SO HERE comes a sea change in Manchester food.
Rogan's food is a sweet assault on the senses.
We keep getting better as a city centre when it comes to food and drink. We are probably one of the best cities in Europe for range of food and for mid-range quality.
We have excellent fine dining at 63 Degrees and Michael Caines at Abode - outside the city centre at Aumbry too - but these hotspots are relatively isolated.
Simon Rogan at The French in The Midland Hotel takes this quality on, takes Manchester a foodie lurch forward.
The complexity, sophistication, craft and care shown in the dishes from the two star Michelin chef from Cartmel's L'Enclume is astounding. The pictures here are the evidence.
This is food as the complete culinary experience; taste, presentation but also, massively, aroma.
Ox in charcoal oil, pumpkin seed, kohlrabi and sunflower shoots
Rogan's food is a sweet assault on the senses.
But this is not a review of the meal. Confidential can't do that because the meal was hosted by The Midland and unlike others, media and bloggers, we can't score the food unless we pay for it ourselves. That would be cheating.
But look at the pictures here folks. Wow.
The only note of controversy from an evening of jaw-dropping nosh and excellent service was the huge physical change wrought in The French. Those huge light-fittings are wonderful but the carpet is...er...challenging, fake timber, a fabric lamination. Yer what?
But this isn't a review, as we say, this is a documentary in pictures of the most exciting food opening in Manchester for a long while.
The French re-opens to the public on Tuesday 12 March. The opening times will be Tuesday–Saturday, with a lunch menu served between noon and 2pm, and dinner sitting starting at 6.30pm and finishing at 9.30pm. Prices: lunch, £29 for three courses, £55 for six courses; dinner, £55 for six courses or £79 for ten courses.
Confidential broke the news about Rogan in this article - click here.
To book for a meal at The French - click here.
The design of The French definitely has balls
Hazelnut biscuit, smoked eel, leek, onion ashes - yes onion ashes
Butter on a crag
Artichoke broth with truffle dumplings, bacon, radish, hazelnut
Fresh crab and caramelised cabbage, horseradish, chicken skin with crow garlic
Wine for the tasting menu - on this occasion
Early spring offerings, vegetables, beetroot, flowers, lovage salt
Fabric lamination carpet - good idea?
Sole fillet with onions, smoke scallops, parsley, leeks
Studded Cumbrian rose veal, blewitt mushrooms, split pea, sorrel
Pear, meadowsweet and rye, buttermilk, linseeds
Meringue with sarsaparilla - the most difficult word to spell in the world
The French paintjob
The French - as it was
The French - let there be light
Razor clam reversal
You can follow Jonathan Schofield on Twitter here @JonathSchofield or connect via Google+
