The average age in the kitchen is about 22, I believe.
We are a very, very young team,
everyone all looking towards the same common goal.
We are very lucky in the fact we have a strong full team of people
who are energised about being here every day.
My name's Connor, I'm 25.
I've been working for Tom Kerridge now for ten years on and off.
I started at 15 with a week's work experience
and now I'm head chef at The Bull & Bear.
The Bull & Bear itself is sat directly in the old trading floor
of the old Stock Exchange in Manchester.
We have a 12 seater chef's counter
which looks directly into our open kitchen.
We have a small bar that sits at the back, that's nice and snug and cozy.
And then you have the big grand dining space itself.
One thing I learnt massively through working for Tom is seasonality.
Working with the seasons is the way that you get the best ingredients.
We're trying to get as much locally sourced as we can.
We've used a couple of different local growers.
A company called Cinderwood,
small grower but they grow the most beautiful local veg.
It's all about seasons.
Seasons is where you can create the most delicious, simple but beautiful food.
The Tom Kerridge brand is using amazing seasonal food and letting it shine for itself.
That's really why I've chosen these dishes to show you today.
So the Baked Potato
is actually a dish from day one from The Bull & Bear.
It's so beautiful.
It shows everything Tom is about, essentially.
There's not many fine dining restaurants
you can go to and have a baked potato, in all honesty.
So we use a beautiful Linda potato, we roast them up in the rotisserie
then scoop them out.
We then gently mash with the back of a spoon the potato.
And then we fold that with crème fraîche, chives, cracked black pepper.
We then refill that into our potato and then on top it's a diced steak
mixed with a tartar relish, and then a confit beef egg yolk on top.
So the Soufflé is a very ingredient led dish.
The cheese sings for itself, and then we just use
a very beautifully, lightly dressed grape salad with some walnuts in it.
Very simple but brings maximum flavour to the dish.
So the Ratatouille Tart,
we start off in a little lemon brushed feuille de brick tart case.
So you get a lovely crunch at the base.
And then in the bottom of there you have a caramelised onion.
On top of that we sit a confit saffron potato,
and then we make a tomato fondue and make our own style of ratatouille.
It's like a caramelised tomato fondue
with all your veg that you would get into your ratatouille folded into it.
And then a beautifully,
just warmed through, beef tomato that's been peeled cut in half, sat on top.
And then we finish it with a basil espuma.
Then a lovely sun dried tomato.
So it's very aesthetically pleasing to look at.
It's light, but rich
it's one of those ones that puts a smile on a lot of people's faces.
Cornish Mackerel is a very simple but clean dish.
So you have mackerel that has just been salted and blowtorched, very gently.
At the base we have a grape and almond Ajo Blanco.
So we blend down green grapes, almonds, garlic, some vinegars.
So you have a slight acidity, but creaminess of the almonds
and then that slight sweetness from the grape coming through.
And then we salt-bake heritage beetroots
and then dress them in a almond and sherry vinegar dressing.
And then gently built up and that is it.
So you see very minimal on the plate
but there's an incredible amount of flavour going into this dish.
I'm Nikolai, I'm one of the sommeliers here at The Bull & Bear.
The wine list at The Bull & Bear is a selection of wines
that we're really passionate about and things that we're excited by,
that people may not always go for or choose or recognise.
And the things that we know work really, really well with the menu.
Yeah, Manchester are pretty adventurous with wine actually.
They trust us with quite a lot. A lot of people just close the menu
and say 'give us whatever' which is always great.
Some people want to go with what they know, and that's great.
We can always accommodate for that,
and you know you're going to have a good time with that.
But some people,
really want to go off the beaten track, and that's always great to see as well.
It's all about the experience.
It's the most important thing is making sure the right person gets the right wine.
Whether that be £29 or £5,900, it has to be the same experience.
Everyone wants to just cook great food, and if you're into hearty,
simple, delicious food, that's made with the best ingredients.
Tom Kerridge is the man to do it for, and luckily I've and given the opportunity
to show these guys a thing or two about what Tom does.