NOT everyone at Taste of Manchester is up to their arms in flour at the drop of a wooden spoon or has come through a soggy bottom moment. Cynically we doubt if all 14 million viewers who watched that nice Nadiya Hussain win the last Great British Bake-off are slaves to the mixing bowl themselves.
Still sweet-toothed interest is huge. Witness the advance frisson about Milk Jam, the dessert restaurant due to open in Manchester’s Oxford Street in July, bringing together Claire ‘Ginger’s Comfort Emporium’ Kelsey, Charlotte ‘BakeOrama’ O’Toole (formerly cakemaster of Home Sweet Home) and Nicki ‘Lush Brownies’ Griffiths’.
If that sounds sugar overload there’s always full afternoon tea? That’s commitment of a kind and currently there are few better places to experience it than at the Lowry Hotel in the hands of new head pastry chef Ririn Biggs.
The engaging Indonesian, who admits to not having a sweet tooth herself, knows how to treat those of us who do. She has moved north to live in Prestwich after after 12 years of preparing posh pastries and breads for residents and diners at top-class London hotels, culminating in five years as head pastry chef at Le Meridien on Piccadilly.
The five-star Lowry looks a perfect fit for her talents. The bread quality in the restaurant has risen (sic), but it is with her flights of fancies that really come into her own. With signature confections such as her Classic Opera Cake – chocolate ganache with coffee butter cream filling.
We pigged out on her revamped Lowry Traditoinal Afternoon Tea. Three scones with clotted cream and jam? Really? They were as fluffy as a duckling’s bum, as light as a lapwing’s wing. Yes, there was bubbly to accompany as well as an aromatic pot of Lapsang Souchong. Crustless finger sandwiches (salmon, cucumber, ham, cheddar), Battenberg, blackberry eclairs and banoffee tart on a stand above immaculate white napery to spill crumbs on.
All this for £22.50, £33 with Champagne. A child friendly version is also on offer. To make a booking ring The River Restaurant on 0161 827 4000 or book online at this link.
Recently awarded an Excellence Award by The British Tea Guild, The River Restaurant offers afternoon tea Monday to Friday 2.15pm-4pm, Saturday 12pm-4pm and Sunday 3.15pm-5pm.
The Lowry Hotel, 50 Dearmans Pl, Chapel Wharf, Manchester M3 5LH. 0161 827 4000.
