Friday Five: the week's top news
- Chef Mark Birchall's Moor Hall in Lancashire has been crowned National Restaurant of the Year at the Estrella Damm National Restaurant Awards 2019. The Grade II listed site topped the list of the UK's best 100 restaurants, voted for by members of the hospitality industry. To see the full list visit the new National Restaurant Awards website by clicking here.
- Renowned London barbecue restaurant Pitt Cue has closed its doors after more than eight years of trading. The restaurant, which started out as a famously busy food truck in 2011, announced on Instagram that it had shut "with great sadness". A post read: "We are very proud of our role in bringing BBQ to the masses in the UK and promoting the cause of proper ethical animal husbandry."
- Jamie Oliver's UK high street restaurants may have closed, but the chef's international business is continuing to expand with the launch of a Jamie's Deli at Malaga Airport. The site is operated by food-to-go specialists SSP, which this week also bought Oliver's three remaining Gatwick Airport sites out of administration. Whether SSP decides to keep the Jamie's Italian branding remains to be seen.
- Luke Johnson, the former chairman of Patisserie Holdings, returned to his Sunday Times column to speak out about the collapse of the bakery group. The entrepreneur cast himself as another victim of the potential fraud in the company's accounts, writing that he considered emigrating after the business went in to administration. Johnson insists he had no knowledge of problems with the chain's finances and pointed a finger of blame at auditor Grant Thornton.
- Jessica Préalpato, the head pastry chef at Alain Ducasse au Plaza Athénée in Paris, has been named The World’s Best Pastry Chef 2019 ahead of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards in Singapore on 25 June. Her signature dishes include strawberry clafoutis with frosted pine and Millason cake; and ‘gue’, which features figs cooked three ways with a fig ice cream and a light biscuit.
For more of this week's news, click here.
