By and large, 2014 was a successful time for many UK chefs and restaurants, and early signs 
suggest that 2015 is shaping up to be another terrific year. Grand statement openings and chefs making innovative forays are all in the pipeline – although 2014 brought ample proof that running a restaurant can be really tough too.
If you haven’t made it to Sienna in Dorchester, the smallest Michelin-starred restaurant in the country, then you have until Saturday 25 April to snap up a table, after which the restaurant’s lease expires and will not be renewed. Russell and Eléna Brown have had a magnificent 11-year run, but feel they have come as far as they can with Sienna and will be looking for a new opportunity elsewhere.
It’s sad, too, that after 15 years we must say goodbye to Agaric in Devon. Nick Coiley (who was previously head chef at Joyce Molyneux’s legendary Carved Angel in Dartmouth) closed his restaurant in December, though he’s not retiring the Sabatiers just yet. Agaric Kitchen will continue, selling cookware, own-produced bread, frozen meals and preserves.
The big New Year story from the south-west, however, is that Nathan Outlaw is relocating his two-Michelin-starred flagship (pictured left) to the fishing village of Port Isaac. Formerly based at the St Enodoc Hotel in nearby Rock, Restaurant Nathan Outlaw will re-open in early spring in holiday premises formerly known as The Edge - giving the chef a more spacious interior to work with, plus panoramic views across the bay. Port Isaac is also home to the chef’s Michelin starred Outlaw’s Fish Kitchen, making it a possible rival destination to Rick Stein’s Padstow. Back in Rock, the simpler Outlaw’s at St Enodoc Hotel will remain open for both hotel guests and non-residents.
Staying at the glossy end of the spectrum, Angela Hartnett has been appointed to the boards of Lime Wood Group and Home Grown Hotels as a company director and her involvement in Lime Wood’s Hartnett Holder & Co has been extended for a further three years. Hartnett Holder & Co (pictured top right) is Hartnett’s only restaurant outside London, where she is also chef-proprietor of Michelin-starred Murano in Mayfair, runs Café Murano in St James’s and is also behind Merchant’s Tavern in Shoreditch.
And yet another Michelin-starred chef is on the move. Swapping the Channel Islands for Co. Durham is Richard Allen, who takes over as executive chef of Rockliffe 
Hall in Hurworth this month. The former executive chef of the Michelin-starred Tassili restaurant at the Grand Jersey Hotel will be responsible for the running of The Orangery (pictured below right), as well as working with the teams in Rockliffe Hall’s other two restaurants, The Clubhouse and The Spa Brasserie.
There’s good news, too, from East Anglia, where Anglian Country Inns report a rise of 12 per cent in turnover for 2013/14. The five-strong group, which includes the acclaimed White Horse in Brancaster Staithe, Norfolk and Hermitage Road in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, has announced plans to open a sixth site, The Cricketers in Weston (also in Hertfordshire) in the early spring. Watch this space.
This article was published on 6 January 2015