Episode 3 Restaurant Wars: The Battle for Manchester

Manchester. Britain's fastest-growing city.

Two world-class football teams and world-class industry.

But one thing it hasn't got, world-class food.

When I come home for my supper I sit down to a plate of cabbage and ribs.

Something I can handle.

Smell that lamb.

In the past, big-named chefs

like Raymond Blanc and Marco Pierre White

have tried, and failed, to bring top-end restaurants to the city.

Manchester doesn't have a Michelin-starred restaurant.

That's outrageous.

Now, two of Britain's greatest chefs have arrived

to try and convert Manchester to fine dining.

It's not hot enough.

Aiden Byrne, the youngest chef to win a Michelin star,

is gambling over three million on his theatrical new restaurant.

Seriously, all I asked for was some hot food.

It was a disaster, and it was mainly down to you and him.

What stress? Everything's fine and lovely.

And Simon Rogan, number one chef in the Good Food Guide,

is trying to turn a profit from a 10-course tasting menu.

It's down to me. I make all the decisions.

And I would not have it any other way.

Is Manchester ready for one, let alone two,

new luxury restaurants,

and will either of them win the city's first Michelin star?

We have got some Cristal in the back that we're chilling down.

-What if we don't get it?

-I hope we get it. I like Cristal.

-I have eight veal away now.

-Yeah.

-And two sole.

At the Midland Hotel, Simon Rogan's restaurant, The French,

has been open for 12 weeks.

It's now entering its most testing time.

After the high-profile opening,

he needs to consolidate to try to ensure its long-term future.

-Two six-course.

-Yeah.

-Tonight we've got the choice of two menus.

His fixed tasting menus costing up to £79 are getting high scores

from some national food critics. But he's not making a profit.

It doesn't matter how many 9.5s out of 10s,

or five out of fives or 10 out of 10s.

If you're not making your food costs, then you're losing money.

So what's the point? We're here to make money.

Simon has packed the menu with expensive ingredients

to create an early buzz.

I was quite conscious of opening in Manchester

offering people value for money,

making sure there's plenty of proteins on the menu, and maybe a few

luxury ingredients to make it seem like a really, really good deal.

Plus I wanted to fill people up.

It was very important at the beginning not to have this reputation

of, "Yeah, it's really nice,

"but I needed to go to the chip shop afterwards."

I don't know, maybe I read that wrongly.

Maybe I did the people of Manchester a disservice.

Which one is the journalist?

It may be costing money,

but Simon has to make sure standards remain high.

He wants to win a Michelin star for the restaurant to raise its profile.

What table did you say they were on? Three?

The bald guy.

Inspectors are looking at consistency and quality,

and can visit in secret three or four times

before the guide is published in September.

We don't know how many inspections we've had over the last few weeks,

but we know we definitely had one on Tuesday.

We're quite confident it was up to standard.

The best thing is just to try and forget

that that thing is even going on.

The last place to hold a Michelin star in Manchester

was the old French, at this hotel.

But that was in 1974.

Two, yeah.

It's something that we want, it's something that, you know,

would be very good for our business here.

It helps to put bums on seats, without a doubt.

Two hake, 10-course.

For a young chef,

winning a Michelin star is an accolade, like playing football

for your country, and it demands similar levels of hard work.

-Have you got a cauliflower?

-Adam Reid is Simon's head chef.

You're getting absolutely drilled into the ground because I'm trying

to run around doing four people's jobs, plus run the veg section.

And getting shit from the pass at the same time.

Yeah, it's very hard.

But you wouldn't be working for somebody like Simon Rogan

if it wasn't hard work.

I might get bored of it by the time I'm 40, when Mrs Reid

has walked out on me and told me to get lost

because all I do is work,

and I just want to cook burgers from then on and make loads of money.

Start serving horse to everybody. It's always an option, isn't it?

The restaurant needs to turn a profit but can't afford

to let standards slip, and risk the chances of Michelin success.

Inside the fake cherry

you've got the palm sugar and the foie gras mousse,

-dipped in the liquid nitrogen, set in the cherry jelly.

-Cherry jelly.

And you can use the claw to pick your teeth afterwards.

Check on, two tasting menu.

Get ready on eight pigeon, yeah?

500 yards across town is Simon's rival, Aiden Byrne.

Come on, guys.

Scallops, two scallops.

A regular on cookery programmes like the Great British Menu,

he's worked in top-end restaurants since the age of 16.

Like Simon at the French,

he's offering fixed tasting menus, at £95 a head.

It's a very, very tight business.

Especially when you're playing on this, at this level.

It's almost a £3 million project.

And we need to be full function everyday

to be able to sustain that product.

It's a hard game to be in, but if you get it right,

there's nothing more enjoyable.

Aiden's been open for two weeks,

and like Simon, he's now battling to consolidate.

He is serving a menu that's theatrical and entertaining

in a bid to attract the wealthy professionals...

-Hi guys, you OK?

-..who have moved into the city centre

over the past ten years.

When you're charging people the kind of money that we're charging,

for that product,

people aren't happy with just a plate of food any more.

They need to be entertained from start to finish.

I'm guessing you drink the pea juice.

That's been one of the key factors for me for Manchester House,

is entertaining our guests.

The linguini was one of the nicest things I've eaten in all my life.

It was just gorgeous.

We just eat out just like any other punter, but this is another level.

It's wonderful. It's art, isn't it? It looks like art. Art on a plate.

-Art combined with sensual pleasure.

-It's gorgeous. Really nice.

The restaurant has cost over three million.

The menu has been created to target the Manchester market,

but, at heart, Aiden's a classically trained chef who learned his skills

in more traditional restaurants like the Dorchester in London.

There's nothing more satisfying than using every part of the animal.

And duck neck pate on the menu... "Well, where do you buy that?"

We don't, we make it.

We've actually intentionally created a butchery section,

a fish section, so we can bring all them skills

back into the kitchen and bring them all back on,

so the customers can see that we are butchering our own animals.

-It means creating obscure dishes.

-It's the tongue of the duck.

Some people say it's the best part of the duck.

It's the flavour, it's a really ducky flavour. A really intense flavour.

It's total respect for the produce from start to finish.

I don't think you can stand there, in an open kitchen such as this,

and wax lyrical about the quality of the product, when all you

have done is taken it out of a packet and put it on the plate.

Chicken jus on for this duck, please.

Put that duck back in the oven.

Aiden has opened too late to make this year's Michelin guide,

so he needs national newspaper critics

to publicise Manchester House and help fill the restaurant.

I'm genuinely quite concerned about the north-south thing,

because it's still very much in play,

with the majority of the journalists London-based.

They come out of London,

they don't go past the Watford Gap, and they see us trying too hard.

If this restaurant was in central London I would feel quite confident

that it would get good reviews.

I'm just nervous about how the whole thing is going to pan out.

Michelin-style fine dining has never made money

in Manchester before.

Big-name chefs like Raymond Blanc and Marco Pierre White

have opened and closed in the city,

unable to find a market for fine dining.

Sustaining a top-end restaurant is very expensive.

It's labour intensive and requires ingredients that don't come cheap.

So these are hand-dived king scallops, where divers go down

and just pick them up, put them in a bag,

and come back up with them.

You know, using a dredged scallop,

the quality is not what it needs to be.

The downside to that is that they're quite expensive.

The roe here, which is like the egg sac, if you like,

we dry that out to make a powder out of,

which we then dust the meat up with before we sear it.

The skirt there. You can do things with the skirts as well, you know?

I've worked at places where we take the skirt,

and we bleach it and then fry it, and it goes all crispy.

But the best bit is the muscle.

This is beyond just fine dining.

This is beyond going to a country house hotel and having scallops

and bacon, scallops and black pudding as a starter, and,

"Ooh, I got a little bit of soup for my mousse d'oie,"

or whatever it's called. This is... You come here for an experience.

Estelle? Hi, it's Mike here. You OK? Just a quick one.

Something's happening on our table in reception.

Under the flowers.

I don't know why.

Inspired by the new chef's rustic food,

the hotel florist is now using moss.

It may become an interesting talking point, but not a talking point

I particularly want people to have about the hotel.

"Did you see the moss on the table?" So we need to change that.

I need to change that.

Manager Mike Magrane brought Simon Rogan in

because his old restaurant was losing money

and his hotel needed a publicity boost.

The actual exposure that Simon's given us is just unbelievable.

It's very hard to put a cash figure on that.

Actually the exposure and the presence

that the Midland now has in people's minds,

because of the work that Simon's done, or association, massive.

Absolutely massive. I can't underestimate that at all.

Simon's new restaurant may be helping

to restore the hotel's profile,

but if it doesn't start making money in the next few months,

the owners will question the restaurant's long-term future.

Our eye wasn't on the ball when it comes to cost,

and there was lots of mistakes made,

understandably so, because, let's face it, we're in the shit.

But hopefully all those things will start to pan out now.

We've got the staff in place, we've got the menu in place.

Now we can take a look at the finer detail and how much it costs.

Food needs to cost 25% of final sales.

At the moment, ingredients are up to 40%.

-Under 25%, firstly, is that realistic?

-Yeah, it is.

That's shifting 22% of where we are now.

The cost of sales is about 40%.

I think most of the damage was done at the beginning.

It's got worse though. It hasn't got better.

-We're going to have to shift at 22%.

-Hmm.

-That's quite a big shift

from where we are.

At the end of the day, Simon Rogan can cook great food,

but if I don't return the figures I won't have a job.

We may have a Michelin-star restaurant,

but I can get sacked tomorrow. If I don't get my forecast figure,

"Well, you haven't made your forecast figure."

"I've got a Michelin." "And?"

It was majorly from the last week that a lot of stuff was cut,

so you should start to see now a big difference.

The menu costs over £70 a head,

which means the chefs have £16 to spend on ingredients.

Simon and Adam have started making savings,

but they have a long way to go.

We've cut out all the expensive things

that were not coming in at price.

We've taken a whole protein dish out of the menu

and replaced it with an egg yolk.

I mean, we've taken the veal off,

because that was coming in at the wrong price,

and replaced it with the duck, which we know we are getting the price on.

So, the 16 quid that we've got for a 10-course menu should be

well and truly hit, without a doubt.

The fact of the matter is, I've not been doing my own job

for the last four weeks. I've been doing three other people's jobs.

That's why I'm trying to say...

-It's Adam's job as head chef to deliver quality and profit.

-THEY CONTINUE TALKING

'I'm kind of the middleman that's going to get it from every side.'

And I accept that.

I'm going to get it from the hotel if I'm not hitting budget, etc,

not hitting food costs.

I'm going to get it from Simon if we're not hitting the quality

we need to hit. I'm basically going to get it from everywhere.

..I'm doing a stock and things...

But cutting costs can't mean sacrificing quality.

Essentially, if we don't hit the ground running in the first month,

we're not going to get a Michelin star.

Hmmm...

Hey!

We're going in, you're bouncing, pausing, then coming off.

We're teaching them to free pour nine different measurements

with each hand,

without the use of measures, and obviously the digital scales

to keep the accuracy as tight as we can get it.

Practice, practice, practice. It's as simple as that.

It's just doing it over and over again. Muscle memory will kick in,

and eventually it will become second nature.

But for now, a little bit of a challenge for them.

Aiden's restaurant doesn't have a big hotel to keep it afloat.

But it's owned by millionaire Tim Bacon, who has 32 bars

and restaurants in the north-west.

'You need to make sure that you plan for a difficult birth, if you like.'

You know more or less within six weeks

whether or not you've got a problem.

And if you've got a problem, it can be quite hard work.

He's hoping bar sales will help pay for the cost of fine dining.

On these shelves only.

'You can make money from fine dining, but the question is,

'how you make money from fine dining.'

It needs to be a profitable business,

so the way that we've justified that is by having the lounge

on the 12th floor,

which should be a draw, it's a marker we understand,

and hopefully the lounge will act

as an insurance policy on the restaurant,

allowing the restaurant to breathe, grow, and do what it wants to do

as opposed to, it has to be commercially driven.

In the restaurant, Tim's creating the city's first drinks flight,

a different drink to go with each of the ten courses.

-As soon as the customer sits down...

-It gets lit.

-This gets lit.

The flight will start with an alcoholic camomile tea

brewed at the table.

Pour the drink out, there goes your drinks, out comes this,

-in come the appetisers.

-Whoa.

Tim's company specialises in mid-range restaurants,

aimed at the under 30s. This new opening is a big move upmarket.

'I started in this industry as a bartender,

'and I was very bar-centric.'

When I first started my first operations,

the food was very much a secondary, Tex Mex-type style of food.

You get older - I'm now 50 -

and now is my time to actually slow down a little bit

and enjoy something that actually is a bit more civilised.

Tim's right-hand man is chef director John Branagan.

There's got to be some theatre, there's got to be a story.

There's got to be a journey. There's got to be some excitement.

You're sat in here for three to four hours.

That's a bloody long time.

In a lot of places, there is little or no theatre.

There is little or no story or anything.

And you're eating 12 courses, and it's bloody boring. It's boring.

After a while, you're like... You lose your interest in food.

-Right, what's next?

-There's got to be a bit of theatre involved in it.

-How much are we charging for our drinks flight?

-65 quid.

That's a lot of bloody money, that.

I want to be merry when I walk out of there after 65 quid.

I think it's too expensive as well. Nine units.

Let me think about this rationally. Nine units.

Customers that take the drinks flight will be looking

at a bill of £160 a head.

The question I'm asking actually, is nine units enough? Actually.

Tim is into entertainment. He's very much a showman.

Food on a plate isn't enough. Diners want more, you know?

There's television programmes, there's cookery books,

all the chefs are theatrical in themselves.

And putting food on a plate these days just doesn't seem to be enough.

That's a lovely little drop, that.

The guy owns about 40 restaurants altogether,

so he knows what people want.

Tim is using Aiden's name to help sell the restaurant,

and wants to use him to create an unforgettable dining experience.

Seeing Aiden in there, here's a celebrity chef

who is actually in his own kitchen,

cooking for you every single time you come in,

be it lunch on a Tuesday or dinner on a Saturday, and it is his food.

It's his reputation.

And all we're doing really is facilitating his talent

with a space

and then overlaying the front of house with a style, if you like.

But it is all about Aiden.

Aiden's team are working on one drink that's designed to get

the Manchester market talking, a pill that will be dropped

into liquid to create a fizzing palate cleanser.

Dextrose, xylitol,

bicarbonate of soda, lime oil.

It's a little cheeky nod, do you know what I mean,

to the '90s and the Hacienda.

It's going to go one way or another, really.

We'll see.

It's something that's a real jokey, sort of,

not-take-yourself-too-serious kind of moment.

It's not quite squeezing them together.

When we done it through the development,

it all worked fine and lovely, and we've got onto the unit

and we're struggling to get it to work and the machine to work.

Do you reckon it's the moisture in this room? It's quite hot.

-It is, yep.

-And it's making the mix sticky.

-I don't know.

-I'll leave them to it.

No Michelin-starred chef has succeeded in Manchester.

Now, two are fighting for the same unproven market.

Like Aiden, Simon is working for a big company.

Unlike Aiden, he has complete control over his menu

and the design of his restaurant.

-All right, how are you?

-Good to see you, mate, how are you going?

'I like to make my own decisions.

'I don't like to answer to anyone, really. That's the way I like it.

'With investment, you're always going to get that.'

You're always going to get someone poking their nose in,

and telling you what to do.

And that's not the way I like it, really.

So, I make all the decisions, and I would not have it any other way.

Simon wants to check out the opposition.

He is visiting with his development chef and his food scientist.

Simon's the first big chef we've had in here.

I've never cooked for Simon before, so...

He's cooked for me loads of times.

Simon is in a position in the industry where I aspire to be,

so it's only natural that I feel quite nervous about it.

Simon may have the greater reputation, but Aiden's team

have more experience of what Manchester customers want.

Say the butter's for your brioche and the consomme's for drinking.

So here I've got a warm smoked bacon and onion brioche.

Can I suggest that with your bread knife you spread the butter

onto your brioche, and then you can drink your consomme, OK?

Lovely, thank you.

Service, please.

Got a little meat fruit cherry.

When I eat, I eat fast.

Hmmm. Nice.

It's nice. It's really unusual, really different.

Yeah.

-The kitchen's very impressive. I like the kitchen. It's really good.

-Yep.

Very open. Very open.

Both chefs are classically trained,

but while Simon is transferring to Manchester the rustic style

that's won him awards in the Lake District, Aiden believes

a modern technique-heavy menu is what the market wants.

Very refreshing.

So here I've got my poached turbot

that sits on a bed of fermented sauerkraut and Morteau sausage,

-and finished off with a red wine Rioja distillation.

-Oh, sauerkraut.

Fermented sauerkraut. I think that's the difference.

He seems to be trying hard with pushing as many techniques

as possible, as many sensations and experiences.

No, I think it's really, really good.

Obviously, it's completely different to The French, which is great.

Aiden is keen to impress.

He downgraded his previous restaurant to a gastro pub

because his fine dining menu failed to attract enough customers.

-What do you think of the place?

-Yeah, it's amazing.

Yeah, really, really nice. Really impressed.

-It's different, isn't it?

-You must be happy.

-Very happy with it, yeah.

The seating is great.

'I'm certainly not going to say to someone like Simon and Dan,

'you know, "How was your meal?" And get a load of feedback.

'You automatically revert to default,'

what is common knowledge and common practice to you,

talking about the environment that you work in.

-How do you find the induction units?

-Great. Perfect.

I don't think I'd ever go back on gas again.

I mean those particular induction. Obviously we've got induction...

It looks like it's out of a catalogue for plates!

Nothing like The French. Couldn't be further away from The French.

Because there's nothing organic about it.

It looks very adventurous to be going in, to walk straight in

and produce it for however many covers, lunch, dinner, every day.

Could be quite difficult.

It's more about bells and whistles than being able to actually satisfy.

Aiden may have been nervous about Simon's visit.

But tomorrow, Tim has invited in 40 local journalists.

Their support is essential.

-See how tomorrow night goes.

-See how tomorrow dinner goes.

And if you feel it's too much for the team as it is at the moment,

give us a call and I'll come back Saturday.

Even though Simon's restaurant is still struggling to make any profit,

he has to leave Adam in charge while he goes abroad on business.

'Really I would love to have given him another week.'

We could have a critic in, or an inspector.

But I cannot be here all the time. I've got a job to do away from here.

If something goes wrong, it's Adam in charge, ha-ha. You know?

Which is more pressure, but that's what I'm here for.

I'm not here to stand behind Simon, let him do it.

I'm here to do it myself. With his guidance.

They're going to be all right, they're going to be all right.

Simon and hotel manager Mike have come to France

for another restaurant venture.

There's so many French cars, aren't there?

They've got to get their sales from somewhere.

I think we dump bags, then go and find a bar

and sit in the sun for a bit.

I always get my biggest inspiration over a cold beer.

Well actually, it's a gin and tonic, normally, but...

Before he took on The French, Simon had also agreed to open

a cheaper brasserie at the hotel.

-They're in Lyon looking for inspiration.

-Bonjour.

Simon, Mike and the head chef are visiting venues

owned by legendary chef Paul Bocuse.

He's managed to keep three Michelin stars at his main restaurant,

while opening a profitable chain of cheaper brasseries.

We'll just take this menu back with us.

The thing that amazes me about it, there's no...

There's absolutely no flashiness.

There's not really any massive detail put into interior design.

Apart from that photo, that's about as detailed as it gets.

I mean, this is it. This is what you get, you know?

To hell with interior design, it's about what's on the plate,

what's on the plate, and brilliant service.

Manchester isn't... You walk in the restaurants

they're not that simple, are they? They're all quite design-led.

They are, yeah.

There we go.

Simon's food is very English, but he's French-trained

and started out working in some of Paris' finest restaurants.

This is just a bowl of amazingly flavoured,

well-seasoned aubergines

with a herb pesto and some peppers and some pine nuts.

It's amazing.

They don't have to dress it up here.

You know, they've got 350 covers in here every service.

What do they need to dress it up for?

They do what they do, and they do it really, really well.

Thank you.

WAITER SPEAKS IN FRENCH

Carrots, risotto, asparagus...

Lovely.

Didn't realise the Rhone was such a wide river.

There's lots of people,

have you seen down there, stripped off sunbathing.

2013 has been Simon's busiest to date.

He's already got two restaurants and is opening three others.

I'm at my happiest when I'm able to do what I want business-wise,

to be able to fund what I want, any ideas

to implement them straightaway.

That's what makes me happy.

When I see my product getting better and better and better,

that pleases me.

Not... Not material things, not wealth, personal wealth.

It's about having a business

that I can be really, really proud of

and that stands with other great restaurants in the UK.

That means more to me than anything.

But with so many projects, Simon risks overstretching.

Just got to watch the projects we take on

and the demands it makes of me.

You know, I feel like I'm father to about 85 people.

I come to bloomin' Lyon and now I've got hay fever

and there's about four trees, which is a pain.

It must be coming from the hills. Coming from the mountains, blown in.

I hate pigeons as well. Bloomin' vermin.

Service, please.

Adam is working to get costs down

and has replaced expensive ingredients.

Everything I buy, times it by four,

that's how much money I've got to make.

This is what my job is. What's the point in having a restaurant

if it doesn't make money? Yeah, you've got to be aware of the amount

of money you're going to make, but in the same respect

if you don't make money, you're pretty screwed, aren't you?

For the main course, veal at £15 a kilo

has been swapped for duck which costs just five.

£450 worth of ducks I bought today. I've got to make £1,800 on that.

We've cut down on a lot of stuff,

using slightly cheaper cuts and things.

No less quality, just... To be honest, a lot of it is more work,

is a lot more labour intensive

because the cheaper things always are.

I'm going where I want it and just kind of letting go.

It's more complicated getting the best from cheaper ingredients.

The team is inexperienced, and already working 16-hour days.

You know, we're trying to get all these accolades,

but there's only so long we can go on like this.

There's only so long I can go on like this.

This is the hardest I've ever worked

and I've worked in starred level for years, you know?

I've worked hard, you know what I mean?

I've not blagged my way through life. I've grafted.

Ooh, that's comfortable. That's worth a star on its own.

In its own right it's worth a star.

What is the preset? Is the present thumb to there?

Manchester House is the most expensive restaurant

ever opened in the city.

Why wouldn't you have the water glasses on the tables?

It will need to make over 4,000 a day just to break even,

so Tim has invited the Manchester media

to help publicise his multimillion pound investment.

Journalists are going to want to look around.

I want it looking tidy in there, OK?

Aiden's playing catch-up, so it's a challenge for Aiden, you know?

It's a difficult position he's in, playing catch-up.

I think the people that come to Simon's may not be the people

going to Aiden's. I think it's going to be a different offering,

and the way he'll go for his awards and his rosettes and his stars

is going to be different to the way we'll go for them.

The environment he's going to be in will be very different as well.

Having Aiden there getting reviews,

and everyone who mentions Aiden will also mention Simon in the review,

so Simon and The French will get even more comments.

40 people will come effectively at the same time at 12.30,

but obviously there's no drinks or food orders to take.

I can't believe you're cutting grass at 10 to 12?

The artificial turf isn't going under foot,

it's going under Aiden's oyster and beef consomme.

Today he's showcasing his most complex creations,

like his prawn cocktail.

It involves the inside of a balloon being coated with a passion fruit

reduction, then frozen to make a dome.

Watch me, OK? Watch me do one.

-I'm actually just cutting it until...

-You can peel it.

Until it peels itself, kind of thing,

and starts pulling back.

You need a pastry cutter. One about that big, look.

-And I need a blowtorch as well.

-Yep.

Right, let's go, let's go, let's go. Come on.

Welcome to Manchester House.

It's something we've been working on for a long period of time now.

The menu we're having today,

rather than a traditional tasting menu it's highlights

from the a la carte menu. OK, so enjoy it, relax, chill,

and have a good time. OK, thank you very much.

APPLAUSE

It's Aiden's food, but Tim's concept.

Manchester is not a fool.

People do need to have those stories. They need to be able to walk away

and discuss it, and if we can give them five or six stories

to walk away with, they bring their friends back to experience it.

So here we have the beetroot oyster what's been fed on beetroot juice.

-OK? So you get that lovely beetroot flavour.

-Blimey.

Nice.

These are soft, mate, these are soft. No.

Shit. Do not touch them with your fingers.

Aiden's never had to make 40 passion fruit domes in one go,

and today of all days the freezer has broken down.

-Take this one.

-Take it!

We need to be more organised, Mike. That was a disaster.

So, what do we do, do we smash this on the top?

TAPPING Ooh, that was a bit too violent that, see that?

Sheila, is that hot, is it?

It's not hot enough!

A complex menu is hard to deliver during a normal service.

When 40 people are eating at the same time, it's almost impossible.

Mushrooms! Give it to me, it's no good there!

Seriously. Salsify.

Go, go, go.

Seriously, all I asked for was hot food.

His meat board costs £57 and includes steak, salsify,

clay-baked potato and a horn for gravy.

Tim's got the horn, yeah? I haven't got the horn, I need a horn.

I haven't got a horn.

A horn of plenty! LAUGHTER

-You're actually sucking on the bone.

-Are these edible?

-Yes.

That was shit. That was crap.

All the food goes out, but not every dish is complete.

But as far as Tim's concerned, the restaurant has created an impact.

My main aim today has just been looking at people's faces,

and they're blown away. It's been amazing.

Manchester has one daily paper and a very influential food website.

Aiden knows he must convince them

that his expensive menu is delivering real quality.

That was hard. How did that go so wrong on the last main course?

How? How did that go so wrong?

-Sorry. I was expecting a call, chef.

-What?

-Five minutes be ready.

I didn't realise it was going to be that...

We'll all in this together, mate, we're all watching what's going on,

do you know what I mean. That's bullshit.

We're all watching this together. Everyone is orchestrated.

All we had to do from this side is serve the meat. Ross, come here.

I got you to get ready beforehand, right?

The reason why I got you ready beforehand

is to get all your meat nice and hot, so we just go dink, dink, dink,

right? It was a disaster, and it was mainly down to you and him.

Er, what stress? Everything's fine and lovely.

'People got a little bit animated, shall we say.'

-What do you think of it, do you like it?

-Yeah, no, I love it.

Everyone's OK now. People like to blow off a little bit of steam.

My only advice to you on this one is,

towards the end of it get them to bring out some nice white bread.

Get the rest of that in there, cos this jus is the top of the tree.

Critics are not necessarily the most constructive,

but they are necessary and therefore we engage with our critics

and take on board their sensible advice

and hopefully helping us get a...

Refining our product. That's what critics mean to me.

-So you're happy?

-Yes.

-Good.

Yeah. Bit emotional before. I started crying!

I've never had a bad review of a business put one of my restaurants

out of business. But a good review can expediently increase business.

The local press can reach the Manchester market,

but they'll need a series of good national reviews

if the restaurant is to have a long-term future.

Ladies, do you like?

We were just debating.

Yeah, it's a little bit different.

Hopefully in the next couple of days, when it blossoms.

-Do YOU like it?

-Um, I like it now.

I think it'll look better when the crocuses come up,

cos it's like spring then, isn't it?

Is that happiness, then? Spring is happiness, isn't it?

There you go. It's just made someone feel happy, hasn't it? Emotional.

So it serves its purpose on that thought.

I just personally don't like the look of it.

Simon's restaurant has now been open for seven months.

-Welcome to The French. Have you been before?

-No.

And the good reviews are starting to increase bookings.

There's now a waiting list for weekend tables.

You try to get a table Saturday nights. Wow, no chance.

It's a lot more local now, the people coming in to the restaurant.

They're local diners, it's not people just shipping up from London.

So it's local people embracing the food, coming to test the restaurant.

There's growing interest in the food, but tables remain empty

because people are failing to show up after booking.

Last night we had 11 people booked who didn't eat in the restaurant.

Seven no-shows.

People who are just far too rude to actually cancel the table.

If I'm preparing 38 portions of food and 11 of them don't appear

that's a lot of money. That's £1,500 worth of potential revenue

from wine and food that I've just lost.

To try to make a profit, prices have risen.

A risk in a historically unreceptive market.

If you go for the ten course, it's £86. Per head.

Then you want your cheese and biscuits on top of that.

It's a lot of money.

I could live for a month on that.

-Perfect, yeah. Seasoned?

-Yes, chef.

Adam remains under huge pressure, still trying to bring costs down.

The duck that replaced the veal

has now been replaced with the even cheaper guinea fowl.

I've got far better things to do with my life

than stay here at two o'clock in the morning

and do a stock take. Like, going home and looking at my missus

who's asleep in bed.

Cos yet again I'm home at one o'clock in the morning.

They know they've had more visits from the Michelin inspectors.

No matter how bad you think it's going out here,

you've just got to keep on pushing because out there it looks good.

The cult of the celebrity chef

and the product endorsements that follow them

means the catering industry is awash with award ceremonies.

Tonight it's the turn of Hotel And Caterer Magazine

and Simon and Mike have had to travel down to London.

Both are up for awards.

I am a bit excited, yeah. Manager Of The Year so...

I'm actually two tables further forward this year

than I was two years ago when I was up for it.

So maybe it's less walk, I don't know. Maybe.

Maybe it's my year.

Simon's up for Restaurateur And Chef Of The Year.

Accolades that can spread The French's reputation

and draw bookings from across the country.

I'll be bloomin' PR-ing about Manchester on the back of it.

Because, you know, Chef Of The Year

and if it's Restaurant Of The Year, you know where he is?

He's in bloody Manchester now.

That's where he is. And that's the guy who's winning

these awards.

And who's the best chef around? That guy. And I'll be banging a drum.

Restaurateur Of The Year, independent.

The winner is...

Simon Rogan.

CHEERING

-Many congratulations.

-Thanks very much.

-What an achievement.

'Still nominated for another one yet,'

so might have three by the end of the night.

We move on now to Manager Of The Year.

Our finalists are Frank Arnold, the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh,

Michael Magrane, Midland Hotel, Manchester.

And Fred Sireix, Galvin at Windows...

I remember reading someone who got a Catey,

they said they had 30 job offers and they got a 20% pay rise,

so that would be very nice, wouldn't it?

The winner of the Manager Of The Year goes to Fred Sireix.

Was I gutted? Um...

Yes. Not gutted, no.

It was nice to see my name up again.

Little northern boy fighting by myself.

Great for Simon. I think they missed out on Mike.

It's time now for one of our most coveted trophies, the Chef Award.

Simon's up against Andrew Fairley and Tom Kerridge.

Our Chef Award winner has been a culinary pioneer

since he opened his flagship restaurant more than ten years ago.

Please, will you announce the winner.

Simon Rogan is the Winner of the Chef Award. Well done.

Simon is the only person to win two awards at this year's ceremony.

Cor, that's nice. Yeah.

Pretty good night on the whole, I think.

That's good, look at that.

The awards have been flooding in for The French.

12th best restaurant in the Good Food Guide,

three AA rosettes, Decanter Magazine

and Cheshire Life Restaurant Of The Year.

North West Good Food Guide Entries, 2014.

It's Rogan's Year. It's not just working

in a good restaurant any more,

it's working in one of the best.

So you know, what do you do?

It's good news for everybody. Still have to eat in the canteen

downstairs. And it still makes me feel sick.

In a week, the team will find out if they've won a Michelin star,

the award that can do more than any other

to ensure the restaurant's future.

At Manchester House, the early local press publicity is driving bookings.

Saturday night. So exciting. Yes, very busy.

Very busy. So we've got 98 people booked tonight,

we only have a 70-cover restaurant,

so we're looking at turning the earlier tables.

Our private dining room didn't sit... Excuse me.

With an average head spend of £130 per diner,

they're taking nearly £15,000 in one evening service.

There's still no national newspaper review,

but there's been plenty of internet activity.

Yeah, there's loads of stuff going up about us on the internet.

People compare it a lot with other restaurants at the moment

that are in Manchester.

Maybe The French, cos it's very different.

There's a few that say this is the best place in Manchester,

you know, kicks arse of The French.

People pop on their own photos.

We've got nine photos on there now.

A lot has focused on the service style

and the design of the restaurant.

One has criticised the way the hostesses are dressed.

They said that one of the hosts looked like a hooker,

which wasn't very nice at all.

Table 36 are journalists for The Independent, guys, yeah?

It might not be conventional fine dining...

-Three...sour cherries.

-It's a pistachio fritter.

Pistachio through the middle,

it's then wrapped in Panko breadcrumbs as well.

..but the elaborate drinks and spectacular food

seem to be making the intended impression.

Cos it is so pretty, it's like sculpture on a plate.

So beautiful, a combination of prawns, passion fruit,

and matched with this. It's sensational.

Everyone who visits has an opinion.

People at the table with their phones,

I just think is a little bit rude still.

There's a lot of people that blog,

but you've just got to make sure you read the right blogs.

There's a certain criteria, anyone can say, that's the amazing thing.

You could be in ripped jeans and a T-shirt

and you could have the most amazing palate

and do a most amazing blog, you don't have to be sat there

in a three piece suit any more.

The whole game, the whole industry's changed.

Technology is making and breaking restaurants a lot faster now

because communication is so much quicker.

Manchester House is charging £95 for a tasting menu.

The food needs to be critically acclaimed to justify the price.

One very influential blogger known as Hungry Hoss,

has criticised some of Aiden's complex dishes.

Nemo, did you read Hoss's review? What did you think?

-I thought it was reasonably fair.

-Fair, yeah.

He didn't like Aiden's pea water distillation.

Comment on Hungry Hoss's review. It tasted like tinned pea water.

And the dry ice failed to appear on his oyster dish.

Hoss's didn't work. A bit sad that one table didn't work,

but it was a really good review, all in all.

There was a couple of negative comments

but stuff that we need to work on, which is absolutely fine.

The theatrical food has been criticised

by other respected bloggers.

Aiden can't afford to risk his credibility

if the restaurant is to maintain its early success.

We're changing probably about 70% of the menu.

There's a lot of dishes on there which I think have gone on there

for the sake of theatre,

and I'm taking them off.

There's a lot of people who have commented on the fact that some of

the dishes are gimmicky.

Quite a few comments saying there's not enough depth of flavour

in some of the dishes, and it's quite a hard thing

to stomach. There's a lot lying on my head.

A three million pound project,

and I want to be really true to myself

to be able to know that I gave it my all.

I feel quite uncomfortable about standing over particular dishes.

You know, is that really me?

Is that, you know, has that got my heart...

You know, has that got my name written all over it,

has it come from deep within me?

I need to have that confidence, really.

And if I'm asking myself them questions

then I need to do something about it.

Aiden's decided to return to his classical roots.

His first new dish is hare loin with caramelised chicory.

There's no dry ice or distillations involved.

It's one of them dishes that comes from the heart.

It's time of the year, the flavours, really strong flavours.

It's the kind of food I've been cooking for a long time

and it's just making it fit in with Manchester House, really.

Hopefully the customers will like it.

There's two older gentlemen. Hare loin,

it's one of them dishes that an older generation will enjoy

and one of them dishes you don't see on the menu very often, so...

If it was on, I'd have it.

Right, two hare and a snapper away, please.

The hare goes straight onto the lunch menu and sells out.

It's proper food, innit?

It's none of this pretentious chicken breast, and rrrrr.

I like prepping it, I like eating it.

Game and things like that are more fun to prep.

Much more exciting. It looks like you've murdered somebody

but it's a lot more fun.

As the chefs learn Aiden's new dishes...

That's not how we've done it. I don't want you to throw it together.

..front of house have discovered a major newspaper critic

has booked a table.

We think we have a Mr Jay Rayner in at one o'clock with us today,

-for lunch.

-Jay Rayner is the food critic for the Observer Magazine.

It's kind of inevitable that sooner or later it will happen.

We know he's in Manchester today.

Yeah, we've got Jay Rayner in for lunch.

A good review in the Observer will announce Manchester House's

fine dining credentials to a nationwide audience,

and attract bookings from beyond the north-west.

I am extremely nervous. Just running through the menu,

what's he going to have, what's he going to have?

What don't I want him to have, what do I want him to have?

Get your hat on today, James.

Let's hope he gets Manchester House.

I hope he enjoys it, I hope he enjoys the openness of it all.

This is a perfect opportunity for us to shine, I guess.

Both restaurants are finally reaching the point

where they'll be able to tell if they've got a long-term future.

Aiden has opened too late to be considered for a star this year,

but staff at The French will find out tomorrow

if they've been awarded the industry's most coveted prize.

First, they've got to get rid of one uninvited guest.

Was it a magpie? Ah, that's why, then. Shiny and bright.

Good job he wasn't open for lunch, isn't it?

Most of the young chefs joined The French to work under Simon Rogan.

The Michelin star was always their goal.

After you've built the four, build the two.

These guys, you don't think they're working here

cos they want to live in Manchester, do you?

They're here to work with Simon Rogan,

one of the best chefs around at the moment,

or one of the most accoladed chefs around at the moment.

And they want to learn new techniques

and they want to be at the cutting edge of food.

It's very creative. What those guys do is incredibly creative.

People who become chefs at that level, they need to be recognised.

It's easy for me at the hotel cos I recognise my success

from a financial perspective.

Simon is not focused 100% financially, he's not.

He will ask about the feedback, he'll ask about the reviews,

he'll ask about what people think about his food and what he's created.

I'm comfortable being measured financially, it's what makes me tick.

It's a lot easier to be measured financially.

Simon is cooking at his restaurant in the Lake District

while he waits for news about The French.

20 past ten. Not a sausage.

The announcement will be made online at seven in the morning,

but in previous years it's been leaked.

Doing a good job this year, aren't they?

In The French, they're also checking their phones for any leaks.

They've been working 16 hours a day, sometimes seven days a week,

for eight months to get to this point.

They don't give these things out like toffee.

There's a reason they're so sought-after.

We'll find out when we find out.

Can't really think about it at the moment.

-It's the UK one, isn't it?

-Yeah.

Never believe your own hype, that's all I say.

It doesn't look like it's going to get leaked,

so you will find out tomorrow at 7am.

First thing the next day and Simon is about to find out

if he's joining the likes of Heston Blumenthal and Gordon Ramsay,

chefs with more than one Michelin starred restaurant to their names.

Oh, there you go, full list.

-His PR adviser is the first to know.

-MOBILE PHONE

Hello, Marie.

Yeah, nothing at all for The French? Bizarre.

Well, it doesn't look like we've got it.

Story got one? Oh, no.

Eric Chavot got a star?

Social Eating House got a star?

I'm shocked, shocked, absolutely shocked.

Despite all the awards and good reviews,

the mysterious men and women of Michelin have decided

Manchester is not ready for its first star.

They obviously aren't as enamoured as everybody else.

Yeah, very, very disappointing.

They're going to be gutted.

You know, it's a real kick in the teeth for Manchester.

Not just The French.

Oh, well. Now I've got to go to work

and scrape everybody up off the floor

and give them all a big man hug.

The new guide gave 13 British restaurants

their first Michelin star.

Nine of them were in London.

Michelin never gives feedback to explain its decisions.

At Manchester House, Jay Rayner's Observer review has been published.

Where is it?

"My, aren't we clever?" Oooh!

Chestnut soup with snails, smoked eel. Frogs' legs.

Some fantastic comments about the food.

Oh, he loved the frogs' legs.

It's one of the best lamb dishes he's ever had.

And the little kievs, he said they were fantastic.

As a punter, after reading this review, I would look at that and go,

"I'm going to go and give that a try."

Well, it's Aiden's food, it's just me cooking. But I think it's brilliant.

He likes the food, don't he, but he just doesn't like everything else.

While the review praises Aiden's new menu,

it's critical of Tim Bacon's restaurant design,

describing it as "overworked, self-conscious and full of swagger."

"I want to concentrate on Aiden Byrne's often brilliant cooking,

"I want to focus, but almost everything at Manchester House

"makes it a struggle to do so." That's not very nice, is it?

That's not nice.

"It's there in the service conducted by bearded men in waistcoats

"and jeans who yearn to appear informal but won't.

"And I mean this in the sweetest way, sod off and leave us alone."

"The restaurant itself is just too damn Mancunian." Really?

You don't write a review of a restaurant in Paris

and say "the restaurant was great but it's just too bloody Parisian."

Do you know what I mean? It's just... It's insane. It's mad.

You wouldn't look at that and go

"Oh, I'm not going there," would you?

Eh? There's nothing wrong with the restaurant. There's nothing wrong,

there's nothing wrong with it.

Our objective since day one is to create a restaurant for Manchester

and I believe that's what we've done.

Since the review, bookings have started coming in

from outside the north-west.

In the last two months Manchester House has been booked out

on Friday and Saturdays

and is now turning over £80,000 a week.

Tim's approach may not please the London critics,

but the people of Manchester take a very different view.

We saw a good spike in sales on the back of that review

and the reason is, he's very complimentary about the food.

Oscar Wilde said, "There's only thing worse than being talked about

"and that's not being talked about." I'm a great believer in that.

Over at The French, Adam has brought costs down to 27%

and the restaurant is finally making money.

Simon's brasserie has also opened up in the next door room.

I can't deny that having a Michelin would have been an absolute...

for me, as well, the hotel's stamp.

"This hotel's got a Michelin, the only one in Manchester."

I've got a restaurant that's got three rosettes.

I've got a restaurant that's at number eight

out of the best new entry in the Good Food Guide.

I made no money in the old French. I lost money.

I make money in The French now.

12 months on,

both restaurants have at last won the city of Manchester over

to the world of fine dining.

Manchester is not a fool.

One of the things that all these different cities don't like is

being taken for a ride, and if you come up here

you need to give it some respect

and if you do that then there's some nice gains to be made.

Hey ho, I think we've got something

that's going to be here for some time.

We're not just a fine dining restaurant in Manchester,

we're one of the country's best restaurants now.

Can Manchester sustain that? Why not?

They may be in profit, but without the elusive star in Manchester

there's still unfinished business.

Even Birmingham's got a starred restaurant. Bloody hell!