Chefs talk about running restaurants in the North

What is a good location for a restaurant? How will the Northern Powerhouse affect the industry? What makes a great up-and-coming chef?

These are some of the questions that catering equipment supplier Russums put to three chefs currently making a name for themselves away from the M25 orbital.

Many people will know Adam Reid from last year’s Great British Menu, where he went on to deliver a deconstructed apple crumble inside a golden sugar blown apple.

When not impressing the show’s judges and his fellow chefs, Adam runs the successful Adam Reid at The French in Manchester, formerly headed by chef Simon Rogan.

Hathersage Social Club’s Simon Couth believes in his ingredients. And running an experimental restaurant, complete with mini theatre, deep in the heart of the Peak District, you’d expect nothing less.

Though technically in North Derbyshire, his customers make their way along the small train line between Manchester and Sheffield to enjoy Middle Eastern cuisine, seafood extravaganzas and Italian cinema evenings in this haven of exciting food among the peaks and moors.

Good food and a true social conscience is a rare combination, but it can be found in Ramsbottom’s Eagle + Child, where group chef Alex Shaw works as hard at training disadvantaged youths in the art of cooking as he does producing quality food from locally sourced ingredients.

Trained in a Michelin starred restaurant, Alex now works to usher in the next wave of exciting new chefs to come out of the North.

According to these three chefs, the location you choose has to be among people who understand what you are trying to do with your food. Without this, your establishment could fall by the wayside like so many other restaurants before it. However, if you think it’s that easy, think again. Alex gives a cautionary tale of restaurants that fail to get the combination of location, building and food quite right. The result — in this difficult industry — is disappointment and heartache.

The notion of quality sourcing comes up time and again among the chefs, especially as an answer to the benefits of running a restaurant in the North. The fertile plains of Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cheshire produce some of the best vegetables and livestock in the country, and these chefs certainly take full advantage of the fact.

“It’s about getting to talk to the producers, knowing what they care about,” says Simon.

“It’s about being confident about what you are getting…that it’s the freshest and ethically sourced. It’s about the connections and stories and quality of the produce.”

Adam goes along with this, explaining that local sourcing “ensures you can have a good and close relationship with the producer and can ensure the high standards are met…….and sometimes even exceeded”.

John-Paul Marsden, Sales and Marketing Manager at Russums, said: “It is encouraging to see such a varied number of chefs out there offering diverse menus of such high standards. The North has always equalled any other part of the country for talent, and hopefully now chefs like Adam, Simon and Alex will help to bring Northern cooking the attention and respect it deserves.”

If you would like to read the full story, access the article by visiting the Russums website.