MASTERCHEF in its present formats has been running since 2005. The stress levels never lessen… and we’re just watching from the couch. For every Simon Wood (WOOD, First Street) or Matt Healy (Foundry, Leeds) who emerge high profile there’s a whole raft of talented contestants who fade from our consciousness.
Step forward Matt’s near namesake, Marika Healey. She was on Masterchef: The Professionals a while back. Now she’s heading up the kitchen at Embankment Kitchen, an offshoot of swanky CitySuites apartment hotel on Chapel Street. It styles itself as a bar and brasserie so don’t expect the kind of culinary fireworks designed to impress Marcus and Monica.
Instead it’s an all-day offering from a breakfast buffet to dinner and cocktails that ticks most boxes. Even offering corporate event hire and a screen for sports. The restaurant proper has 80 covers and a chef’s table for up to eight diners. Steaks, fish, pizza and pasta feature (we like the sound of the wild boar pappardelle) as well as superfood salads. A Sunday roast, above, is an all-singing, all dancing version. Expect beer and mustard gravy,
Yorkshire pudding, herb roast potatoes, sausage and candied peel stuffing, butternut squash and orange puree, stem broccoli and green beans, carrot and swede mash, honey roast roots.
Embankment Kitchen, CitySuites ApartHotel, 16 Chapel Street, M3 7NH.
