Celebrity chef Rick Stein has paid a visit to Greater Manchester and fallen head-over-heels in love with one of the city’s newest restaurants, Higher Ground.
The legendary chef and food writer had already named Higher Ground as one of his favourite places to eat in the entire UK, but with the premiere of his new BBC series Rick Stein’s Food Stories, we can finally see him fawn over it with our own eyes.
Rick’s Manchester episode has aired on BBC Two on Friday 16 February, and also includes a visit to Bury Market.
Meeting with Higher Ground head chef Joseph Otway for lunch, Rick praised him for ‘using every part of the beast’.
Joseph had chosen to cook him a portion of homemade pasta made with a pork offal ragu, which had been a surprise hit and has become one of Higher Ground’s best-selling recipes.
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He said: “We needed a pasta dish for that evening, and we always cook with what we have available. We put the offal ragu on and I was pretty nervous about it, but it sold very well, and people loved it.”
The dish is made with pig’s heart, lung, kidney and liver, which is minced on site before being cooked in lashings of red wine and beef stock.
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Higher Ground chef Joseph Otway chatting to Rick Stein in his Manchester episode of his new BBC series. Credit: BBCRick Stein watching Higher Ground chef Joseph Otway preparing their offal ragu. Credit: BBC
Rick said of Higher Ground: “Walking into this restaurant, it’s really cutting edge. It could be in any city in the world really.”
He also told Joseph: “You’re on the money, and I’ve been in the business for a while!”
Since the episode of Rick Stein’s Food Stories dropped on iPlayer, Higher Ground has shared a statement about meeting with a ‘culinary hero’.
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They wrote: “Last year we had the pleasure of welcoming Rick Stein, one of my culinary heroes, to Higher Ground. I cooked a recipe with Rick and talked at length about how exciting it is to be based in Manchester and creating a restaurant that works with whole animal butchery and produce from our own farm, @cinderwoodmarketgarden.
“The series focuses on artisanal food producers around the British Isles and some forgotten food items. In this episode I made a ragu from all of the offal of one of the pigs we took from @janesfarmuk – a dish we had on the menu at the time.
The pork offal ragu prepared for Rick Stein by Higher Ground in Manchester
“We’re taking a pig at the end of this week so it might be back on the menu soon!”
Higher Ground started life as a pop-up at Kampus but has since put down roots on New York Street.
It’s a modern space with floor-to-ceiling glass windows on two sides, and a whole wine room where diners can pick out a bottle to take home.
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Also behind the restaurant is front-of-house man Richard Cossins and wine expert Daniel Craig-Martin. Rick said they are ‘young and just wonderful’.
And it’s not just Rick who approves of it – Higher Ground has already been added to the Michelin Guide and placed in the top 100 in the UK within months of opening.
Rick Stein just named Higher Ground as one of his favourite restaurants in the UK. Credit: Sam Harris
Speaking of Higher Ground to Conde Nast Traveller, Rick said: “This is in a really trendy part of Manchester, but I love it because Joe is one of those chefs who won’t cook anything that isn’t local.
“Of course, it’s not one of those places that won’t use olive oil because it’s not local, but the main ingredients are strictly local. I really liked it, but it’s so unlike the sort of place that you would expect me to like.”
The legendary chef said he first visited when in Manchester for the cricket, and says Higher Ground ‘really shows how much food is improving in Manchester’.
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Rick Stein named Higher Ground in Manchester as one of his favourite restaurants in the UK. Credit: The Manc Group
Rick said of the food: “I had the most delicious homemade pasta, a pappardelle with heart, liver and lungs of lamb made into a Ragu. You wouldn’t know it was made of heart, lungs and liver if you didn’t know; it was really, really tasty.
“They do organic wine, which is unusual for me, but currently trendy and apparently gives you less of a hangover.”
Rick Stein has travelled the length and breadth of the UK filming a new series Food Stories, where he’ll ‘meet the pioneers of the twenty-first century British food scene’.
And the Higher Ground team certainly fit that description.
‘Do not let Britain’s independent businesses disappear on your watch’ – Manchester bakery makes heartbreaking plea to Andy Burnham
Clementine Hall
A beloved Manchester bakery has issued an open letter to Andy Burnham ahead of the Budget begging him for help.
Barbakan Deli in Chorlton is basically an institution at this point.
The legendary bakery and delicatessen has been serving the community for 62 years, famed for its freshly-baked loaves of bread, its handmade sandwiches, and its pastries and cakes inspired by bakes from across Europe.
Posting on Instagram last night on Thursday 18 September, Frankie Dyer the director of Barbakan, issued an open letter addressed to Prime Minister Andy Burnham.
Images: The Manc Group
It read: “Dear Mr Burnham, As an independent business owner in the hospitality sector, I am begging you to please read this.
“Really read it. And seriously consider what businesses like mine are telling you before the upcoming Budget.”
It continued: “In just the last two years, we have self-funded new bakery machinery, new catering kitchens, essential repairs and renovations and opened a second retail site, creating another six local jobs. We have won more than ten national awards for the quality of what we do.
“We have invested. We have grown. We have employed more people. We have worked harder than ever. In short, Prime Minister, we are doing everything you keep asking British businesses to do.
“And our bank balance is finished. That is the reality.”
The letter finished by Dyer inviting Andy Burnham to come visit the bakery and pleading for a ‘fighting chance’ to save the business: “We need action. We need meaningful reductions in the tax burden placed on employers.
“We need Employer National Insurance looked at urgently. We need a business-rates system which allows independent high-street businesses to survive. We need VAT reform for hospitality. We need Corporation Tax to reward businesses which reinvest, employ and grow.
“And we need proper grants and incentives that help established independent businesses invest and expand — not schemes with endless criteria which most ordinary businesses can never access. We need you to do something.
“And we need more than one token gesture in the Budget. A band-aid for a bullet wound. So I am asking you, Prime Minister, to come back to Manchester and see it for yourself. Pop an apron on and stand behind our counter.
Images: The Manc Group
“Come into our bakery in the middle of the night and meet the people making Manchester’s bread while most of the city is asleep. Look at our payroll, our energy bills, our rates, our supplier increases.
“Look at what leaves our bank account every single week simply for the privilege of keeping 50 people employed and our doors open. You said you wanted a government that understood the regions. You now have an opportunity to prove it.
“Independent businesses across this country are not asking for a handout. We are asking for a fighting chance. I sincerely hope your next Budget gives us one”.
Drinks prices revealed as Manchester Airport’s first-ever Wetherspoons pub opens inside T2
Emily Sergeant
It’s official… Manchester Airport’s first-ever JD Wetherspoon pub has officially opened its doors inside Terminal 2.
The 300-seater pub – which welcomed its first customers earlier this week – is named The Belle Vue after Manchester’s historic showground.
Throughout the pub, you’ll spot design features that nod to the city’s sporting heritage – including vintage event posters and memorabilia, a ‘locker wall’ hosting trophies and other sporting exhibits, and a cricket-themed design in the carpets and bar panels.
Creating around 150 jobs in the process, The Belle Vue is the final planned new eatery to open in the airport’s redeveloped Terminal 2, marking one of the final steps in the super-terminal’s decade-long, £1.5bn transformation.
Manchester Airport’s first-ever Wetherspoons pub has opened inside Terminal 2 / Credit: Supplied
According to the MEN, pints are priced from £6.20 for Carling and Coors lager, £6.45 for Budweiser, £6.60 for Guinness, and £6.70 for Poretti and 1664 Biere.
Prosecco is £9.20 for 175ml glass and £37.10 for the full bottle, while spirts and mixers are £6.80 for singles and £10.20 for doubles.
There’s also the classic Wetherspoons tea and coffee machines, where you can refill as many times as you like for just £3.60.
“It’s a proud moment to see the final new retail unit opening in our new-look Terminal 2,” commented Richard Jackson, who is the Retail Director at Manchester Airport.
“To be rounding off this 10-year programme by adding such an iconic name as Wetherspoon to the terminal is particularly special and we know that it will prove extremely popular with passengers. We think they’ll love the nods to Manchester’s heritage in the décor and design – and of course the name.”
Daisy Jackson -
16th February 2024 
