World-renowned Catalan chef Paco Perez will appear at NRB ahead of Pep Guardiola project
As the North’s largest hospitality show, Northern Restaurant and Bar (NRB) always attracts some culinary top brass, but 2018 will welcome its most decorated chef yet, as Paco Perez (main image) headlines the NRB Chef Live Theatre on Wednesday.
Recently revealed as the chef behind new King Street restaurant Tast, Perez is chef patron of two Michelin two star restaurants in his native Spain - Miramar in Llançà and ‘Enoteca at the Arts Hotel’ in Barcelona (where he owns five other restaurants) - and is also behind the Michelin starred Restaurant Cinc in Berlin.
Perez’s NRB appearance, his first in Manchester, will involve a cooking demonstration and a Q&A session in which he’ll talk about his cooking philosophy and his ambitions for Tast.
Regrettably, NRB is trade-only but the general public will be able to sample Perez’s culinary prowess when the Catalan restaurant launches this summer, in the unit previously occupied by the short-lived Suri.
“Having Paco bring his cuisine to Manchester is a fantastic coup for the city"
Set to open in June, the three-story venue counts Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola (Head Coach), Txiki Begiristain (Director of Football) and Ferran Soriano (Chief Executive Officer) amongst its backers and will offer an ‘authentic, affordable’ celebration of Catalan food and wine.
Thom Hetherington, CEO of Northern Restaurant & Bar (NRB) said: “As always we have a fantastic line-up in Chef Live, but I think with five Michelin stars Paco is the most decorated chef we have ever had cooking for us at NRB.”
“Having Paco bring his cuisine to Manchester is a fantastic coup for the city, and it’s fitting that he is choosing to tell his industry peers and colleagues about his plans at NRB - it’s where operators from across the region come to be inspired and informed.”
Following his midday appearance at NRB, Perez will be attending the Estrella Damm Gastronomy Congress at Victoria Warehouse; joining fellow Spaniard Joan Roca, proprietor of El Celler de Can Roca in Spain, who is apparently ‘just back from cooking at Elton John's Oscars after-party.’ Perez will be cooking arrival tapas and a tapas-style dinner with truffled duck cannelloni and green peas Catalan-style.
NRB recently commissioned a new league table examining hospitality growth in the UK, and found that northern cities occupy six of top eight places - with the ‘M62 corridor’ (Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds) seeing new restaurants and bars open at a rate almost double that of the capital. With events like Estrella Damn’s taking place here too - following the likes of London, Miami and Melbourne - clearly the North is having its moment.
Tast is set to open on King Street in June. Free TRADE ONLY tickets for NRB are available at northernrestaurantandbar.co.uk
