What the papers say | What the guides say
WHAT THE PAPERS SAY
With critics stumbling over themselves to praise both the flair and imagination of Paul’s kitchen creativity and the polished professionalism of Katie O’Brien's front of house team, Juniper will not for much longer be Greater Manchester’s best keep dining secret. Discover here just why the critics have fallen in love with Juniper.
| “Paul Kitching, Manchester Food & Drink Festival 2003 Chef of the Year, has carved himself out a justified reputation at Juniper which was – more awards – City Life Restaurant of the Year 1996…An epicurean’s wet dream.” City Life Food & Drink Guide 2004. |
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"The flavours were delightful refreshingly different and, generally, staggeringly complementary. And, apparently, typical of the chef - Gateshead raised Paul Kitching whose Juniper Restaurant in Manchester has a reputation of eclectic and surprising combinations built on skilful cooking and superb presentation.....
The courses that followed were sparkling in their originality. Smoked salmon with, among other things, vanilla cream and the main course with fillet of beef, curry and rice and fish and chips. Tiny tastes, great flavour. To tell more would spoil the surprise. Suffice to say that an open mind and a sense of fun are the final and vital ingredients.
The Journal, Newcastle, April 2007, reviewing the "secret restaurant" hosted as part of Newcastle-Gateshead's EAT! festival Click to view full review:
"Readers, if you haven't been to eat Mr. Kitching's food, go.....Gordo doesn't do perfect ten scores for food. Ever. Nothing's that good. But Juniper deserves it.....Rating: 18.5/20
(Food 10/10 Service 5/5 Ambience 3.5/5)"
Manchesterconfidential.com, April 2007. Click to view full review:
"Paul Kitching of Juniper is the Catweazle of the kitchen, full of manic energy and almost child-like invention. His dazzling 30-plus-course meals might include fillet of beef and a sweet custard tart - served on the same plate"
Olive, August 2006
"Paul Kitching’s Michelin-starred restaurant has turned this Manchester suburb into one of the north’s leading culinary adventure playgrounds. His menu has more than a hint of Heston Blumenthal about it, offering the likes of turbot with chocolate brazils, or hot cross bun soufflé with cheddar ice cream. But behind the “you what?” combinations, there’s a kitchen cooking with passion and consummate skill — and the Cheshire gin’n’ Jag crowd can’t get enough of it."
The Times, July 2006
"Michelin-starred head chef Paul Kitching is devoted to creative cookery using the finest ingredients. The tiniest morsels are flavour-packed and some dishes resemble works of art. Mr Kitching is one of the few North-West chefs seriously admired by Gordon Ramsay and co."
Cheshire Life, July 2006
"It's the long-haired Geordie's [Paul Kitching] uninhibited approach to gastronomy that really rock's the food world. He has whipped up an admiring frenzy among chefs after serving the likes of curry fudge, egg with pea puree in a plastic, disposable cup and a beetroot-mayonnaise house picture on a plate. His trademark is to proffer gourmet dishes using ingredients that many of his peers would not dare to consider. Dairylea, Horlicks and Hellmann's mayonnaise are past examples"
Chloe Scott-Moncrief, Independent on Sunday, November 2005
"It's [Juniper's 10th anniversary] vindication for Paul Kitching and partner and front of house queen Katie O'Brien, and confirmation that an ambitious, sometimes mind-boggling, restaurant can thrive in the North West."
Emma Jean Sturgess, Metro, November 2005
"Paul is pure talent, driven by a great creative energy; a powerhouse of the North"
Gordon Ramsay, Metro, November 2005
"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"
Shaun Hill, chef and former proprietor of Ludlow's Merchant House, Metro, November 2005
"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"
Nigel Haworth, Nortcote Manor's Michelin-starred chef-proprietor, Metro, November 2005
My menu was a typical Juniper confection: a bravura display, in minute portions, of Kitching's range and precision. His sense of fun was evident too: cheese risotto with a hollandaise sauce was built on a thin layer of Branston pickle. Egg in a cup with pea sauce turned out to be just that - only the cup was plastic and disposable. Mostly though the cuisine was deadly serious, and never less than an adventure. Standout dishes include scallops, fig and curry sauce, and - my favourite - a mouthful of grape juice topped with yeast foam. It's no wonder that so many other chefs are seen eating here. Kitching's output is a reference book of new ideas.
Sean Newsom, Sunday Times' Autumn Breaks supplement, September 2005.
"Tuesday lunchtime in an estate agent-lined road in Altrincham is hardly the time and place to expect some of the finest food in Britain. But Paul Kitching excels at the unexpected, and his unique style of cooking has been delighting palates in the north west for nearly a decade now. Delighting? Strike that. This is food that intrigues, titillates, stimulates and brings a smile to your face."
Simon Woods, Wine International, November 2004 Click to view full review:
"......dishes like the lamb with raisins and sweetbreads in espresso sauce are handled with an understanding that makes Juniper one of the most exhilarating restaurants in the North and arguably the UK. Portions aren’t enormous, but then that isn’t really the point and the lunch menu (£17.50 for two courses) is an absolute steal for cooking of this quality."
Squaremeal.co.uk Click to view full review:
“Chef-patron Paul Kitching sets out to amuse, tickle your sense of irony along with your taste buds; tantalise, surprise, even amaze, by indulging his whims for experimenting with tastes and textures.”
Ray King, Manchester Evening News, June 2004.Click to view full review:
"His [Paul Kitching] restaurant in Altrincham has the technical skill and elegant simplicity of a Michelin-starred restaurant woven into a culinary experience more akin to riding the Big One at Blackpool.”
Arena, June 2004
“…his [Paul Kitching] cooking – innovative, cutting-edge food grounded in an encyclopaedic knowledge of French classical cuisine – has evolved rapidly. Air-dried pineapple with modified Branston pickle? Cough medicine sorbet? Sounds unusual, tastes sublime.
Tony Naylor, The Guardian, My Manchester, May 2004
"There’s nothing in the appearance of the 34-cover restaurant itself to suggest the inventiveness coming out of the kitchen, which now employs six chefs. It’s unpretentiously smart: muted colours, large round tables and white linen. But just reading Juniper’s constantly changing menu will either produce a grin or a frown of bafflement. The combinations are unlikely, though far from random. ‘We think about food a lot, we’ve just got to get the combination of flavours [head chef Paul] Kitching says. “If we do it and it’s crap, bin it. If it’s great, it’s on the menu.’”
Simon Beckett, Independent On Sunday, February 2004. Click to view full article:
"Paul Kitching might have flummoxed the Michelin judges into handing him their coveted star as much as impressed him with his technique. His Juniper restaurant in Altrincham serves cottage pie in a thin line on a mirror, a strawberry dessert served on a toothbrush and you can enjoy lamb garlanded with Weetabix. This is food as theatre - and it all tastes fantastic. Thus far no-one's had the courage to copy him."
Sunday Times Travel Magazine Oct/Nov2003 naming Paul Kitching as Britain's 'best art-chef'.
“The hoops Kitching makes himself jump through (for instance, he wants to produce a menu with no sauces) are, in of themselves, pointless. But the by-product is this fantastic food, these dazzling displays of culinary suss. Asking why Paul Kitching cooks weird is like asking why Jimi Hendrix played weird. Because it was the fresh and exciting and daring thing to do.”
Tony Naylor, Arena, May 2003
“There is no doubting that Michelin-starred Juniper is a serious gastronomic restaurant. I am willing to go so far as to say that its chef, Paul Kitching, is on more than nodding terms with genius. But it also manages to be that very rare thing: bloody amusing….I want people to go there. It’s eccentric and tasty and truly diverting and, in a restaurant world that too often aims at some perceived notion of straight-faced quality, that has to be a good thing.”
Jay Rayner, The Observer, March 2003. Click to view full review:
"It's pyrotechnics on the plate at Juniper, in the Manchester suburb of Altrincham. Nothing seems to inhibit the imagination of chef Paul Kitching. Eight, 14, and 20-course tasting menus flow out of him like a stream, although the standard three courses are just as satisfying. The cooking is highly inventive, sometimes downright subversive, always interesting and usually delicious."
Matthew Fort, Departures. Click to view full review:
“…Paul Kitching, a great chef, cooks from his heart and, to an extent, by the seat of his pants. We went as a family, and spent five hours over a memorable 45-course meal…The less we are bound by the perceived conventions of eating, the more we will enjoy its pleasures and the more restaurants such as Juniper will flourish and serve dishes such as A Man Made Of Aubergine. Now who wouldn’t be in favour of that?”
Heston Blumenthal, The Guardian, February 2003.Click to view full article:
“If I was to name a Restaurant of the Year, it would be Juniper, with Paul Kitching’s jiving, driving cooking.”
Matthew Fort, The Guardian, December 2002. Click to view full article: |
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WHAT THE GUIDES SAY
Who better to judge the quality of Juniper’s cuisine and service than the nation’s most respected food guides? Michelin awarded Juniper its star back in 1998 whilst the AA has honoured the restaurant with four rosettes – both accolades being unique to Greater Manchester. The hugely respected Good Food Guide 2008 also named Juniper as one of the UK’s twenty finest restaurants. Here you can find out just what it is about Juniper that gets the guide books going.
"this is the culinary playground of an expressionist chef and one of the country's most renowned and talked about restaurants.......Service is equally polished and nothing less than flawless No one else comes close to [Paul Kitching's] expressional and aspirational cooking style - it's a one-off, idiosyncratic, bold, improvisational and breathtaking, delivered with masterful technique. Expect exquisite, full flavours of freshness and vitality on a repertoire of predominantly fixed-price menus that include gourmet surprise offerings (ten-course lunch, twelve-course dinner) that deliver an impromptu medley unique to each table, where one simply sits back and enjoys the ride
AA Restaurant Guide 2008, again naming Juniper as Greater Manchester's only four rosette restaurant.
Click to view full review:
"....the somewhat prosaic home to arguably one of the UK's most innovative chefs, Juniper's Paul Kitching. Based on a solid foundation of classic French cookery, there is evidence of technical excellence aplenty......Experimentation and innovation is everywhere. Only at Juniper could you get a genuinely amusing amuse-bouche (one table dissolved into a fit of giggles on its arrival).....'Unexpected and delicious', opined one reader, which neatly encapsulates the Juniper experience..."
The Good Food Guide 2008 which listed Juniper as the UK's 20th finest restaurant.
"Dazzling culinary fun.....this is the culinary playground of an expressionist chef and one of the country's most renowned and talked about restaurants....No one else comes close to his [Paul Kitching] expressional and aspirational cooking style - it's a one-off, idiosyncratic, bold, improvisational and breathtaking, delivered with masterful technique. Expect exquisite, full flavours of freshness and vitality on a reportoire of predominantly fixed-price menus tthat include gourmet surprise offerings...that deliver an impromptu medley unique to each table, where one simply sits back and enjoys the ride."
AA Restaurant Guide 2007, awarding Juniper 4 rosettes - unique to Greater Manchester
"Juniper is one of a half-dozen restaurants in the UK at the vanguard of culinary adventurism, where a solid base of modern French cooking is built upon and shifted into uncharted territory....Katie O'Brien is on hand to explain the dishes, and she leads the service with the right balance of friendliness and professionalism"
Good Food Guide 2007 awarding an elite making 7/10 rating.This rating, unsurpassed in the North West, signals a "high level of ambition, finest ingredients consistently treated with skill and imagination."
"This Newcastle United mad gentleman [Paul Kitching], aided by highly talented kitchen staff and the astute restaurant management of charming partner Katie O'Brien, is not only a whirlwind force of nature but a creative genius who constantly surprises and delights. One of his talents is to mix unexpected elements in food so cleverly that he not only gets away with it but succeeds so well that guest have to step outside to recover - well occassionally....All in all, Juniper is an epicurean's wet dream."
City Life Food & Drink Guide 2005. Juniper is the only restaurant in the guide to achieve 5/5 for its food.
"Paul Kitching has been in the first rank of that band of chefs, of whom Heston Blumenthal at the Fat Duck is the evident torchbearer, who have redefined completely what it is possible to do within the haute cuisine format.....there is no doubting the stunning technical virtuosity with which the cooking is accomplished"
Good Food Guide 2005, awarding Juniper 7/10 for cooking.
Having awarded Juniper four rosettes in the AA Restaurant Guide 2005, Peter Birnie, the AA's Chief Hotel and Restaurant Inspector praised Paul's cooking saying it “successfully delivers precise technical execution, with innovative sometimes daring combinations of top quality produce with outstanding flavours."
Juniper was one of only two restaurants nationwide to gain four rosettes in the new guide and is the only four rosette restaurant in the North West.
"...the setting for some of the most adventurous and breath taking food in the guide...This is food to make the taste buds sing and the eyes pop. Chef Paul Kitching has ambition and creativity a-plenty, combined with the technical skills to pull off some daring culinary coups.
AA Restaurant Guide 2005, awarding Juniper 4 Rosettes
"Innovation is unrelenting, but the food is invariably tasty and immaculately presented….Dishes can seem jewel like in their size and brilliance: a marshmallow submerged in a frothy pea soup; or a piece of fresh, moist cod discreetly seasoned with curry, topped by a perfectly timed scallop and set about with dots of beetroot mayonnaise, a dab of yoghurt, puddles of yeast cream and a velvet ‘kipper sauce’ adding a robust smoky depth to it all. It may sound gimmicky, but there is no doubting Paul Kitching’s mastery of all the important techniques required to produce first-class food, together with a lively sense of humour.” Good Food Guide 2004 awarding Juniper 7/10
"Imaginative, sparky and occasionally downright batty cooking ensures Juniper's place among the very best eating experiences in the North. But be prepared to be challenged and delighted in equal measure. There's no doubt that Juniper deserves its reputation as a top-flight gastronomic restaurant, but it manages to inject excitement with unusual sauces (cod with liquorice sauce or scallops with fruitcake sauce) and out-there combinations of flavours.
Time Out Eating & Drinking in Great Britain & Ireland 2004 Click to view full review: |
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“Out of all of the 1800 or so restaurants in the current guide, this has to be the most idiosyncratic, incomprehensible and downright breathtaking (it makes the Fat Duck in Bray appear conservative……Order a gourmet menu (anything between eight and 20 mini courses and you’ll certainly have terrific fun (it’s what most people do).” AA Hotel & Restaurant Guide 2004, awarding three rosettes. |
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| “By far the best restaurant in the North west’ is a typical summary…What do you make of roast saddle of Cumbrian hare with foie gras, watercress, yoghurt, Horlicks powder, sugared cashews and melon syrup sauce, or roast best end of lamb accompanied by, among other things, kidney, sweetbreads, jumbo sultanas, Weetabix and double espresso coffee sauce, other than to note a penchant for weird ideas and proprietary brands. Some of these could be a real dog’s breakfast in less skilful hands, but Kitching’s undoubted technical accomplishment ensures, for the most part, that they hang together.” Good Food Guide 2003, awarding 7/10 and naming Juniper as England’s Restaurant of the Year. |
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