Friday Five: the week's top news
The combining of steakhouses Gaucho and M Restaurants will create a “three-pronged approach to expansion across the UK”, according to chief executive Martin Williams, who was speaking after Gaucho holding company Lomo Bidco - an entity owned by Investec Bank plc and SC Lowy - acquired M Restaurants for an undisclosed sum.
Approximately 20,000 chefs are leaving the profession every year, according to a report published by the Centre for London think tank, which says that the growing demand for chefs in the capital has not been matched by an improvement of culinary education or working conditions.
Restaurant MCR head chef Aiden Byrne is set to open his first restaurant in his home city of Liverpool. The Metropolitan Bar and Grill Rooms are to launch on the site of The Vincent Café and Cocktail Bar, with Byrne describing the venture as the realisation of a lifetime ambition to pay his respects to legendary venues such as The Savoy Grill and The Grill at the Dorchester.
The Ritz premier sous chef Spencer Metzger has won the 2019 Roux Scholarship. Competitors were each required to prepare and serve monkfish blanquette and langoustines with saffron basmati rice, garnished with seasonal vegetables and asparagus, with Michel Roux Jr. describing Metzger’s winning dish as “exceptional”.
The owner of Mexican restaurant group Wahaca has fallen further in to the red after posting a pre-tax loss of £4.9m for the 12 months to 24 June 2018. The company was forced to close nine of its 25 restaurants in October 2017, after more than 100 diners reportedly fell ill following a norovirus outbreak.
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