Friday Five: the week's most-read stories
- Matt Worswick has left his job as head chef at Gordon Ramsay's restaurant the Savoy Grill having spent just one year there. Worswick made the announcement on Twitter, saying: So my journey has come to an end at the Savoy. I’d like to thank all the staff past and present for all their hard work and dedication. I'd like to wish [Gordon Ramsay] all the very best and continued success for the future [at the Savoy Grill]." Worswick joined the restaurant, located at the Savoy hotel, in September last year having left his previous role as executive chef at The Shanghai EDITION hotel during the Coronavirus pandemic.
- Publican Dominic Jacobs, chef James Knappett and JKS Restaurants have opened a second central London pub. Located on Great Portland Street, The George follows the trio’s successful relaunch of The Cadogan Arms in Chelsea earlier this year. The historic Fitzrovia pub has undergone an extensive restoration and will reopen in two phases. The ground floor will offer ‘a quintessential British pub experience’ with a ‘traditional’ pub menu while Upstairs at The George, which will open in February next year, will offer a more refined dining experience led by culinary director Knappett.
- Portuguese chef Nuno Mendes is making a return to the London restaurant scene with the launch of Lisboeta on Charlotte Street next spring. The restaurant, which shares the name with Mendes’ cookbook, and which means ‘a person from Lisbon’, will be set across three floors in a townhouse building. The ground floor will be inspired by café culture and will feature a long, seated bar built from repurposed tram wood and topped with limestone sourced from Lisbon. Upstairs, will a be dining room with banquette seats and whitewashed walls. It will also have a space in the cellar overlooking the glass-fronted kitchen and wine cellar in the basement called The Adega, which will open later in the year. The restaurant is a partnership between Mendes and MJMK Restaurants, which owns restaurants Casa do Frango and Bar La Rampa and last year opened KOL restaurant with chef Santiago Lastra.
- UK restaurant insolvencies jumped 31% to 296 in the last quarter, up from 226 in the previous quarter. According to data from UHY Hacker Young, many restaurants have faced a cashflow crisis which may have tipped some over the edge into insolvency. After being closed for much of last year, restaurants are having to suddenly increase their expenditure, but sales have not recovered quickly enough, it says. Costs include bringing staff off furlough, restocking inventory, refurbishing the premises and repaying CBILS/BBLS loans.
- Former Ormer Mayfair chef Kerth Gumbs is back in the kitchen having been announced as the head chef of new restaurant Boiler & Co. Launched by experienced restaurateurs Adam Carr and Cesar Breton, the restaurant and cocktail bar takes its name from their love of caramel-coloured drinks that get their signature depth and body from the boilers they’re produced in, such as beer, whiskey and coffee. Gumbs, who has worked with Tom Aikens and Jason Atherton and was executive chef at Ormer Mayfair from 2016 when it launched until April this year, will oversee a menu of and small plates using contemporary cooking methods with dishes inspired by his Caribbean island home Anguilla.
