PERHAPS Manchester is only a footnote in the stellar career of Paul Heathcote, who has just put up for sale the last two restaurants in a once formidable culinary empire – Heathcotes Brasserie and the Olive Press in Preston
But the charismatic Boltonian’s influence has been huge. As well as once running Simply Heathcotes and an Olive Press off Deansgate (where Gusto is now) 55-year-old Heathcote has also supplied the catering for successive Manchester International Festivals.
Above all, he has been the godfather of north west regional cuisine, encouraging and namechecking local suppliers, notably elevating the Goosnargh chicken into a kind of culinary Holy Grail by persuading Reg Johnson (RIP) to raise poulet de Bresse-style corn-fed birds.
Matthew ‘Great British Menu’ Fort wrote a book with him and about him, featuring his groundbreaking recipes, entitled ‘Rhubarb and Black Pudding’, which says it all. Except he transformed humble ingredients and dishes with a technique honed under the likes or Raymond Blanc.
At the age of just 34 Heathcote had steered his Longridge Restaurant to become the first 2 Michelin starred establishment in the North – in the unlikely setting of converted cottages in a small Ribble Valley industrial town. Once the Good Food Guide’s restaurant of the year, it closed in 2012.
In recent years his focus has been on his outside catering company – hence the burgers and hot dog offering in the MIF’s Festival Square Glass House.
Taste of Manchester wishes him well wherever his talent leads him. At 55, he may still have some big surprises for us.