Tommy Banks, the chef behind Oldstead’s revered Black Swan (number eight on the Harden’s 100 list of the country’s best restaurants), has announced plans for a second venture called Roots in York this autumn. Banks “produces exceptional, exciting – even mind-blowing – tastes and textures, with subtlety, intensity, and integrity” at Black Swan, which is “well […]

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Gary Usher, the king of Kickstarter chefs, is chasing his third round of crowdfunding to launch the fourth restaurant of his northwestern empire – with fellow chefs led by Tom Kerridge (pictured) rallying to help. Usher needs pledges totalling £200,000 – significantly more than in his first two campaigns – by June 8 in order to proceed with his planned restaurant Wreckfish in Liverpool. […]

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Chef Atul Kochhar of Benares – Mayfair’s well-known ‘nouvelle Indian’ – is turning the tables by launching his first restaurant to celebrate British food — and in a quintessentially English setting. Hawkyns opens on January 15 inside the marvellously traditional Crown Inn in Amersham. (It is named after Sir William Hawkyns, apparently a representative of the […]

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Food-obsessed cousins Mark Kimber (left in photo) and Harry Smith are opening Plot, a bijou 15-seat restaurant, in a converted market stall inside historic Tooting Broadway Market on January 11. The pair both grew up in Tooting, and have hired chef Giles Estob to design a menu of small plates reflecting their interest in seasonal British produce. Meat will […]

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Bristol’s Sanchez Brothers opened Andalusian-inspired Paco Tapas this week, completing their trio of adjacent dockside venues a few minutes’ walk from the city centre. Casamia, the family’s fine-dining establishment, was no 4 on the Sunday Times/Harden’s Top 100 Restaurants list last year, winning praise from the Harden’s Survey for its “fabulous tasting plates”. It moved from suburban […]

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