Simon Rogan's L'Enclume knocks Heston Blumenthal off Good Food Guide top spot
Chef Simon Rogan is "ecstatic" after his two-Michelin-starred restaurant L'Enclume scored 10/10 for a second time and knocked Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck off its perch at the top of the Waitrose Good Food Guide list of the UK's top 50 restaurants.
It was a double-celebration for Rogan, who in addition to seeing his restaurant at Cartmel in Cumbria move to number one, also picked up the Best New Entry accolade for The French at the Midland hotel in Manchester, which scored 8/10.
L'Enclume and the Fat Duck are the only two restaurants in the country to score 10/10 in the guide, and it is the sixth year in a row that the Fat Duck has achieved a perfect 10, longer than any other restaurant under the current scoring system, which has been in place since 1998.
Speaking to Caterer and Hotelkeeper about the news, Rogan said: "We are ecstatic. It has always been an ambition to get perfect scores in all the major guides and we managed to get the 10/10 last year which was great, so to actually go to number one this year shows that we have improved further and we are just over the moon.
"I am really pleased for The French as well. I think it took L'Enclume six or seven years to get to a score of eight and that has done it in six months.
Rogan, who is shortly due to open Mr Cooper's House and Garden, his second restaurant at the Midland, also thanked the teams behind him for helping to achieve the scores. "We have a very settled and longstanding team at L'Enclume. The backbone of the kitchen has always remained constant and we have done improvements behind the scenes this year as well," he said. "We are fortunate to have a great team and not only in L'Enclume but at the French as well - they make my life a bit easier."
Meanwhile, Elizabeth Carter, consultant editor of the Waitrose Good Food Guide
The past 12 months have seen a run of unqualified success for the Cartmel-based chef, who in October 2012 won his second Michelin star at L'Enclume, and who earlier this year won two Cateys - the Chef Award, as well as Restaurateur of the Year - Independent.
The same restaurants that made up the Waitrose Good Food Guide's top 10 in 2012 have held on in 2013, although the order has changed. The 2013 top 10 is:
1. L'Enclume, Cartmel, Cumbria. Cooking score 10. (2)
2. The Fat Duck, Bray, Berkshire. Cooking score 10. (1)
3. Restaurant Nathan Outlaw, Rock, Cornwall. Cooking score 9. (5)
4. Restaurant Sat Bains, Nottingham. Cooking score 9. (3)
5. Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, London. Cooking score 9. (4)
6. Pollen Street Social, London. Cooking score 9. (6)
7. Hibiscus, London. Cooking score 8. (8)
8. The Square, London. Cooking score 8. (9)
9. The Ledbury, London. Cooking score 8. (10)
10. Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons, Great Milton, Oxfordshire. Cooking score 8. (7)
This is the first year that the Good Food Guide has been published since it was - taken over by supermarket chain Waitrose, a move that was announced last month.
The 63-year-old annual publication, which was previously owned by Which?, now sits within Waitrose's expanding portfolio of foodie publications which include weekly newspaper Waitrose Weekend and monthly magazine Waitrose Kitchen. The retailer also operates Waitrose TV, via its website Waitrose.com, which offers cookery and gardening advice. It has also had a long-running relationship with Blumenthal, who has fronted several advertising campaigns for the chain, as well as lending his name to a range of food products.
