Restaurant Wars: the Battle for Manchester is a behind-the-scenes documentary series following two of Britain’s best chefs, Simon Rogan and Aiden Byrne, as they both try to open fine dining restaurants, just a few hundred yards from each other in Manchester, a city that has always resisted Michelin-style food.
In the first episode, Simon Rogan, one of the UK’s most revered chefs and famed for his two-Michelin-starred restaurant L’Enclume, takes over at The French restaurant, housed in Manchester’s historic Midland Hotel. This is Rogan’s first foray into a permanent city restaurant, but the news of his arrival and elaborate ten-course tasting menu is met with resistance by the staff and customers.
Meanwhile, across the city in a tiny development kitchen, Aiden Byrne puts the finishing touches to a menu that he hopes will put him back in to the arena of fine dining since winning a Michelin star nearly twenty years ago. First he must impress his backer who has spent three million pounds creating Manchester House, the restaurant that Aiden is set to helm.
Restaurant Wars: the Battle for Manchester is on BBC2 at 8.00 p.m. on Monday 14 April