Recent
boiling-hot summer days have failed to put the brakes on the frenetic culinary merry-go-round that sees chefs moving on to new homes in bang-on-the-money city-centre eateries or sedate country
restaurants. Whether you’re travelling on business or looking for a weekend away, there’s something for everyone in our current pick of the top new UK destinations.
Jean-Marc Zanetti spent some 10 years working alongside Michael Caines and was chef de partie at Gidleigh Park when the acclaimed restaurant won its second Michelin star. More recently, he headed up the kitchen of
Michael Caines at ABode Canterbury, but the French-trained chef is now back in Devon – overseeing The Coach House Restaurant at Kentisbury Grange near Barnstaple. You can expect modern Euro-accented food as well
as a commitment to local sourcing, and in an area that has been considered something of a restaurant graveyard, it’s good to note that there’s been quite a buzz about the cooking.
Over in Kent, Dev Biswal has opened the third branch of
The Ambrette (pictured right) in the centre of Canterbury. It’s the culmination of a five-year
search for premises and with capacity for around 100 covers, it’s larger than its siblings in Margate and Rye. Expect a trademark ‘curry-free’ menu of Indian-style dishes built around regionally sourced seasonal
ingredients – as in samosas of Kentish sweet chestnut and pomegranate or chicken pie with a purée of locally grown cauliflower and a sauce of spinach and cashew nuts.
Not far away, it’s all change at The Marquis at Alkham (pictured top). Following the departure of
Charlie Lakin, Michael Fowler has been appointed the new man in the kitchen. Previously head chef at the Prince’s Golf Club & Brasserie in Sandwich, Fowler has also worked in France and
assisted Shaun Hill at the Michelin-starred Walnut Tree near Abergavenny. With an afternoon bar snack menu,
sharing dishes and alfresco dining, we can look forward to a new outlook at this contemporary restaurant-with-rooms.
Up north, Michael O'Hare’s short-lived Blind Swine briefly wowed York diners with weird ideas such as carrots and radishes ‘planted in rye soil’ and sloe gin sauce poured from a cartridge case. It
was certainly fun, but this curious restaurant/bar hybrid was perhaps too zany to work commercially. Now O’Hare is trying his hand with a new opening in Leeds (at the top of Flannels, the upmarket
clothes store). The Man Behind The Curtain is a much more polished operation – a cool white space
with views over the city’s rooftops, serving extraordinarily good food at extraordinarily fair prices (especially at lunchtime).
Finally, Bristol natives Sam Leach and Beccy Massey have returned to
their home patch after stints in the capital (Sam was pastry chef at St John, while Beccy worked as a waitress and
wine buyer at The Quality Chop House). Their 24-seater neighbourhood eatery called Birch (pictured right) offers a short daily menu of seasonal dishes in typically spare St John style. It’s already a hot
ticket, and is being touted as one of the more exciting restaurants to open in Bristol this year.
Published 5 August 2014