Friday five: the week's top news stories
- Mark Sargeant has departed the Rocksalt Group of restaurants that comprises four venues in Folkestone, including his former flagship Rocksalt and four countryside pubs. In a statement on Instagram the former Gordon Ramsay Group chef wrote: “I would like to let you all know and with a heavy heart, that due to unresolvable differences of opinion between my business partner and I we both feel that it’s time to go our separate ways. I shall be moving on to pastures new but the businesses will all continue as normal. It’s been the most incredible 12 years building this mini empire and I am very sad to move on but the time has come for me to find a new challenge.”
- Street Feast founder Jonathan Downey has vowed he will return to the eating out sector after saying that he had been 'completely screwed over' during the pandemic. Downey's company, which operated his four street food businesses, which included Dinerama in Shoreditch; Hawker House in Canada Water; Giant Robot in Canary Wharf; and Model Market in Lewisham, went into liquidation last year.
- US fried chicken brand Popeye's will serve a vegan product for the first time when it opens its first UK restaurant in London's Westfield on 20 November. Other menu items will include its 'signature' hand-battered chicken; a Louisiana chicken sandwich; chicken tenders; hot wings; mac ‘n’ cheese; and Southern biscuits with Cajun gravy. Popeyes’s first ever vegan product will be called the Creole Red Bean Sandwich and will comprise a 100% plant-based red bean patty, lettuce, tomato and Creole sauce in a soft brioche bun.- Roux Scholar Harry Guy will open his debut solo restaurant in Chester next summer. Called X by Harry Guy, it will be located at Wildes Chester, the 18-bedroom boutique hotel that is also launching in summer 2022 in the centre of the town. The 50-cover restaurant is described as being four years in the making and will serve a menu of ‘flavour-first’ British dishes. Guy, who won the Roux Scholarship in 2016, has worked at restaurants including Simon Rogan’s L’Enclume, Roganic, and Aulis as well as Gordon Ramsay’s Savoy Grill, Le Carré Gourmand and Mallory Court Hotel.- MasterChef: The Professionals finalist Oli Martin is to head up the kitchen at 263 in Preston, Lancashire, having left his role as head chef at Hipping Hall in the Lake District. Martin, who spent eight years at Hipping Hall, has taken on the role of executive chef at the restaurant ahead of a relaunch later this month, and overhauled the 32-cover dining room with new décor, tables, seating, bar and artwork. He says his decision to leave Hipping Hall, which holds four AA Rosettes, was driven by his want to refresh his cooking style.
