitted this: “Obviously there’s a dark side to those films, but take that away and the environment, the glamour, the clubs, the bars, they’re extremely luxurious.” As is Louis, a destination where folk are encourage to don their glad rags and wallow in the live music as part of the experience. Surely Robert De Niro, star of both films, would approve, as a serial restaurateur in more recent times?

So does the cuisine here live up to the hype? The offering is far more exciting than the routine high street Italian served up at Carluccio’s, previous occupant of the unit. We were there by invitation to road test the new summer dishes, so I had to resist Osso Buco Revisited. Reminding myself it is, of course, a sharing dish.

Another change since our last visit – they are now allowing customers to photograph their experience. From the launch onwards on arrival punters were obliged to apply ‘fedora’ stickers to their phone for the duration. Removing mine afterwards ripped a chunk of leather off my case. Second visit, replacement purchased, I declined, still promising to obey their privacy edict.

This time round then gave me the chance to capture the beauty of the dishes served. Stand-outs were our starters. An egg yolk, tide of parmesan foam and a fin of crisp topping a spiced steak tartare on a sheet of lasagne (£24) sounds an odd combo but it tasted sublime. Ditto a substantial, gloriously glazed portion of sticky bourbon short rib with equally sticky mushrooms and curly crisps, this time of sweet potato (£22).

Sommelier Pasquale Moschettieri was busy wheeling around the Champagne trolley, the bubbly served in old school coupe glasses, of course. But the true vinous treasures lay in his wine sanctuary just behind us. Oh, the temptation. Serendipitously we had ordered a Nerello Mascalese from his native Sicily, so we became instant buddies. A classic volcanic red from the northern flank of Etna, velvety yet taut. A higher budget for your wine pairing? This is one Palermo boy’s offers you’d be mad to refuse.

Our mains were essentially superior comfort food. Classic Italian filtered through a North American emigre sensibility in a generous contemporary UK take. I had handmade cavatelli pasta smothered in a slow-seethed duck ragu (£30). Across the table Pollo alla Calabrese (50p cheaper) matched chicken breast with a sausage sauce on a bed of polenta. Satisfying both, but neither is likely to supplant in my affections dishes that remain on the menu such as rigatoni with vodka and tomato or the New York, USDA grade strip steak.

To close, we also shared exemplary chocolate tart and baked New York cheesecake (what else?) with shots of rather sumptuous house-made limoncello.

How did it compare with a very distant memory of Piero’s? This 2025 meal experience was surely superior. I suspect that moody downtown Vegas joint might have been resting on its celebrity laurels. In contrast, laid-back Louis has got me “under its skin”.

Louis, 3 Hardman Square, Manchester M3 3EB.

• As I finish this review/reminiscence I discover that after 43 years in existence Piero’s has just been sold to a new corporate owner with a bagel and doughnut empire. This shock move is in the wake of a violent squabble between Piero’s founder Freddie Glusman and his son Evan over substantial missing funds. It had to be in the script.

4 August 2025/by Neil Sowerby

Food, Restaurants, Wine

Pip, Pearl and Josephine – forays into Prestwich, Chelsea and a certain Treehouse

Just 100 metres and a whole decade apart – Aumbry and The Pearl. But there’s a palpable bond between them on a balmy night along Bury New Road. For once this week Prestwich is spared the not-so-distant rumble of Oasis in Heaton Park but the rival shishes are sizzling in the Istanbul and Anatolian Grills. This is polyglot dining territory, but there’s a place for a ‘Modern British’ restaurant.

Until 2015 that role was occupied brilliantly by Mary-Ellen McTague’s award-winning Aumbry. After it closed, the site on the corner of Church Lane became burger joint Solita and is now Wallop cafe bar.

Change happens. Back in those days 425 Bury New Road was a computer repair shop. Now it’s a self-styled ‘British Dining Room’ called The Pearl, its dazzling blue exterior punctuated by founder Sam Taylor’s little Florentine peccadillo, a ‘wine serving hatch’. The bijou interior owes more to the classic Parisian bistro.

I’ve been rolling with that French bistro renaissance recently, taking in terroir-driven establishments in Lyon, London’s Bouchon Racine, Camille and Café Francois, Bavette in Horsforth and more recently Chelsea’s Josephine Bouchon, of which more later. There is an Entente Cordiale with Prestwich’s Anglophone heritage going on here, I believe.

The Pearl – from Arnold Bennett to Matt Bennett

I used to come to The Pearl just to eat chef Ian Thomas’s Omelette Arnold Bennett. Now the kitchen has a new regime featuring three young chefs who’ve all seen service at Manchester’s Michelin-starred Mana. Head chef Matt Bennett looks impossibly young to have also worked at the legendary Gidleigh Park in Devon, but he has.

On Fridays and Saturdays, 5pm-9pm, Matt, George Webber and Jae Haney switch to à la carte. Their new summer menu was the perfect excuse to see if the Pearl remains a jewel. Saturday lunchtime (needs must as a suburban restaurant) the lunch ‘special’ was to be Oasis themed with involving pie specials and a pudding called Cigarettes and Alcohol, consisting of whisky, white chocolate and charcoal ash. On a fashion note, their ‘Yeah, Oui’ limited edition red cap in Isle of Wight red, celebrating the new menu, is preferable in every way to an overpriced bucket hat.

Pip the sustainable showcase for Mary-Ellen?

That band from Burnage came up in conversation two days before in the beyond-quirky environs of the Treehouse Hotel. This is a thrilling transformation of the brutalist Ramada Renaissance at the Cathedral end of Deansgate. Serendipitously, we were dining in its ground floor Pip restaurant, which is under the stewardship of the aforementioned Mary-Ellen McTague. Like The Pearl and Shaun Moffat’s wonderful Winsome Pip showcases great local suppliers and a very British culinary tradition. Her new hotel home is also committed to championing low-waste cooking.

No, fans up for the BIG GIG weren’t primarily popping in for Mary-Ellen’s deconstructed Lancashire hotpot or the heavenliest of treacle tarts, but as our early evening server reported: `’quite a few will be in later”. A few days earlier Oasis ticket holders were also sighted in Hawksmoor, enjoying the remarkable value three course lunch for £26, which includes rump steak. But then Oasis has long been about the beef between two brothers.

It has taken a while too for Mary-Ellen McTague to find the right stage. I’ve known her since she arrived back in her native North West after working for Heston Blumenthal. While she was still at Ramson’s in Ramsbottom I had the good fortune to dine with her, and get a kitchen tour, back at The Fat Duck. Then came Aumbry and later The Creameries in Chorlton, which heartbreakingly didn’t work out. A constant triumph for her, though, has been Eat Well, which she co-founded with friends Gemma Saunders and Kathleen O’Connor five years ago. It delivers around 2,500 meals a month, made by Manchester’s hospitality community. Meant to be a temporary response to a global pandemic, this fund-raising initiative continues to feed people in need.

Josephine Bouchon – near perfect Lyonnais corner house

Fulham Road Chelsea is hardly synonymous with deprivation. Michelin groupies may associate it with Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, which has held three stars for nearly a quarter of a century and where the Carte Blanche menu will set you back £260. The best of the rest on the scene had seemed to consist of swanky gastropubs. Until Josephine. It’s named after serial star gatherer Claude Bosi’s grandmother and is a slick but sympathetic homage to those bouchons (bistros) originally frequented by Lyon’s silk workers. Today’s real ones don’t offer the heritage glamour of Josephine but Bosi’s incarnation more than matches them, with less heaviness.

After starters of terrine de campagne with cornichons (£17.50) and dorade marinée aux olives and citron (aka sea bream crudo, £15) we had the lapin à la moutarde – (rabbit in mustard and tarragon sauce) to share for £68. Definitely consisting off more than one whole bunny, it could have fed four, all of whom would have been swooning in delight, as we were. A £17.50 chocolate mousse to share, alas, just seemed one gustatory challenge too far. Next time. And surely will be… if we can tear ourselves away from our perennial Racine fetish. I liked the fact that the menu attributed that terrine, the equal of many I’ve had in Lyon, to London charcutier George Jephson. How very French.

The metropolitan bargains to be found here are a ‘Menu de Canut’ featuring simple Lyonnais specialities (£14.50 for two courses, £29.50 for three). There is also a daily changing Plat du Jour for £16.50). Stick to the £28 a bottle house wine and you won’t ‘faire sauter la banque’ as they say in French. In a further homage to the Lyon bouchons they measure that house wine (we had a very acceptable Rhone red) with a ruler to decide how much you pay.

So did The Pearl live up to Josephine’s folksy finesse?

The red wine that accompanied our four à la carte courses in deepest Prestwich hailed from Sicily, but was prime example of local sourcing. Borgoleo is a 14 per cent Syrah produced from the vineyards of Filippo Zito’s family. These days you’ll find the former Midland French sommelier at the Failsworth wine shop/tasting room he runs with his wife Natasha. They provide other wines for The Pearl, but this, his own, is the one to go for, a complex bargain even at £60 a bottle.

It fitted our evening, which featured a large ‘snack’ of glazed lamb ribs with an exquisite red wine jus and a later main of lamb rack and loin, a fine dish but eclipsed by my ex-Dairy sirloin with hen of the woods mushrooms and a beef fat potato terrine. It was sourced inevitably from Littlewoods of Heaton Chapel. Incredible stuff.

I should by then have been ‘steaked out’ after a beef tartare. Despite the presence of lovage and smoked eel this dish was surprising unassertive; the same could not be said of its fellow starter where a slash of black garlic added oomph to a glorious croquette of Bury black pudding with apple compote and nasturtium. Modern British? Yes.

Milk bread is having its moment so no surprise when a few dinky slices of the kitchen’s own arrived with marmite butter; toasted it partnered, the tartare. Perhaps a raft of French toast under a chantilly blanket that came with Prestwich honey and peaches was a carbfest too far. But it was a generous feast.

Did Pip at the Treehouse climb the heights?

As at The Pearl, I kicked off with oysters – each time a modest trio. In Prestwich they were Scottish Cumbrae with a mignonette dressing and a squirt of Tabasco (£10 for three); at Pip I took the ferment liquor option with my Carlingfords (£4 each). We had considered the affordable four-course ‘Pip Mini Tasting Menu’, available for dinner at £30 a head with a generous optional wine pairing at £20 each, but couldn’t resist the lure of the à la carte, which felt classic McTague.

Each dish is recognisably a model of clarity. Nothing superfluous on the plate, core flavour the foremost consideration. I had wondered if all this might be diluted in the context of running a whole day hotel catering operation (there is a separate team for events).

Not on the evidence of this particular meal, an antidote to ‘fine dining’. Sardines on toast as a starter is almost an act of daring, but it feels just right. Deconstructed Lancashire hotpot sounds a mite Masterchef poncey? None of it. The regional one-pot dish is translated into a huge, beautifully seasoned Barnsley chop on a bed of melting hotpot potatoes, the dish given seasonal vigour by an abundance of minty peas and broad beans. Classic cauliflower cheese went well with this and my open lobster and crab thermidor pie, topped with a lemon hollandaise, its lushness offset by grilled gem lettuce.

Among my fondest memories of Aumbry were the puddings and here both a treacle tart, earl grey and bergamot and a flourless chocolate cake with fennel cream were sublime.

Little things linger. So many vapid amuse bouches about. But here we had kicked off with split pea chips with mushroom ketchup. All the ketchups, pickles and ferments are made in-house; it’s symptomatic of what today’s new wave Brit cooks are up to. Who needs an elaborate over-reduced sauce? Not that well-grounded Josephine Bouchon dallies with such Cordon Bleu niceties either.

After three such well pitched meals, what is the French for common ground?

Fact file

While in London to review Josephine Bouchon I stayed at The Z Hotel Leicester Square, 3-5, Charing Cross Rd, London WC2N 4HS, latest site for this stylish but affordable boutique lodging group. You couldn’t be closer to the West End action, yet the 95-room property nestles in a quiet corner beside the National Portrait Gallery. Indeed our extra comfort Club Queen room looked out on the Gallery entrance.

21 July 2025/by Neil Sowerby

Restaurants, Travel

What’s your beef, Brian Boru? Hawksmoor Dublin, Clontarf Castle and a Viking bloodbath

I’d wager Brian Boru was a prime steak man. As High King of Ireland you wouldn’t go into bloody battle against the Vikings on a plant-based diet. The hero’s full name indeed, Brian Boruma, means ‘Brian of the cattle tributes’. Owning beef on the hoof was a boost in the medieval bragging rights.

Flash forward a thousand years to a new invader from across the sea. Hawksmoor has landed on Dublin’s College Green to a hero’s welcome. The upmarket UK steak restaurant sets out its stall on its Dublin website: “Beef from small community farms from all corners of the island, grazing cattle on rotation on fertile Irish soil.” Apparently it has been easier to source premium grass fed, properly aged stuff in Ireland than for sister ventures in New York and Chicago.

Gazing up at the dramatic domed ceiling we were just glad they have also sourced such an amazing venue. So many of these vast bank recalibrations don’t quite get it right (witness the recent Cut and Craft in Manchester). Here the petrol blue of the bar stool leather and the velvet banquettes is a classy match to all the wood panelling and Corinthian columns. Co-founder Will Beckett reckons it is the most striking of the 13 Hawksmoors (seven in London). It was at the 10th birthday party of their Manchester venue that Will invited us over. Impossible to resist and the food and service more than lived up to Hawksmoor’s own 20 year heritage.

Of course, history is in these halls too. This was the great Bank of Ireland established in 1835 by Daniel O’Connell, ‘The Liberator’. They named Dublin’s main thoroughfare after this astute politico, who probably turned over in his hallowed grave when for a while the premises hosted a branch of Abercrombie and Fitch.

I like to think the ghost of Brian Boru was at our side as we shared a Chateaubriand with beef dripping fries and creamed spinach after starters of native lobster and roasted currach scallops. Did he enjoy the Raul Perez Mencia red from Bierzo? We certainly did. He wasn’t having any of my Cherry Negroni.

We live the Castle dream near the site of an epic battle

In 1014 Brian Boru smashed a Norse-Leinster alliance at the great Battle of Clontarf, losing his own life in the process. 10,000 others fell in the slaughter that ended Viking rule in Ireland. Hours before our Feast of Hawksmoor we had visited Boru’s Well in Clontarf. The ‘Well’ is a drinking fountain erected in 1850 to mark where the Irish warriors refreshed themselves before triumphing on the battlefield. Allegedly.

A further bovine footnote: Clontarf, pronounced Cluain Tarbh in ancient Gaelic, translates as ‘Meadow of the Bull’ because the waves crashing into the beach were said to sound like a panting bull. Hard to reconcile all this with today’s affluent coastal suburb.

With its view across to the Docks and the distant Wicklow Mountains the seafront promenade is perfect for joggers and dog walkers. Keep heading north and you’ll cross a wooden bridge that takes you to Dollymount Beach with its 5km of dunes and North Bull Island Nature Reserve, a sand spit described as a bird watcher’s paradise. Clontarf village has its share of boutique shopping and people-watching cafes.

Walk inland, though, along Castle Avenue past that Well and you come upon a historic castle almost incongruous among the posh new residences that hem it in. Clontarf Castle was erected some 150 years after the battle as part of Dublin’s outer defences and in the early 14th century passed into the hands of the Knights Templar, who made it a monastery. In the 17th century John Vernon, quartermaster of Cromwell’s invading army acquired it and for 300 years it was the family home. One of its chatelaines, Dolly Vernon, captivated Handel, who stayed here prior to the world premiere of the Messiah in Dublin. On a further musical note the first track on Thin Lizzy’s debut album is called The Friendly Ranger at Clontarf Castle.

The building Handel saw (and JMW Turner painted) is no longer there. The Vernons hired the gloriously named architect William Vetruvius Morrison to rebuild it in 1837. This is the Gothic/medieval style structure that may well have inspired Dracula’s Castle. Creator Bram Stoker grew up close by.

*The lobby incorporating medieval stonework*

Luxurious, arty and handily placed – Clontarf Castle Hotel

Today’s Castle has metamorphosed further as a luxury four star hotel, incorporating a contemporary wing housing its 111 bedrooms. The mod cons in our top floor Junior Suite were state of the art but, aided by the presence of a four poster bed and mullioned windows, it felt of another age.

This was more than compounded by the public rooms beyond the soaring lobby where the family motto has been retained on a banner, “Vernon Semper Viret” (Vernon Always Flourishes). It’s all a mixture or old and new, so alongside the suits of armour and Boru references, each floor of the hotel offers a riot of contemporary art. Often quite quirky. ‘Owls with hats’ outside our suite, particularly so.

*Our junior suite with* *its four-poster*

In the absence of old family retainers, the hotel staff were terrific. From the front desk man who provided us with in depth guides to the Castle and wider Clontarf to the old school barman who poured a perfect Guinness for me in the Knight’s Bar. A shame not to be able to dine in Fahrenheit, the lauded main restaurant, but Hawksmoor called.

One reason for choosing Clontarf, its amazing history apart, was easy public transport access to central Dublin, not the easiest place to park in. It was a 15 minute walk to the DART commuter line and a 10 minute ride to Parnell Street Station. What better appetiser for the glorious meal ahead than a stroll through the grounds of Trinity College.

The other reason: Clontarf is only a quiet 15 minute drive back to Dublin Ferry Port. Time on your hands first? Half an hour north of the Castle is breezy Howth with a fine headland walk and great fish dining options. On past evidence I’d go for lobster at the upmarket King Sitric restaurant with rooms. The name commemorates Norse king Sigtrygg Silkbeard, an arch-rival of Brian Boru. Defeated but lived to tell the tale and created Ireland’s first coinage. A history lesson there.

Factfile

Neil Sowerby travelled to Dublin with Irish Ferries. Short break return fares to Ireland start from £214. He took the Dublin Swift, a high speed catamaran which travels from Holyhead to Dublin in just 135 minutes, making it the fastest Irish Sea crossing. It’s the best ferry experience I can recall with a highly efficient boarding process for our car at either end. To be admired too Irish Ferries’ quest for greater sustainability; the Swift has transitioned to using Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil, a fossil-free biofuel, as an alternative to conventional diesel.

Highly recommended for this trip is an upgrade to Club Class from £18 per person. It includes priority vehicle boarding, an executive lounge bar (get there early to snap up a panoramic window seat), free wifi, complimentary soft drinks and snacks (and wines on the Irish Sea and Dover-Calais routes).

If you fancy a full meal check out Boylan’s Brasserie, which offers a range from a Full Irish Breakfast at 16.95 euros to mains at 21 euros.

Clontarf Castle Hotel, Castle Ave, Clontarf East, Dublin 3, D03 W5NO, Ireland. +353 1 833 2321.

Hawksmoor, 34 College Green, Dublin 2.

For tourist information go to Visit Ireland and Visit Dublin.

14 June 2025/by Neil Sowerby

Food, Restaurants, Wine

An alternative Greek legend – Fenix pairs red snapper with mango and fills dolmades with wagyu

These days I eat out less than I did. All relative maybe. But I do cook tenaciously at home on the back of canny sourcing and our own garden bounty (again only relative). And, of course, vicarious pleasure is always there when I see chefs and restaurants I was among the very first to champion picking up plaudits. Great to see a national critic finally make it to Bavette Bistro in Horsforth and laud it to the heavens. Equally welcome is the universal praise for the great Shaun Moffat at Winsome (bring back the wild boar Barnsley chop please). Amazing but not surprising news that Pignut, Helmsley (shortly to be Pignut at the Hare in Scawton) is one of five restaurants shortlisted for the Estrella Damm Sustainability Awards).

In contrast, some eating places I have loved from the start suffer from perceptions of glam overload, which detracts from the food on offer. Take Fenix in Manchester, a pioneer in the happening quarter around Aviva Studios.

In my original 2022 review for Manchester Confidential I couldn’t help teasing about its mythical Mykonos persona while being wowed by its contemporary fine dining take on Greek food. I’ve been back several times and never been disappointed, the latest to sample its 2025 summer menu and a range of superb Greek wines.

There was me, a huge fan of the Thymiopoulos red range, centring on the Xinomavro grape, and I’d forgotten how good their Malagouzia-Assyrtiko white blend from Macedonia can be, melding the full-on fruit of the former with the saline minerality of the latter. Lovely but it was eclipsed by a limpid red from Crete. Nicos Karavitakis has worked wonders in squeezing rich cherry flavours out of the pale Liatiko grape without losing the fresh acidity.

I missed the original Fenix press invitation because I was then eating my way down the Rhone Valley (OK I do get out), but answered the ‘do come along later’ call. And wasn’t disappointed. A co-production, as always by Athens-based exec chef Ippokratis Anagnostelis and in-situ head chef chef Zisis Giannouras (the one with the heroic beard), it offered no dramtic over-haul but some delicious tweaks.

Wagyu Dolmakadi, stuffed vine leaves with ‘that’ beef’ didn’t sound me but was delicious, albeit at £24.50 for a trio of the tiny wraps. Even better was charred Calamari with taramasalata cream and lime dressing. Spicy red snapper dressed in aji panca with fresh mango and olive oil felt less authentically Greek, but that’s the point of Fenix. The menu is filtered through an innovative modern Greek sensibility. It doesn’t always work. An over-sweet white sesame dressing on a broccolini side did no favours for the the robata tenderloin with potato terrine and black olive.

Mediterranean dish of the dinner was tiger prawns on a tangle of linguini in a saffron and tomato crustacean broth, infused with a hint of Pernod. Maybe more Amalfi than Athens, but who cares?

An old favourite remains irresistible among the desserts – the quartet of Greek baklava ice cream, Greek Tsoureki ice cream, yuzu-lemon sorbet and chocolate Valrhona sorbet. Definitely a trencherful for two to share. It arrived plus another new dish that’s definitely a star in the Fenix firmament – cinnamon fruit crumble and a caramelised apple crème brûlée.

Don’t forget the drinks of the Gods too (here I go again) on the cocktail list. Once again I pre-prandially tested my strength on Hercules’ Eighth Trial. For £16.50 you get an awesome back story as well as a steamingly good presentation. “Son of Zeus and Alcmene, divine monster-slaying hero Heracles was forced to undertake a series of trials. The eighth was capturing a herd of man-eating and fire-breathing horses from Diomedes. His victory is immortalised in our watermelon and whisky pre-dinner sipper.”

Fenix Restaurant and Bar, The Goods Yard Building Goods Yard Street, Manchester M3 3BG. 0161 646 0231.

5 June 2025/by Neil Sowerby

Food, Restaurants, Travel

Aishling Moore’s golden touch and the wonder of West Cork wasabi

It’s commonplace these days to chart provenance on a menu. At Goldie one supplier name hopped off the list in front of me – Singing Frog Gardens. Alas, no sweetly croaking amphibians feature at Aishling Moore’s Cork restaurant famed for its ‘gill to fin’ sustainable fish cookery. But wasabi root grown in the West Cork backwoods does. It’s a speciality of the Gardens’ Alex Gazzaniga, a cultivator of rare and pungent salads and vegetables not traditionally native to Ireland (or many habitats in Europe, come to that). The name comes from the raucous frogs attracted to the damp forest setting suited to growing wasabi, brassica cousin to horseradish and mustard. Ironically the root thrives in a moist microclimate that can also encourage potato blight.

My Dublin-based colleague, the talented Caitríona Devery, has written two articles for Ireland Eats (wasabi and gardens) on this reclusive market gardener, who moved to Ireland from England 15 years ago and now supplies innovative indie restaurants with what greengrocers used to call ‘queer gear’. Wasabi seems a given for Takashi Miyazaki, guru behind Cork city’s Ichigo Ichie and Miyazaki. He was among Alex’s first customers; Aishling with her almost Japanese attention to fish is another perfect fit.

No question the meal of our recent Irish road trip was at Goldie on Oliver Plunkett Street across the road from equally casual stablemate Elbow Lane. Before seafood called Aishling honed her cooking skills at this fire-led, meat-centric micro-brewhouse (which also name-checks Singing Frog among the butchers and maltsters).

Cork-born Aishling opened Goldie when she was 24, just six months before the pandemic. From the start she was determined to create a sustainable, changing menu from what was landed daily on Ballycotton quayside. Nothing of the available catch was to be wasted, in particular those fish previously thrown back into the sea. The approach is called Whole Catch, the name of the slim volume she published in 2024, the year after she was named Ireland’s Young Chef of the Year. No glossy images, just Nicky Hooper’s characterful illustrations. These include, inside front and back, the golden salmon-shaped weathervane that has crowned the hilltop St Anne’s Church, Shandon since the 1750s and gives its name to the restaurant.

Whole Catch is in essence a pared back primer, charting how to handle fish from the whole raw state to the plate. The recipes are not afraid of powerful global flavours, but the freshest Irish raw materials never seem smothered. Surprises include her favouring the butterflied tails of round fish. From the small plates section we tried the hake tail schnitzel with gherkin and celeriac remoulade and soy cured egg yolk. Utter delight until it was surpassed by the chicken and butter miso sauce that perfectly partnered the firm, sweet flesh of pan-fried John Dory, an unexpected ‘luxury’ fish.

A pudding that is approaching a similar signature dish status is the caramelised white chocolate, Achill Island sea salt, milk sorbet, with a buckwheat tuile. Proof of the sophisticated culinary intelligence at work. Pleasure principle counterpointing the sustainability crusade. Goldie’s Michelin Bib Gourmand is throughly deserved. Surely a star must be close.

Chatting afterwards, Aishling distanced herself from the application of meat butchery/charcuterie techniques as espoused by Australian chef Josh Nyland, whose own manifesto, The Whole Fish Cookbook, echoes hers. “Lots of folk make the connection, but I’d never even heard of him when we opened Goldie. Others compare us with Lir up on the north coast of Ireland, but they follow the Nyland route, making their own fish-based charcuterie. The nearest I’ve got to that is some fish jerky!”

Lir chef patron Stevie McCarry made it to the final of the Great British Menu 2025. The closest Aishling has got to celebrity across the Irish Sea was a couple of appearances on Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch, the last in November, to celebrate World Fish Day. On her July debut she cooked the Shime Mackerel recipe you’ll find in Whole Catch – which I intended to replicate (the main image is Channel 4’s). It involves a 10 hour sashimi-style marinade of salt, mirin, brown rice vinegar and, crucially, dried kombu kelp (Irish and Japanese in one seasoning). Soy and wasabi to accompany. West Cork wasabi had kindly been posted to me and had to be grated quickly to guarantee its kick. Alas, I was called to a France for a week before I could source the freshest of mackerel, which this dish required. So, to avoid drying out, the surprisingly delicate wasabi was summoned to perk up some hot smoked salmon before my departure.

On my return I bought a couple of Cornish mackerel; from Out of The Blue in Chorlton, Manchester, substituting horseradish from our garden for the wasabi. On Sunday Brunch beetroot ponzu and pickled ginger were the mackerel’s sidekicks. Just some plain roasted beetroot for me, but the dish was drop dead gorgeous.

A major Aishling inspiration is another Brit expat, master fish smoker and ocean activist Sally Barnes, who has been curing wild salmon and other fish at her Woodcock Smokery near Skibbereen since 1979. Aisling confirms: “Conversations with her have massively influenced the way I think and how I perceive things.” At her venue, The Keep, Sally runs artisan masterclasses and occasional dinners. As I write this the guest chef at the latest event is Nina Matsunaga of the Black Bull, Sedbergh, Cumbria, a huge favourite of mine (read my review).

Fact file

In Cork city we stayed in two hotels – The Montenotte Hotel, Middle Glanmire Road, Montenotte, Cork, T23 E9DX, Ireland. +353 21 453 0050.and The River Lee Hotel, Western Road, The Lough, Cork, T12 X2AH, Ireland. +353 21 425 2700.

Whole Catch (Blasta Books, 17 euros plus postage) is available from the Goldie website.

1 June 2025/by Neil Sowerby

Food, Restaurants, Travel

Smoke me an eel to conjure up visions of brackish Fens and the wide Sargasso Sea

The scene most readers remember from Graham Swift’s 1983 breakthrough novel, Waterland, is the one where the doomed 13-year-old Freddie Parr inserts an eel suggestively into Mary Metcalf’s school-regulation knickers. That was a flashback to 1940 when the water-logged Fenland setting was still teeming with Anguilla anguilla, the European eel.

Incest, madness and regret also populate this rather bleak fiction. I’m guessing that all three are less abundant these days. The same definitely goes for those wriggling denizens of the East Anglian shallows and the locals who make a living out of them.

Step forward Smith’s Smokery of Boston, stalwart purveyors of hot smoked eel these past 30 years. Smoking is the way I like my freshwater eel prepared and that’s what Terry Smith and son Chris do over beech chippings. They net some mature silver eels from the East Coast tributaries and drains that trickle into the Wash and the Humber. The rest are imported from the Netherlands, continuing a perennial trade.

You don’t have to have Viking blood in your veins to twig the affinity with herring and eel-centric culinary traditions across the North Sea and into the Baltic. Even today’s groundbreaking Nordic cuisine pays its homage; Noma serves smoked eel in a soup dish with cider vinegar gelée, apple cubes and dill, while Manchester’s own Nordic-influenced Michelin one star, Mana, has impressed with a Yakitori eel glazed with yeast and deep, red blackcurrant vinegar.

It was a remarkable dish I ate recently in Copenhagen that led me to resume my own UK eel trail. A favourite of Noma’s Rene Redzepi, Schønnemann has been the city’s smörrebröd central since 1877. A lunch there provided me with stout-glazed smoked eel on a bed of scrambled eggs with chives on toasted rye bread. Simply perfect.

Back home, where better to start than by purchasing 600g of freshly smoked eel fillets from Smith’s after reading Terry’s back story on their website (from which I have also lifted some atmospheric pictures)?

“Our family has always been catching something. Our great great grandad and grandad were fishermen catching shrimps, cockles, fish and eels in the summer and flight netting for ducks and geese in the winter on the Friskney mudflats in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

“But it was eels I started trapping in 1975, after catching them on rod and line during my youth. Eels are always sold live, and at that time Billingsgate market in London was the place to go. I first went to the old market near Tower Bridge which has now gone and is covered in skyscrapers and then later to the new Billingsgate Market at Canary Wharf.

“It was about 1990 that I delivered the first load of eels to Holland by small lorry. Whilst delivering to the Dutch smokehouses we were able to see first hand the techniques on how they smoked them. During this time my son Chris joined me and in 2001 we decided to use the knowledge that we had gained from the Dutch to start Smith’s Smokery. Although many of our eels still go to Holland alive we are smoking more and more as demand and awareness increase.”

We have to ask – is eel a sustainable fish?

There is an exhaustive, yet still fascinating, overview, to which Terry Smith contributed. Despite UK eel stocks having declined by 95 per cent in the last half century these experts remain cautious optimistic about the eel’s future both as a species and on our plate. That’s despite EU rules restricting wild eel fishing to preserve stocks.

A history of eels on our plate

It is hard to see jellied eels wriggle back into fashion. This traditional English dish is associated with East London, where it was a staple food in the 18th and 19th centuries. These pie and mash shop staples are prepared by boiling chopped eels in a spiced stock, which then cools and solidifies into a jelly. The dish is often served cold, with vinegar and white pepper as common accompaniments.

Not for want of trying but I’ve never got the taste for it. Whereas smoked eel remains on my culinary bucket list. It’s an excuse to pop into Soho’s Quo Vadis to sample Jeremy Lee’s signature starter – a smoked eel sandwich in fried sourdough bread with horseradish and mustard creams topped with red onion pickle.

Jeremy has stuck with his original suppliers Mr Beale’s Eels of Lincolnshire (nothing to do with Ian Beale’s Eel Shop in Eastenders!) through their metamorphosis into the Dutch Eel Co, Devon Eel Company and, finally, Meadowland Smokery.

My own long-time online supplier, Brown and Forrest have ditched eels (even though their email address remains info@smokedeel.co.uk).

To sate subsequent cravings I have enjoyed smoked eel from the likes of Upton Smokery near Burford, Pinneys of Orford and the Port of Lancaster Smokehouse. Sign of the times – the latter import fresh eel from Australia and New Zealand.

How smoked eel is prepared

Hot smoking is the route, preferably with beech wood, which is subtler than oak. Uncooked, the flesh is strongly metallic. Mature silver eels offer a firmer less fatty flesh than juveniles. Brown and Forrest method was to gut and briefly roast them before have up to three hours’ smoking over sawdust.

What to do with it at home

It’s a mite disconcerting when a whole eel drops through the letterbox, albeit vacuum packed. Yet its straightforward to fillet it from its one bone and spoon off the flesh from the skin. The leftovers make a smoky broth.

The whole eel has a four-week shelf life, it can be hung in the larder or wrapped in parchment and stored in the fridge.In fillet form it can be frozen.

Destination Sargasso Sea – an epic trek

Consult Chapter 26 of Waterland for a romantic exploration of the myths surrounding the eel and its journey back to the Caribbean, via the Azores, to breed for a single time… and die. No space here for a run down on the enduring mystery surrounding the creature. Modern tagging has confirmed the Sargasso Sea, a 2 million square mile, seaweed-strewn patch of ocean south west of Bermuda, is definitely the breeding ground for the eels. Once spawned, the larvae drift back to European waters via ocean currents. It might take two years before they turn up as fragile, transparent glass eels in familiar places like our own Fens. These adapt to fresh or brackish water, developing into elvers and eventually sexually mature yellow eels around 1m long, before they are ready to make the return journey.

• Eel plays an important role in Japanese cuisine, but that’s a story for another day. Sayonara.

28 May 2025/by Neil Sowerby

Food, Restaurants, Travel

Bacalhau to the future – the time I shared salt cod with Cristiano Ronaldo

The salt cod milestones of my life? We’ll stick with three. Flash back to 2006 when Portugal knocked England out of the World Cup on penalties after Wayne Rooney was sent off. It prompted a notorious wink from his Manchester United team-mate Ronaldo. Not long after, at an intimate Sunday preview of a new Portuguese restaurant on Bridge Street, I was introduced to the still gauche CR7.

Neither of us was going to step over the chance to order Salt Cod Gomes Sa, served with poached egg, crushed potatoes, black olives and spring onions. The Bacalhau was as good as his mum Dolores used to make in Madeira, he told me. And Wayne was still a pal.

A decade later, at a Naples restaurant devoted to what the Italians called Baccalà, I was treated to a six course tasting menu of the stuff, culminating in a dessert that paired the salt cod with chocolate and pine-nuts. Reader, I gagged.

Of course, on markets across the Med, you’ll find those unappetising yellowy strips of dried fish caked in salt that need to be soaked before cooking. The ubiquitous treatment is what the Provencals call Brandade de Morue and the Spanish Brandada de Bacalao. It’s there (main image above) on the new spring menu at Exhibitio n on Peter Street in Manchester, where the Baratxuri kitchen has smoked the potatoes for the whipped olive oil emulsion and boosted it with Basque chorizo. The fish flakes offered intense flavour that has finally won me over to salt cod’s charms.

Keen to dissociate itself from your average food hall, Exhibition is offering a single combined à la carte fusing Baratxuri with fellow fixtures Jaan by Another Hand and OSMA . It is a game to guess which dish came from which chef. Just don’t peep at the latest counter your server is arriving from.

All three operators are a destination in their own right and for OSMA it will be their sole outlet after closing their acclaimed Prestwich restaurant in search of a new city centre equivalent. Spoiler alert. Billed as Scandi-influenced, at Exhibition they puzzlingly offer tuna sashimi and panko chicken thigh tonkatsu. Now that’s what I call mix and match.

Why Bacalhau à Brás remains Ronaldo’s comfort fave

Well over two decades later, as a muscled-up veteran Ronaldo plies his trade for Saudi Pro League club Al Nassr FC, traditional salt cold remains an essential part of a rigorous high protein diet dedicated to career longevity. It may be his one (slight) self-indulgence. Indeed at the CR7 Corner Bar & Bistro Baixa inside the superstar’s Pestana CR7 Lisboa boutique hotel you can order Bacalhau à Brás. Wash it down with a ‘Ballon d’Or’ cocktail.

Brás or Braz in English alludes to its inventor, a bar owner in Lisbon’s Bairro Alto. Brás has since become a technique that can be used to cook various types of fish and even vegetables. It has an onion, garlic, and potato base that is held together by creamy scrambled eggs. The olives are optional.

Buy salted cod (or its Northern European counterpart, stockfish) at Manchester’s Arndale Market or Out of The Blue fishmongers in Chorlton. Essential before you start give it a 24 hours plus soaking. Now create your own Bacalhau à Brás.

INGREDIENTS

500g potatoes

400g salted codfish

1 large onion

2 garlic cloves

5 tbsp olive oil

1 bay leaf

5 eggs

Salt and pepper to taste

Parsley, spring onions and olives.

METHOD

Peel the onion and thinly slice. Set the oven temperature to 230°C.

Peel the potatoes and slice them into thin strips, then into sticks of equal size. Rinse the sticks thoroughly, drain, and pat dry with absorbent paper or cloth. Place them in a bowl and top them with about 3 tbsp of olive oil. Place the sticks on an oven tray sprayed with olive oil. Check that they don’t overlap. Cook until golden in batches, flipping halfway through.

Place the cod in a pan, pour boiling water and keep the heat on a high flame. Cook for around eight minutes. Drain, reserving the water in a bowl.

Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a large frying pan and over a medium heat.Fry the onion until it becomes transparent. It should take roughly six minutes. Cook for three minutes more after adding the garlic and bay leaf.

Manually shred the cod, eliminating any bones or skin. Introduce the cod into the onion mixture, stirring occasionally and cook for 5 minutes.

Pour the eggs into a small bowl and whisk them together. Incorporate them into the fish mixture. Cook it on a low heat while continually stirring. The eggs must be cooked while remaining fluffy. Stir in the potatoes and season with black pepper and salt to taste. Garnish with the parsley, spring onions and olives.

9 April 2025/by Neil Sowerby

Thankfully this perceived talent imbalance is all bollocks (if you can bear with the gender-led expletive)

Eight female head chefs tell it how it is…

And did you fall in love with food by your mother’s stove?

MARY-ELLEN McTAGUE

RUBY JARY

JESSICA FURNISS

CAROLINE MARTINS

RACHEL STOCKLEY

BETH HAMMOND

FABIOLA BONACCI

ALISON BEARDSLEY

A vinous voyage into the dark

Has maverick Martins found her perfect base?

The Pearl – from Arnold Bennett to Matt Bennett

Pip the sustainable showcase for Mary-Ellen?

Josephine Bouchon – near perfect Lyonnais corner house

So did The Pearl live up to Josephine’s folksy finesse?

Did Pip at the Treehouse climb the heights?

Fact file

We live the Castle dream near the site of an epic battle

Luxurious, arty and handily placed – Clontarf Castle Hotel

Factfile

We have to ask – is eel a sustainable fish?

A history of eels on our plate

How smoked eel is prepared

What to do with it at home

Destination Sargasso Sea – an epic trek

Why Bacalhau à Brás remains Ronaldo’s comfort fave

Archives

Categories

Meta