In Conversation With: Mark Birchall
Nestled within the Lancashire landscape, a stone’s throw from Liverpool and Manchester, the Moor Hall estate is home to not one but two Michelin starred restaurants. Sat in the private dining room of the two star restaurant, Moor Hall Restaurant with Rooms, we asked Chef Patron, Mark Birchall to reflect on his year, his path to Moor Hall and whether you should eat the cheese rind.
Interview by Thomas Sumner
Published in Issue 67
TS
So first off, how has 2022 been for you? Have there been any highlights along the way?
MB
Well, The Barn got a star, which is amazing for those guys. Moor Hall Restaurant & Rooms got classed as World Class in The Good Food Guide, which was really, really nice. We were one of three, which is incredible. And receiving the AA Chef’s Chef award, which was especially nice, because it was voted for by peers. I definitely wasn’t expecting that. You know, when you have people like Paul Ainsworth, Clare Smyth and Hélène Darroze, people who, in my opinion, are a bit more well known. So I definitely wasn’t expecting it at all.
I spent the day judging at the Academy of Culinary Arts. I got there about 30 minutes before the awards started and didn’t even think about it really. So that was nice.
TS
Can you introduce us, in your words, to the Moor Hall estate?
MB
Yeah, so we’re in West Lancashire surrounded by farmland, close to Liverpool and even closer to Ormskirk. For me, the surroundings are amazing because we’re neighboured mostly by fields full of food. We’re on 6 acres with a lovely lake and a nice garden, where we grow lots of food. Moor Hall Restaurant with Rooms is a two Michelin star and The Barn is a one Michelin star. In the Barn, we have the dairy and the butchery. Maybe one day we’ll have a bakery in there as well.
TS
Take us back to the beginning then, how did you get into the kitchen?
MB
When I was young, around 14 or 15, cooking was just becoming popular on the television. You had the likes of Gary Rhodes who had his own program; you had Ready Steady Cook with good chefs on there like James Martin, Brian Turner and Nick Nairn. That caught my eye and made me want to do a work placement at a local hotel. There was a really good sous chef there called Dave Dugdale and he taught me about ingredients. That was only a week so that made me want to go to college and do cooking. I’d pull out my mum’s cookbooks and make random things like pumpkin pie. I had no idea how to do it but I’d just figure it out. I did my college placement back at the same hotel and Dave was still there and told me about The Walnut Tree in Abergavenny where he did his placement. So I left college and worked there.
That was a really interesting place to work. It was a small team of 7 chefs and we made really interesting food. I worked with an Italian guy who was one of the first to introduce Italian food into the UK back in the 60s. We used to cook on the stove and there wasn’t an actual pass so you’d chuck the pans to the back of the stove, get a plate out of the box and dress on the stove. Front of house would just come along and whip the plates away. The food was amazing. In the Summer you’d have people eating on the bonnets of their cars if they couldn’t get a table.
TS
Any other milestones along the way, during your career?
MB
So I left there and went to Northcote. Kind of felt like I wanted to come back to Lancashire. So I spent five years working for Nigel Howarth, which was really good. The Walnut Tree really taught me how to season well, then Northcote taught me how to cook meat and fish properly. Again, I had a good time there – Nigel was in the kitchen a lot, every service pretty much. It was a tough kitchen but it was really, really interesting.
TS
What would you say makes a good kitchen?
MB
I think when kitchens are busy they’re always at their best. Generally, if you have a dip off, those are always the tougher services as it’s always about finding the right pressure point in terms of performance level. Northcote and The Walnut Tree were busy places and we were surrounded by good people who wanted to achieve the same thing. It created that really nice team spirit which meant every plate of food you served you were proud knowing that it was the best you could do. You’re just right on that knife edge, which can obviously tip quite easy (laughs).
TS
Where did you go after Northcote? Was there a stepping stone from there to Moor Hall?
MB
I left Northcote. I took a position as a head chef somewhere, which was a bit of a mistake. I did it for around 12 months. It was a nice place but I was probably a bit too young.
So I left there and went to L’Enclume up in the Lakes, which was an amazing 9 years. I saw the place grow like you would not believe. The produce wasn’t so localised at L’Enclume but we saw the development of the far, which was an amazing experience.
TS
What were the initial aims and directives for Moor Hall Restaurant with Rooms and The Barn?
MB
The goal has always been to create that world class destination. Will we ever get there? In my mind, no, because I think once you feel like you are there, you start going backwards. We just want to keep pushing forwards. We wanted it to be a place that people in the local area could love and be proud of. That was one of the big things for us.
The Barn’s a little bit different. It’s slightly higher volume. It’s a la carte, with really good quality produce treated a little simpler. We just wanted a really good neighbourhood restaurant. But over the last 5 years, it’s steadily gotten better and better. The star for The Barn is probably more of a reward for their hard work rather than a badge on my sleeve, if you will. It’s a really nice reward for the team but it’s also something for the guests to be proud of.
TS
How does the relationship between yourself and the team at The Barn work?
MB
We work really well together even though it’s a separate team with separate kitchens. At the moment we have sika deer on, part of that deer will be used in The Barn and part of it will be used in Moor Hall. The same if we have lobster on, the claws might go there and the tails will stay here. It’s great for them, as we’re all using the same quality produce and it’s a good working relationship. You know, why wouldn’t it be?
I’ve always wanted The Barn to be its own destination in its own right. I don’t want it to be a second restaurant onsite. It should be as good as Moor Hall Restaurant with Room but it should just be a different option. It’s not about them and us; it’s one team.
TS
You said then about using the different parts of the animal to create dishes at both restaurants, It’s obviously quite widely spoken about now, with the sustainability aspect. Has that always been important throughout your career?
MB
Yeah, that’s why we have gardens to grow produce so we can get really good quality food and so we can use it all. We collect from different farms around the area so we can get the best quality. If we’re using sika deers, we’re going to use all the animal. We’re not just going to bang half in a sauce or we’re not just going to buy the saddles so someone else can use the other parts or mince it into burgers or something like that. We want to showcase all of it. The animal’s been shot in the wild so you should use it all. It’s kill to order, as gruesome as it sounds. We use sustainable wild fish and always buy it whole so we can use everything. It’s about getting that balance between protein and plant based as well. It’s not a protein heavy menu, there’s a lot of plant based products as well.
TS
Was that approach what led to the green star?
MB
Yeah, it’s more about responsibility than sustainability. It’s about finding that realistic balance and doing everything you can.
Whether you’re sowing a meadow, putting bees on there or selling jars of their honey with a little packet of wildflower seeds so when you buy that honey you can plant the seeds in your garden to grow flowers and encourage some more bees. It’s about trying to create that responsible angle with everything you do.
TS
You’ve mentioned a number of chefs today that you respect from your time in kitchens past. Are there any individuals you look up to outside of your industry?
MB
For me, it’s about the team and the teamwork. Liverpool FC have won a lot of trophies recently. It’s just about teamwork, isn’t it? You might have a few outstanding individuals but it’s a whole team effort. Players like Jordan Henderson, for example, have a bit of a rough time but he does a lot for the team. I admire teams like that who are brought together. At Anfield, Jurgen Klopp really just knitted the team together and did a lot behind the scenes so I admire that.
TS
What developments have you got coming up next year onsite?
MB
We’ve just had planning permission approved to build 7 more rooms. They’re going to be lodges dotted around the site; two either side of the lake, then five nestled towards the back. They’ll be somewhere between a Scandi and a Japanese style, self contained luxury rooms…with hot tubs. Hopefully we’ll have those online, mid-to-late Summer next year. They will be lovely; they’re going to be amazing.
TS
And you’re producing your own cheese?
MB
Yeah, we launched a cheese for Christmas that’s been produced with Martin Gott from St James’ Dairy. It uses organic shorthorn milk from Strickley farm in Cumbia and washed in verbena and elderberry gin to give it that really nice orange coloured sticky rind. Then early next year, we’ll start making some hard cheeses to go in the cellar but we’ll make that here in the dairy.
The rooms and the cheeses are the two big projects for the next year. We just want to enhance what we do. We make all the charcuterie onsite so cheese is the next thing. We’re in a 16th century building, so they would have had meat hanging up in the cellar. It’s about bringing those traditions back. It also goes back to that sustainability aspect too and being as responsible as possible. Can we make cheese and use that whey in a dish on the menu? Can we produce this charcuterie instead of finding it somewhere else? Can we buy the whole pig and maybe roast the loins on a Sunday lunch and make salami out of the shoulders and press the legs and cure those? It’s about having a traditional aspect to what we offer in a modern world.
TS
Do you eat the rind on cheese?
MB
Yes, always. Unless it’s dipped in wax (laughs). You find that stronger flavour comes through in the rind.
moorhall.com
EXTRA BITE
Getting inside the mind behind a two Michelin Star kitchen
TS
How do you develop new ideas for the menu?
MB
The provenance menu is called that for a reason because we spend a lot of time sourcing the products. It’s a mixture of new dishes and Moor Hall classics. The classics will constantly be refined and improved. The other dishes may be some that have come back on the menu from the previous year which will also have been refined. So we’ll refine as much as possible and then we’ll do some new dishes in between.
How do we develop those? It’s a case of talking through them and then we’ll try them out. We don’t have a separate development kitchen. I’ve never felt the need for that. For me, the best ideas come to me when I’m just in the service and working with the products; cooking, touching and tasting things. As you’re eating things, different ideas tend to just come into your head. The guys get really annoyed with me because we’ll be really busy in the kitchen and I’ll say, “Why don’t we do this?” and then they have to run off and write it down.
Before a dish goes on the menu, we spend time trying it and tasting it multiple times. It’s not just about a plate of food, it’s also about how it gets delivered to the table.
TS
How do you nurture curiosity to keep coming up with those ideas, both within yourself and with the team?
MB
It’s difficult. Winter is the most difficult time because there’s less fresh produce about. That might be a bit unfair because Summer is my favourite time of year but it is all about the produce. We might grow something new; we might see a part of a vegetable which we don’t normally use; or we might find a new supplier. It’s about wanting to find new producers and working with new farmers and growing new things. That’s what keeps us doing new dishes and what keeps things fresh. It’s not really about techniques, although we do use a lot of different techniques to cook, whether that’s barbecuing or using a rotary evaporator. It’s about starting with the produce and seeing how you can enhance that in the best way. Sometimes you don’t have to do anything with that perfect piece of produce but it’s about how you marry up some different combinations or flavours just to make that produce sing.
TS
How do you retain consistency when it comes to that point of execution and putting everything together?
MB
Consistency is about making sure the people around you understand how you want to deliver something and trying to guide them the best way you can in a fairly pressurised environment. The other thing is probably checking everything throughout the day. Every dish is checked before it’s left the kitchen; nothing goes out without either myself or one of the senior team seeing it. That’s how it’s been from day one.
It’s nothing crazy, there’s no secret formula. You have to trust people to do something and give them the confidence to be able to do it. They have to understand it too. If they don’t fully understand it, they’re not going to be able to do it properly and if they get it wrong, they lose confidence and it’s a snowball effect. TS
Words by: Thomas Sumner
