By Neil Sowerby
TASTE of Manchester is not going to fulminate at length about the city’s absence once again from the Michelin list of the stellar anointed. ie. We are still without one. The 2016 Guide inexplicably has ignored main candidate Simon Rogan at The French – well worthy of a star on the evidence of recent visits, the latest this week for one of the Bitten Banquet series, part of Manchester Food and Drink Festival.
Let's celebrate small mercies, though. The local winners in this inspector-led lottery are two new recipients of the Michelin Bib Gourmand, a rung below star status, recognising quality and value and awarded to restaurants serving three courses for under £28.
Only 25 fresh Bibs were handed out this time. One goes to Brassica, Paul Faulkner’s (above) excellent neighbourhood restaurant in Heaton Moor, which is nominated for Best Newcomer in the 2015 Manchester Food and Drink Awards. Taste of Manchester gave it its first review. Another goes to The White Swan, a food pub at Fence near Burnley, run by an exceptional young chef, Tom Parker.
Ironically there is a plethora of Michelin-starred talent on show all week – until Saturday, September 29) – at The French, where each night a different chef from across the Rogan empire is cooking during a 'Week Gastronomique'. On Thursday, September 17 it’s Dan Cox, exec chef at one-starred Fera at Claridge’s and on the opening night, which I was privileged to attend, Tom Barnes from the two-starred flagship, L’Enclume in Cartmel.
The format is a multi-course tasting menu for £100 (matching flight of wines a further £60) with a slice of the money going to the charity, Hospitality Action. These five exceptional dinners are the showcase event of the Bitten Banquets. These are curated by the north west food magazine BIitten along with their sponsors, food and drink agency Ahoy.
Tom Barnes, disarmingly youthful head chef at L’Enclume has extra pressure on his shoulders now that long-standing head chef Mark Birchall has left to open his own ambitious restaurant with rooms near Ormskirk. The meal he created in Adam Reid’s kitchen at The French was true to the Rogan template but had its own vivid identity.
A great fine dining restaurant is like an orchestra. Under its principal conductor a house style is established; guest conductors or apprentice baton wielders can bend it to their will so far but the smooth sound remains the same. So it is with Simon Rogan. His batch of chefs are all singing from his finely tuned culinary hymn sheet (last musical metaphors, I promise) but are allowed to improvise around his major themes of foraging, seasonality and sustainability).
The Bitten Banquet was enhanced by the equally vivid new fit-out (main picture) that has elevated what could be a dispiriting dining space if you were adrift in the middle under the mirrorballs with acres of that Marmite among restaurant carpets with its trompe l’oeil wood-grain effect. The creation of central booths has created a more intimate, less stuffy environment for the pursuit of gastronomic pleasure. And the carpet (which I actually like) is less evident.
There has never been a question mark against the level of service, marshalled by the redoubtable Kamila Nkamchor and her sidekick, Rebecca. The regular man at the stove, Adam Reid was Chef of the Year in the 2014 Manchester Food and Drink Awards and when I reviewed for TOM in August his food was exquisite? So what is it with Michelin. Oh, don’t get me fulminating!
What Tom Barnes cooked for us
Chicken dumpling; beef and oyster; creamed duck gizzards, Tunworth cheese, whey onions and chestnuts
Raw scallop, apple, kohlrabi, hazelnut and horseradish
Glazed pork belly, cauliflower, eel and nasturtium
Butter poached brill, violet artichoke, fermented mushroom, sea vegetables
Roasted Valley venison, caper jam, beetroot and blackberry
Crozier Blue cheese, per cooked in beeswax, fruit bread
Birch sap mousse, pumpkin, almond and sea buckthorn
If I had to pick three highlights, it would be the raw scallop dish, the pork belly/smoked eel and the birch sap mousse.
Simon Rogan at The French, The Midland Hotel, Peter Street, Manchester, M60 2DS. 0161 236 3333, www.the-french.co.uk