Hill wins AA's top chef title
Shaun Hill, chef and owner of Merchant House restaurant in Ludlow, Shropshire, has been awarded the Chef's Chef title in the AA Restaurant Guide 2003, published next week.
London restaurant La Trompette is favourite to be the guide's Restaurant of the Year for England, while Winteringham Fields in Winteringham, Lincolnshire, and Pétrus, in London, expect to learn that they have been upgraded to the maximum five rosettes.
The AA is notifying winners of their awards tomorrow (Friday) and the results will be publicly announced next Monday.
Hill opened his 22-seat, three-rosette, one Michelin-starred restaurant in 1994.
He runs Merchant House with his wife Anja. He cooks, she runs the restaurant and they employ only a waitress and a kitchen porter.
Hill said: "Lots of chefs think of setting up on their own. I started this place on a shoestring and I have shown it can be done."
Pétrus, meanwhile, was the subject of much publicity two months ago when it emerged that Simon Wright, the former editor of the guide, had resigned after AA managing director Roger Wood overruled the guide's professional inspectors and refused to allow the restaurant to be upgraded.
It is understood that a week later the guide admitted it was wrong and reversed its decision.
Pétrus, which has one Michelin star, is owned by chef Marcus Wareing and his business partner, Gordon Ramsay.
Winteringham Fields has two Michelin stars and is owned by Annie and Germain Schwab.
La Trompette belongs to Nigel Platts-Martin and Bruce Poole.
A Scottish restaurant that will be celebrating tomorrow is the Seafood restaurant in St Monans, Fife. It has been named Seafood Restaurant of the Year for Scotland, sponsored by the Sea Fish Industry Authority.
by Louise Bozec
Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 12-18 September 2002
