Friday five: the week's most read stories
- Tom Hamblet will take up consecutive residencies at two Exclusive Collection properties in 2024 to celebrate his recent win on MasterChef: The Professionals. Currently sous chef at Exclusive Collection’s Camellia restaurant at South Lodge in West Sussex, the 24-year-old beat fellow finalists Kasae Fraser and Tommy Thorn to win the show last week. Hamblet’s first residency will take place at Camellia from January 3 to March 31, followed by a residency at The Avenue at Lainston House in Winchester from April 3 to June 30. Priced at £85 for three courses, the menus will feature dishes inspired by Hamblet’s ‘remarkable journey’ on the BBC One cooking competition.
- Welsh chef Nathan Davies has announced he is to leave his Michelin-starred Aberystwyth restaurant SY23. In a video posted to Instagram, a sombre-looking Davies confirmed he would be parting ways with the restaurant at its parent company, Why Not Bar and Lounge Limited, although a timescale for his departure is yet to be confirmed. Davies, who was previously head chef at Gareth Ward’s Ynyshir, launched SY23 in December 2019 having bought the site only a month before, but by March was forced to close it when the pandemic hit. The restaurant, which serves a tasting menu of foraged and local ingredients used fresh or preserved that are cooked over fire, was named by Michelin as the Opening of the Year in 2022 and was also awarded a Michelin star, having only been open for trade less than 10 months.
- More details have been released for the relaunch of Sale e Pepe as the Knightsbridge restaurant gears up to celebrate its 50th anniversary. The Sloane Square venue - which was acquired by Los Mochis owner the Thesleff Group early last year - will close for a major overhaul in January ahead of a February reopening. The redesign will be led by luxury interior design studio Hamilford Design and will reflect the evolution of the brand while keeping ‘traditional Italian trattoria and old-school hospitality at the heart’. Similarly, the menu will be updated to reflect the true ‘Italian famiglia style’ of sharing primi and secondi, with Sale e Pepe classics such as the vitello Milanese and linguine all’aragosta reimagined into larger dishes to be taken by the whole table. Toni Corricelli opened Sale e Pepe on Pavilion Road in 1974 and managed the restaurant for over 45 years. During this time, celebrity guests have included Rod Stewart, Sir Roger Moore, Priscilla Presley and Ringo Starr.
- Stevie Parle has announced he will open a new restaurant in London's West End next summer. The chef confirmed the plans in a statement to the press, however, he kept the details of the new opening close to his chest. “I’m opening a big new restaurant in the West End next year,” Parle said. “I’m not going to tell you the name, the concept, who my amazing new partners are or what we’ll be cooking but it’ll be something special for sure and it should be open by the summer. Or it had better be. I’ve created new partnerships with forward thinking farmers and growers all over the country. We have carefully-grown regenerative produce waiting for us to fire up the wood ovens.”
- Restaurants should have to publish allergy information on their menus, according to the Food Standards Agency (FSA). The FSA board agreed at a meeting yesterday (13 December) that it would like to see written allergen information be mandated in the non-prepacked sector and will be writing to ministers to discuss it further. It follows calls for ‘Owen’s Law’, launched by the family of a teenager who died after suffering an allergic reaction to a dish of chicken containing buttermilk, despite saying to restaurant staff that he was allergic to dairy.
