Menuwatch: Climat, Manchester

Richardson's CV includes Gary Usher's bistros Sticky Walnut and Wreckfish, which instilled a love of "good honest cooking with top quality ingredients". He subsequently worked in a Paris restaurant run by a couple of former St John chefs, serving "the food I've always been drawn to", says Richardson, who now defines his style of cooking as "Parisian expat food".

It's no surprise, then, that his small-plates, sharing style menu includes a snack of hot, fluffy gougères. Quickly becoming "a signature dish", they are made with choux pastry and black truffle, baked to order, and topped with a snowy dusting of Lord of the Hundreds, "an ewe's milk cheese, like an English Pecorino or Parmesan. It's vegetarian, too". The finished result "has no right to be so light, given it's basically all cheese, eggs and butter", laughs the chef.

Two fat, golden hash browns are topped with salty taramasalata, "a riff on the classic St John potato terrine. We grate Maris Pipers, infuse an unholy amount of butter with dill, and mix it together with white wine and salt. Then we cook it at 160ºC for an hour and 20 minutes, press it gently, refrigerate overnight, then portion and deep-fry it". The gluten-free taramasalata is made with smoked cod's roe whipped with rapeseed oil, lemon and garlic, and piped on the hash browns with dill and lemon zest.

A vegetarian dish of roasted carrots, ricotta and smoked apricots comes with sauce Américaine, replacing the traditional seafood stock for carrot juice, though "still heavy with brandy, paprika and roasted vegetables". The accompanying ricotta is made in-house, while the carrots are braised in white wine, coriander, star anise, thyme, oregano, sugar and salt, and roasted to order.

As for meat, Richardson favours hogget or mutton over lamb for the flavour and "fat to meat reward ratio", choosing to buy the whole animal and butcher it in-house. His hogget leg with piquillo peppers, artichokes and salsa verde is served pink, using "good quality meat reared on the Swaledale moors". The piquillo peppers are mixed with onion, garlic, thyme, rosemary, sugar and 20-year-old sherry vinegar, blended with chicken stock, passed and emulsified with Spanish olive oil.

A rich, hearty Dexter short rib dish, meanwhile, sees the meat braised "in a boozy, tomato-heavy stock with red wine" overnight. "We pass it, and put the short ribs back in to soak up all that goodness. Then we sauté it in the cooking liquor, and glaze it, spoon feeding it the reduced sauce." It comes with yellow beans dressed with wild garlic capers "which we foraged, then brined for a week", and fresh chervil. Celeriac for an accompanying purée is cooked "as quickly as possible" in melted butter with cream before being blended.

Richardson believes "desserts should be nostalgic", with favourites including Black Forest gateau, peach Melba and millefeuille. His toasted hay brûlée is inspired by previous kitchen experience. "Toasting hay was something we did in Paris. We roast it at 220ºC until it goes dark and toasty, then get it in the milk and cream and infuse it, pass it off and strain it." Richardson cooks the brûlée on the stove, a method he learnt at Sticky Walnut. "You boil the cream, add it to the egg yolks and sugar and cook it, while whisking, to 84ºC. Then you pass it off quickly and add it to your moulds. It's trickier to master; you have to keep your eye on it otherwise you'd have hay scrambled eggs. But it eats better, I think." Accompanied by a purée made from English strawberries, the creamy yet light dessert feels like an elevated version of strawberries and custard.

"I love cooking for people and making them happy," says Richardson, which is evident in his creative yet carefully considered menu. He believes the Manchester restaurant scene is "getting really good, really quickly. You've got some really passionate people, maybe they've worked away in bigger places and they're coming home now. The more good restaurants there are in the city, the better for everybody".

From the menu

Snacks

• Aldaz anchovies & sambar masala 11
• Hash browns, taramasalata & lemon 7
• Lord of the hundreds gougères 9.5
• Oeuf mayo, exmoor caviar & chives 7
• Jane's dexter x aberdeen angus beef bresaola & pickled pear 12

Plates

• Cucumber, watermelon & feta 7.5
• Aubergine, dashi, parsley & furikake 14.5
• Agnolotti, potato, champagne sauce & truffle 16
• Whole sardines & sobrassada 12
• Tuna crudo, green tomato & verjus 14
• Beef tartare, oyster & kohlrabi 15
• Jane's dexter x aberdeen angus beef kofta & sumac onions 10
• Venison, creamed cavolo nero & elderberries 25
• Yorkshire grouse, leg pie, liver and heart parfait, crisps & watercress 60

Sides

• Horseradish mash & roasted tomatoes 6.5
• BBQ sweetcorn & salami XO 7
• Field 28 leaves, deep fried camembert, crème fraîche dressing 6

Sweets

• Riz au lait, gooseberries & fig leaf oil 7
• Raspberry eclair 8
• Lemon verbena posset 8
• Beef fat fudge 5

8th floor, Blackfriars House, Manchester M3 2JA

restaurantclimat.co.uk