LATEST NEWS

Paul & Katie Depart With Our Best Wishes

Paul and Katie have now left Juniper with our very best wishes for the future. Their departure has prompted us to temporarily close the restaurant as we prepare and implement our future plans for Juniper. We will keep you posted via the website and through our email newsletter – if you are not already signed up for this you can register via the Information section.

Paul & Katie Set To Say 'Adieu To Alty'

Before Paul and Katie move on to pastures new they've lined up a tantalising array of menus to celebrate their 12 highly acclaimed years at Juniper. Every night in April there will be a fixed menu (full details are posted on the Special Events section) so that you can choose exactly how you want to say 'adieu' to the duo that truly put Altrincham on the Michelin-starred map. These range from a glamorous Black Tie dinner through to our famous Tuesday for Tables menus which offer five courses plus an amuse and pre-dessert, all for just £30. As a final twist we will offer the same menu on every Tuesday from March 11th and also on Wednesdays and Thursdays in April, right up until the 24th. Wednesdays are priced at £45 with 20% off selected wines, with Thursdays the same price with a bottle of house Champagne offered for just £20 or, if you prefer, you can have 20% off your favourite vintage. A word of advice though. News of Paul's departure has spread like petrol doused wildfire and demand for tables is sure to exceed supply - so please do book early. View full details of every April menu in the Special Events section

Paul & Katie Set For Pastures New

Well it had to happen one day…..our head chef Paul Kitching and his partner and our manager, Katie O’Brien, are set to leave Juniper in order to pursue more Michelin stars. The pair had been looking for new investment to help them reach for a second star but having canvassed a range of potential investors are now resigned to leaving Altrincham after 12 highly successful years. They are currently looking at options open to them but sadly these involve star-searching elsewhere. The news comes just weeks after Michelin confirmed that Juniper had held its star for the 11th consecutive year. We also, of course, hold four AA rosettes and were named among the UK’s top 20 finest restaurants by the Good Food Guide. Paul is sad to be leaving but is hopeful an ambitious chef will take over the reins and ensure Juniper retains Greater Manchester’s sole Michelin star. He commented: “We really wanted to stay in Altrincham but when we out to investors they tended not to be local. We don’t want to leave but we do want to move forward and gain a second star which means we have to go where the investment is. “Juniper’s current star is valid until next January so there is plenty of time for the right chef to come in, stamp his or her mark on the restaurant, and retain it.” On a brighter note, Juniper regulars will know Paul is never shy of a celebration and is busily preparing a programme of special events to commemorate 12 very special and highly successful years. “We will go out with a bang, not a whimper!” he promised. “We’ve had wonderful support from the people of Manchester over the years and want to make sure people understand how much we’ve appreciated it.” Keep an eye on your inbox and our website as we will release details shortly. Meanwhile, with the clock now ticking, those who want to savour one last taste of that Kitching magic in Altrincham should book now, as tables are sure to be at a premium. Finally, it goes without saying that Paul and Katie depart with our immense gratitude and very best wishes – may that second star be with you soon! * Visit the Special Events section to view Paul's current themed event and Tuesday for Tables menus.

GET IN THE FESTIVE SPIRIT

If you really want to get into the festive spirit this year Juniper is hosting a Christmas Eve feast which will see Paul Kitching’s famously playful culinary imagination infused with a taste of Yuletide. Our acclaimed Michelin-starred chef is pulling out the stops to get the festive season off in fine dining style. Guests will be greeted with Champagne on arrival before whetting their palate with an amuse and tackling a typically imaginative Kitching composition of layered tomato jelly, crab mayonnaise, red and yellow Peppers, ‘caviar’, yoghurt, cinnamon and nutmeg butter, sea salt and crushed white peppercorns. The gastronomic festivities will then continue with a creamy turnip and white truffle soup, complemented by lentil du pay puree, pistachios, dried summer berries and smoked back bacon flavours. For a Christmassy main Paul is set to eschew Turkey in favour of corn-fed breast of Cumbrian chicken married to a parsnip and nutmeg cream, Savoy cabbage, fresh watercress scented roasted buttered gravy, blue cheese and port Following an assiette of cheese the celebrations will reach their finale with a Christmas pudding crème brulee with clotted cream and praline ice cream, finished with bees pollen. The dinner, priced at £70 including coffee and mince pies, is just one highlight of Juniper’s festive season. As well as serving special four-course Christmas lunches(December 11th – 22nd) the intimate restaurant is hosting a Festive Winter Nuts & Spicesdinner on Friday December 21st and Saturday December 22nd and a Scottish-themed New Years Eve dinner. Full menu details can be found in the events section

TWINKLE, TWINKLE, MICHELIN STAR

FESTIVE MENUS UNVEILED With Christmas looming large Paul Kitching has unveiled details of Juniper's festive menus, including great value Christmas lunches which will be offered between Tuesday December 11th and Saturday December 22nd These offer four courses, accompanied by a little of Paul’s own mulled wine, for £25. This seasonal offering will open with a starter of creamy parsnip and truffle oil soup with carrot puree, German sausage, Cox’s apple, sunflower seeds and chives. The main course deliberately avoids the turkey ‘n’ tinsel, favouring instead a slow cooked tender breast of chicken, dressed with black sea salt, Christmas pudding, white asparagus, savoy cabbage, sweet dried tomatoes and a cardamom glaze. Following a pre-dessert of porridge oat and Glayva milk, the menu will reach its festive conclusion with a cream cheese and mincemeat crème brulee served with a snowball sorbet conjured up by rising culinary star, sous chef, Kate Johnson. The meal will also include winter bread with fennel, caraway, hazelnuts, curry, dried fruits, sea salt and brown grains, plus coffee and chocolate truffles to finish. Other festive highlights include a Festive Winter Nuts & Spices dinner on Friday December 21st and Saturday December 22nd, a Christmas Eve feast and Scottish-themed New Years Eve dinner. Full menu details can be found on www.juniper-restaurant.co.uk To reserve your table click here or call 0161 929 4008.

WEDNESDAYS ARE THE NEW TUESDAYS!

The popularity of our great value Tuesday for Tables menus has lead us to make them more widely available – for a limited period, Wednesdays Are The New Tuesdays Between October 24th and November 28th inclusive we will be making our legendary five course, £30 Tuesday menus also available on Wednesdays. Full menu details can be found in the Special Events section.

MARCO PRAISES PAUL

Legendary chef Marco Pierre White has praised Juniper's head chef, Paul Kitching. Marco, the first British-born chef to gain three Michelin stars and the youngest ever to do so, said of Paul in an interview with the Manchester Evening News: "I take my hat off to him. He won his Michelin star through hard work behind his stove without celebrity or notoriety. I much prefer to eat in a one-star restaurant where the chef is doing the cooking rather than a three-star place where you know the great man is somewhere else." Marco was returning compliments as Paul had previously praised him as the UK's coolest chef. Citing Marco's White Heat as his favourite cookery book in trade magazine Caterer & Hotelkeeper Paul said: "He was super cool. Steve McQueen in the Great Escape, Jim Morrison in The Doors and Sonny Corleone in The Godfather; they were all cool, but MPW was the coolest." Both chefs share a similar working class heritage. As the MEN reports Marco was "the kid from the Leeds council estate with the looks and tousled hair of a rock star." Similarly tousle-haired Paul was brought up in working class Gateshead and secured his first job in the industry as a pot-washer at a local Italian restaurant.

GOOD FOOD GUIDE NAMES JUNIPER IN UK TOP 20

Juniper has been named as the UK’s 20th finest restaurant in the Good Food Guide’s first top 40 listing of the nation’s finest eateries. We also collected a glowing review with the guide noting that “a visit to Juniper represents a chance to witness one of the best chefs at work in the UK having the time of his life.” The top 40 listing was determined by Good Food Guide consultant editor Elizabeth Carter and her executive team. It saw Juniper ranked higher than a number of other highly acclaimed restaurants such as Cambridge’s Midsummer House, Ludlow’s Mr Underhill’s and Gordon Ramsay’s Maze. With London restaurants excluded Juniper was ranked the 13th best dining venue. The guide comments that Juniper is the “somewhat prosaic home to arguably one of the UK’s most innovative chefs” and notes that “experimentation and innovation is everywhere." The restaurant was award a 7/10 rating which denotes a “High level of ambition and individuality, attention to the smallest detail, accurate and vibrant dishes." We are also a previous Good Food Guide Restaurant of the Year for England, hold four AA rosettes and have Greater Manchester’s only Michelin star.

JUNIPER NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRIVATE HIRE

Juniper is now available for private hire. If you would like to add the tailor-made sparkle of a Michelin star to your corporate or family event, then please contact Katie O’Brien on 0161 929 4008 to discuss how you can gain exclusive use of the North West’s most acclaimed restaurant. Alternatively you can email Katie at reservations@juniper-restaurant.co.uk.

JUNIPER NAMED CHESHIRE RESTAURANT OF THE YEAR

Juniper restaurant has won further acclaim by being named as Cheshire Restaurant of the Year by society magazine, Cheshire Life. Chef Paul Kitching collected the award from Shameless and former Coronation Street star Chris Bisson at a glitzy award ceremony hosted at Manchester’s Whitworth Hall by BBC North West’s political editor, Jim Hancock. After the ceremony Cheshire Life’s editor Patrick O’Neill showered praise on the restaurant saying: “Manchester's only Michelin star continues to amaze with gourmet menus comprising eccentric and titillating dishes. There is no doubt that Juniper is a serious gastronomic restaurant." The title is the second to awarded to Juniper by Cheshire Life which also named Paul as North West Chef of the Year in 2002. It is also the latest in a long line of regional and national commendations which aside from securing Greater Manchester’s only Michelin star includes four AA rosettes, being named as England’s Restaurant of the Year by the Good Food Guide (2003) and Restaurant of the Year by Metro Newspaper (2003). Kitching also collected the Chef of the Year title at the Manchester Food & Drink Festival awards (2003) and his restaurant is also shortlisted for Restaurant of the Year this year. Commenting on the Cheshire Life award, Paul said: “I’m delighted because myself, my brigade and our front of house team have all worked our socks off. It’s a very tough business to be in, especially at the level we operate where there is such a need and desire to deliver creative and technical perfection. That’s why recognition like the Cheshire Life award means so much to us.”

A DECADE ON & THE STAR STILL SHINES

The publication of the 2007 Michelin Guide has seen Juniper securing a major achievement – gaining and holding a Michelin star for 10 consecutive years. Juniper earned its star in 1997 just 18 months after chef Paul Kitching opened the restaurant’s doors. Since then it has gone on to secure massive acclaim including being named as the Good Food Guide’s Restaurant of the Year and winning four AA rosettes. Fellow chefs have also been fulsome in their praise among them Gordon Ramsay, Nigel Haworth, Shaun Hill, and most recently, Marco Pierre White who said of Kitching: "I take my hat off to him. He won his Michelin star through hard work behind his stove without celebrity or notoriety. I much prefer to eat in a one-star restaurant where the chef is doing the cooking rather than a three-star place where you know the great man is somewhere else." Paul himself declared his delight at Juniper’s 10th Michelin anniversary. “I’m really happy. Anyone who has or who has held a Michelin star knows just how tough it is to maintain the standards of cooking and service which the inspectors require,” he said. “This is a real blood, sweat and tears job. You’re talking hard work, long hours and a constant need to reinvigorate the menu. It’s bloody tough so I’m really proud of what I and my brigade have achieved here because it takes total commitment to every single dish to hold a star for a decade.”

THE PRICE IS RIGHT

Please note our simple menu structure which offers diners every opportunity to enjoy Juniper's Michelin-starred value. * Tuesday for Tables offers five course set menus on Tuesday evenings for just £30. See the Special Events section to view forthcoming menus. * Juniper's Prix Fixe dinners, offer three courses plus an amuse and pre-dessert. They cost £40 on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and £47.50 on Fridays and Saturdays. * Our famous Gourmet menus, which allow you to savour Paul Kitching's creativity at its best, offer eight courses for £65. Please note gourmet menus must be enjoyed by the whole table. * Every Friday and Saturday we offer three course lunches for only £22.

MICHELIN STARS SHINE FOR 10th BIRTHDAY

The Michelin stars came out when some of the UK’s top chefs celebrated Juniper's tenth anniversary at a private dinner hosted by Paul Kitching and Katie O'Brien. In all seven Michelin stars – including Paul’s own – sparkled at the 10-course gourmet celebration, whilst recently retired chef Shaun Hill, who hung up his bauble earlier this year was also in attendance. Among guests were Sat Bains (Restaurant Sat Bains, Nottingham), Claude Bosi (Ludlow’s Hibiscus), Anthony Flinn (Anthony’s, Leeds), Patrick Hanitty (The Lime Tree, Manchester), Nigel Haworth (Northcote Manor), Shaun Hill (formerly of The Merchant House, Ludlow), Robert Kisby (Le Mont @ Urbis, Manchester), Glynn Purnell (Jessica’s, Birmingham), Simon Radley (The Arkle at the Chester Grosvenor Hotel) and Michael Wignall (Devonshire Arms, Bolton Abbey). Gordon Ramsay - who unfortunately could not attend due to other commitments but who sent his best wishes - commented prior to the event that "Paul is pure talent, driven by a great creative energy; a powerhouse of the North." His praise was echoed on the night by Shaun Hill, under whom Paul worked at Devon’s much feted Gidleigh Park and who later created Ludlow’s equally praised Merchant House. “He’s done brilliantly. The danger was Juniper wouldn’t last long enough to become a success but it did, and it did because it didn’t go along the traditional path. People who touch all the right bases and do all the right things don’t produce anything exciting. He is exciting, this is exciting! Cooking is not much different to theatre – and this is the performance.!" He added: “Paul cares about food and he puts 100 per cent effort in. That’s so rare. There are plenty of people who want to be famous, loads of people who would like to appear in magazines, but there aren’t loads of people who want to put in that huge effort it takes to get there." For his part, Paul was both relieved and delighted at how the evening went. “It was absolutely brilliant, one of my best nights ever. But it was really hard work, a long, tough day for the kitchen and we couldn’t relax until the last main course went out. But then it was fantastic to see Shaun, who I haven’t seen for ages, the Manchester chefs and to get the three musketeers – Claude, Glynn and Sat – together again." The private event opened a week of celebrations with special dinners being hosted all week, culminating in a 10-course, £100-a-head black tie extravaganza being hosted on Saturday (November 19th). The events mark a decade in which Juniper has established itself as one of the UK’s finest restaurants and picked up countless plaudits. Aside from Greater Manchester’s only Michelin star – which it earned in 1997 – Juniper has gained an elite-making four AA rosettes and in 2003 was named as England’s Restaurant of the Year by the Good Food Guide which consistently awards it a 7/10 rating unsurpassed in the North West.

RAMSAY & OTHER TOP CHEFS LAUD PAUL KITCHING

Gordon Ramsay and a host of other top chefs have heaped praise on Juniper's head chef, Paul Kitching as we gear up for our 10th anniversary celebrations. Interviewed by Emma Sturgess for a Metro newspaper feature on Juniper's successful first decade, Gordon Ramsay said: "Paul is pure talent, driven by a great creative energy; a powerhouse of the North." Other leading chefs offered further praise. Shaun Hill, formerly of Gidleigh Park and Ludlow's Merchant House, said: "He's a very singular chap, he goes his own course and that can either amaze or confound you, but it won't ever bore you. I'm not surprised he's done well. He's mad as a balloon." Robert Owen Brown of Manchester's Bridge gastro-pub also questioned Paul's sanity, saying: "I think he's bonkers. The man's an inspiration. He's prepared to push boundaries, and he can only do that because he's got natural talent." The North East's Michelin-starred Terry Laybourne followed a similar theme, stating: "I marvel at what goes on inside his head. I'm normally very scathing of people who try to cook in that way but he has a real understanding of it. It comes not just from his head but from his heart, and he's got the foundation to back it up." Nigel Haworth of Lancashire's much-lauded Northcote Manor also weighed in with praise: "Juniper is a unique restaurant with a unique chef. He's very driven and he's a very intimate guy with his food. He's a one-off."

PAUL SET TO RETURN TO NATIVE NORTH EAST!

Paul Kitching is set to return to his roots to cook up a feast for North Eastern gastronomes. But fear not as he will only be spending a night away before returning to his kitchen here at Juniper! Paul has been invited to be guest chef on June 25th at super luxurious coastal hotel and spa, Seaham Hall. The invitation came after he received a hero’s welcome in April when Paul, his brigade and partner and restaurant manager Katie O’Brien hosted a “guerrilla restaurant” in his native Gateshead (see Reviews section). “We enjoyed a fabulous reaction when Juniper decamped to Gateshead and it was great to be back on my old stomping ground,” said Paul. “Afterwards I was approached by Seaham’s chef Stephen Smith who asked if I would be interested in taking over his kitchen for a night. I jumped at the chance because Katie and I have stayed there a few times and we love it to bits. There’s nowhere else like it in the North East, its state-of-the-art and in a lovely location. I’ve known Stephen for a while too. He cooks wonderfully modern food and I’m delighted he’s now got the Michelin star he’s always deserved." And the good news for fine food fans in Manchester is that June 25th falls on a Monday – when Juniper is shut – so they won’t be denied a single Michelin-starred morsel due to Paul’s Seaham sojourn!