Chef Michael Caines (pictured) has won many awards on his rise to the top of his profession, but none of them were quite as unexpected as his most recent; being voted a ‘Piccadilly Champion’ following an online vote at piccadillymanchester.com.

Piccadillymanchester.com recently met up with Caines to welcome him as a champion for the area and to interview him about Piccadilly, Michelin stars and The Great British Menu.

PP: How does it feel being crowned a Piccadilly Champion?

MC: Well it’s quite an honour; is it official, am I Mr Piccadilly?! I’ll have to start working on my swagger as I pass through the streets! As the gateway to the city, I feel it’s a great idea to have ambassadors of the area and I am very pleased to have been chosen as one of them.

PP: Just how seriously will you take your responsibility?

MC: Although I’m not based in Manchester, the need to promote the Piccadilly area is not lost on me. After all, one of my businesses is based here and the more people that visit or live in the area, the businesses located here will benefit.

PP: How do you feel your fine dining offer has settled into Piccadilly?

MC: The fine dining aspect celebrates its first anniversary here on May 1st and it’s taken the city by storm. That may sound a bit arrogant but it has picked up a lot of awards and with the Manchester population it has become the place to go in Manchester. We get a huge amount of traffic from recommendations and word of mouth, so we’re doing something right.
With the future rebranding of the café bar into a café bar and grill, we hope to capture even more of those passing by and get them in the door.

Michelin stars – is the North that bothered?

PP: There’s been some negative press about the fact Manchester doesn’t have a Michelin-starred restaurant. Is there anything in the argument that Northerners are just not that bothered about these awards and that they just want to enjoy their food?

MC: The fact is that you get a Michelin star because you have a great restaurant that serves great food, so it’s not really the people who decide!
The perception of fine dining has changed hugely over the past 5 years - the biggest problem with people aspiring to set up a Michelin-starred restaurant in the Manchester market is that they are often out of touch with the way Mancunians are; they’re not at all like Londoners where people just flash the cash. This is traditionally a working class city where people have earnt their money. Manchester as a city centre does not have the urbanisation that London has; it’s only in the last ten years that places like Piccadilly, in particular, where old warehouses have been turned into city centre dwellings where there has been urbanisation. This brings a very different kind of feel to a city centre but also gives you a dilemma – you don’t have a critical mass living and working within the centre of Manchester, you tend to find people living on the periphery and therefore these communities become an obvious place to have a restaurant because it can sustain a lot of business of an evening.

The problem with industrial heartlands is that money tends to be on the outside; countryhouses such as Northcote Manor and in Preston where Paul Heathcote had his [restaurant], but what you actually get is the desert-effect in the inner city with less people living there.

Also these days people tend to power lunch - the market for lunch has somewhat dwindled a little bit; but the restaurant scene’s moved on a lot and Mancunians are looking for something slightly more informal, people don’t want to be told what to wear, they want to look good in a pair of jeans for instance.

PP: What about the failure of Manchester to retain its stars?

I felt the reason those restaurants failed was because they were very pretentious and dictatorial; first of all they made a big statement about getting a Michelin star and then felt that to get it you had to be stern with customers; you can’t do this or that etc…

The people of Manchester in particular will say ‘I’ll wear my money how I want to’ and if that’s not good enough then we’ll go somewhere else. I just don’t think the concept’s been right from the restaurateur’s perspective.

Another element is of course the food and the service; you’ve got the feel of the restaurant and then the quality of the establishment; but nobody has really got the balance of the environment, the service, the establishment and of course the quality of the food, which is ultimately what people want at a price they feel they get value for. Now the value of good food is great service and a wonderful setting, that’s the added value – I always knew that the food element was something I could apply myself to being who I am and so we purposely went about opening in what was a club, and what is an old warehouse right here near the [Piccadilly] Basin something that I felt would fit Manchester and our Piccadilly location.

There was an element of retaining history – we wanted people to have a sense of the history behind the building and the quality of the hotel; but give them these qualities in an informal way.
Food that also relates to the people of Manchester; great flavours, great produce, all sourced locally and regionally, so not be condescending and fly in produce from all across the country – because there’s great produce all across the area that we need to use – be that Farmer Sharp or Reg Johnson or fish from Fleetwood, but there’s enough local produce …that really makes this a product of the people of Manchester and the way they live their lives; that way it becomes part of the social fabric of Manchester because good restaurants are always frequented by local people.

PP: Did you do any research about Piccadilly before you arrived? Has the economic situation affected your business significantly?

MC: We were slightly lucky in being able to buy this hotel in this location. We had done our research previously in Manchester 2 years earlier; we’d come up and looked at a development in Manchester and we just felt that that particular development wasn’t really where we wanted to be and when we looked at Piccadilly we just felt the city and element of regeneration was moving this way.
The property suited our portfolio of individual hotels that have their own character and easily fit within the fabric of what Manchester historically was and is becoming again, so we feel our timing is representative of the fact that Piccadilly is regenerating; we are slightly ahead of our time.

Certainly I think the downturn in the economy has caught us in a transition but it’s a transition that has gone beyond 75% and it’s just tidying up the other 25% and giving it cohesion which will make the difference and I think a lot of that is through incentives such as the Piccadilly Partnership because if someone says to me ‘oh I’d never have thought to eat out in Piccadilly’ or ‘who’d have thought you’d have such a fine establishment in Piccadilly’ I know that is changing. The perception of Piccadilly in the city is perhaps not one where you’d come to frequent and have fine food and fine wine, but actually the plans for the continued regeneration of Piccadilly will make it, I think, a very desirable area to work and live; those who need to commute out of the city or live within the city feel Piccadilly is so convenient…there’s a lovely canal setting just nearby and the way the character of the building has been maintained also give it a real sense of it being Manchester as it was, rather than them being knocked down the warehouses and erecting brand new buildings.

PP: What do you think about the debate of there being more new buildings in Piccadilly, resulting in a loss of older buildings?

MC: I think Piccadilly as an area that really embraces the past and the future of Manchester. Currently I know there is a good mix of both and long may that be the case, so long as it works for the area.

PP: You’re in the city for one of your ‘Dinner with Michael Caines’ evenings, tell us a bit about those events

MC: Well, on the evening Steve Edwards, who I’ve worked alongside for years, organises the front of house but his main passion is wine; he is out front to Michael Caines what I am in the kitchen; he’s my eyes and ears out front and together we have been working on these evenings. We co-host an evening; Ian [Matfin], the executive chef, puts a menu together and I’ll come out and explain what each course is

PP: Do you actually cook it?

MC: Yes, I cook, I’ll be in my chef whites, don’t worry!

It’s all about food and wine matching and discovering different wines and different foods together and really it’s also a chance for me to meet everybody; our regulars, it’s a great opportunity for me to come and be visible in the business; I have been absent from the Manchester business, and all of them in fact, for 2 months as I’ve been in Bath re-opening one of our other hotels (which has got a Michelin star).

PP: You’ve fallen victim of the ‘celebrity’ chef label – has this worked in your favour or not?

MC: When people ask me if I cook, my answer is yes, all 16/18 bloody hours of the day! Something like this is a very personal endeavour, but then once a restaurant’s up and running you have to then allocate time to others and move on.
I do get labelled now as a celebrity chef and they have a terrible image of not knowing where the kitchen is and once they get there, not knowing what to do. I’m pleased to say I know where the kitchens are – and I designed them! – and not only do I know where they are but when I get in them I pretty much know how to cook any dish on the menu!

All of our executive chefs have worked with me and continue to develop with me the concept, the quality and the aspiration of the restaurant is always consistent because ultimately it’s my restaurant so it’s important – I design the spaces, choose the artwork, the way the layout is; all these things I’ve done – all these things are what makes it a Michael Caines restaurant; it’s not the fact that I turn up; I get to do the architectural layout and I get involved with all of this because that’s what makes it a Michael Caines restaurant; the fact I chose to not put tablecloths on, I chose for the surroundings to be very informal and relaxed.

‘Mancunians don’t suffer fools gladly’

As a restaurateur and a chef; I’m also a hotelier, entrepreneur and businessman but my craft is cooking, so I want to also create a wonderful environment that people can ultimately enjoy food. I have this great belief that great food should be accessible to everyone and I also believe in great value too. I’m trying to break down the image that you mentioned that Mancunians don’t do fine dining – they do, if presented well. What they don’t do is suffer fools gladly, they won’t pay over the top prices for pretentious waiters and waitresses poncing around serving them food that is no better than what they can get down the road for half the price.

Manchester is one of Britain’s most important cities so to simply say Manchester can’t get into the spirit of backing a restaurant that has the aspirations to have a star is wrong, but what I think is that the ground is shifting. The gastronomic temples of the past are not going to be the gastronomic temples of the future. I’m at a point now having opened restaurants across the country that I am in a unique position of how the people of Britain have changed and they get fed up of people giving them jellies and foams, [PP: who can blame them?!] they want to be nourished and food must be comforting and loving – you want to leave feeling as though you have been entertained but also that you couldn’t have done that at home – you know, the food culture in Britain now is experiencing a resurgence of interest in food and it’s important to keep that going.

Opening a restaurant in Piccadilly goes against those who said ‘don’t open a restaurant in Piccadilly’ it’s the wrong place to go – there’s no lunch trade in Manchester…going in the face of everything; there’s nothing like giving me a challenge, my life being full of challenges, it’s got nothing to do with anything except delivering the right product with the right team at the right price and making sure that people leave knowing that they’ll come back at one point in the future. And then they’ll tell somebody…

People make a pilgrimage to go to good restaurants but if we can get people in the door with the range of offers …people suddenly think ‘crikey that’s really accessible’ so it’s all about being inclusive not exclusive. It’s important that as a concept that we relate to the people of Manchester today and as a result we give them a product which fits in with their lives.

PP: You mentioned your executive chef in Manchester, Ian Matfin, earlier; has he got over his recent TV disappointment on the Great British Menu?

MC: He was gutted. He was very pleased to be involved but he was gutted. He also wanted to represent the North West rather than the North East. He was very privileged to be asked and I think what you got from Ian was a real true sense of what a great guy he is and what a fantastic job he’s doing here [at ABode Manchester] and you know he has a very honest approach to his cooking and was perhaps out-gunned by slightly slicker presentation and a dessert but I think he has a lot to be proud of, and more importantly we’re very proud of him.

It’s great that something I started in over 2 years ago with Great British Menu is now showing one of the chefs you have working for you representing the business and his region and I just think that shows how far we’ve come.
Ian worked for me for 10 years or so and there’s a huge amount of loyalty and respect and it’s also great for me to know that I’ve been able to bring one of my main strengths in Gidley up to Manchester and I think in that sense it shows that we are serious about achieving a Michelin star here, but not at any cost.

First of all we must be a sustainable business and need to make sure we get bums on seats and that we fit within that social element of Manchester as a destination. That’s not a given; what Ian turns out on a Saturday night for 80 covers with the amount of staff he’s got, to be quite frank, is a credit to him and the team and I’d like to invest more but I’ve got to take my client base with me and it does cost money to develop the business and I’m not prepared to put the prices up and then drop the customer base because I need as many people coming through the door as possible.

Piccadilly – a lunch, dinner and night out destination

We need as a collective to bring as many people to Piccadilly for a night out and as a lunch venue and we need people to see it as a place to live – those people living in and around the area know they’ve got some great restaurants they can pop into at great prices – ultimately the only way we’ll be successful is to attract the local people and that they use us for a drink or a meal; for us it’s about getting that recognition.
Part of our strategy is to become a real part of the community and in that regard anything that we can do to add to the image of Piccadilly is something that we’re very proud of.

Our aspiration to get a Michelin star is there; equally so is to be the best in Manchester. We’ve always said you just have to be the best in your local market, so the best café bar, the best restaurant, the best hotel for customer service and you’ll be the best in your local market – and before you know it, you’ll be the best in the UK.
It’s a small business thinking big; then it becomes a big business thinking small, that’s how we like to be. By virtue because we’re owner-owned we tend to be more customer-focused and that’s what it’s all about.

There’s so much competition out there, it’s important to give customers everything they want and more.

To find out more information about Michael Caines’ dining in Manchester visit www.abodehotels.co.uk/manchester/mc-dining