L’Enclume Exec chef Tom Barnes is opening a restaurant in Manchester
Skof will have Michelin level food, horticultural cocktails, and absolutely no tablecloths
Several months ago, I was asked to write an exclusive on this exciting news by Skof’s PR team and to interview Tom ahead of the opening. An edited version has been published today on Manchester’s Finest. Here is my original piece of work in full:
Since the age of 18, Cumbrian chef Tom Barnes (yes, him off Great British Menu) has only ever worked in restaurants with multiple Michelin stars. He was in charge when L’Enclume became the first-ever three-star in the North in 2022 and next year, he’s opening his own restaurant, Skof, right here in Manchester.
I sat down with the world-class chef to talk about the influences that have made him the success he is - and to get some insight into his big plans for Manchester.
When we meet, Tom’s jet-lagged from a trip to Singapore. He’d been flown out at short notice to cook with his long-time mentor and L’Enclume pioneer Simon Rogan. His career has seen him not only enticing people from all over the world to the teeny town of Cartmel, but globetrotting to places as diverse as Barcelona, Hong Kong, Denmark and Croatia.
But it all started in Barrow in Furness.
Tom loves his hometown of Barrow but admits its dining scene wasn’t hugely inspiring. The nurturing of his culinary talent came closer to home: baking cakes with his grandma. A passionate cook who, now in her 80s, still does the family Xmas dinner every year.
“I'd go to my grandma's every day after school and again on a Saturday and then all the family would come round for Sunday roasts. She did pasta dishes, steak and chips. She has a local butcher that she's very proud to still give her custom to. I made a cake with her in the kitchen when I was quite young and that became ‘my thing’. When I went round there, I baked a cake.”
Tom remembers being “pretty shit” at most of his school subjects, preferring to “muck about” much to the frustration of his grandad.
“He was quite strict with my schoolwork. He would give me a bit of a bollocking. Don't get me wrong, I was a little shit at school and he was just trying to get me on the right path.
“But I remember in food technology in secondary school, it was Christmas time and I made this chocolate log. I was comparing it to the picture in the recipe book and I thought mine looked just as good. I remember taking it home and him going back for a second slice.”
This appreciation spurred young Tom to apply himself in his food tech classes, bringing home food regularly to show his ever-prouder grandad.
“I remember him saying, I'm gonna try that - because I like the stuff you make. That was the first time I got a bit of genuine praise off him that wasn’t, come on, you need to try harder.”
Further education wasn’t for Tom, so when his mum saw an ad in the local paper for a Saturday kitchen job at the two-AA-rosette Lakeside Hotel, 15 year old Tom seized the opportunity. This led to an apprenticeship under the restaurant’s head chef Duncan Collinge who had worked for five years with the Roux brothers at Le Gavroche - the first restaurant to get three stars in the UK.
Tom feels he was lucky to have had such a patient and expert teacher so early on. Learning knife skills, how to make stocks and sauces properly, butchery, veg prep and all the foundations. His laissez-faire attitude to his schoolwork just didn’t apply once he found his place in the kitchen.
“I threw myself into it. I'd turn up when all the other senior chefs started. I went in at the same time as them to do 12-hour shifts, even though I wasn't meant to. I even did a breakfast shift on the morning of my GCSE maths exam.”
To celebrate completing the three-year apprenticeship (one of just two of 12 trainees that did), Duncan took Tom for lunch at L’Enclume for his first taste of Michelin star food and told him it was time to “start ‘fucking off’ and go to work in a Michelin star place.”
Tom wrote to 10 different restaurants, eight responded and he did trials at four before choosing two-star The Vineyard in Stock Cross with John Campbell. The leap to a two-star at 18 was “brutal” and he missed his family but things only accelerated. From there he went to London to work for Phil Howard at legendary restaurant The Square.
“I learned a lot from them both,” says Tom, “John Campbell was very scientific in his approach. You could ask him, ‘Why does this vegetable go brown?’, and he would just break it down for you, the science behind it. Phil Howard was very much about the best ingredients. I suppose Simon [Rogan] is similar. [Our Farm in Cumbria, where much of the produce for L’Enclume is grown] is his big passion. He set that up to get the best ingredients possible.”
The exceptional produce from Our Farm will also be used at Skof.
Tom headed back up north to start at L’Enclume where in 2014 he won the coveted Roux scholarship. Part of the prize was a three-month stage at any Michelin star restaurant in the world. He chose Hof Van Cleve in what was then Kruishoutem Belgium (pop.7000) a restaurant that has held onto its three stars since 2005. Tom had long admired Peter Goossens approach to cooking and it was a chance to work somewhere that he might not otherwise get to experience. He cycled daily from his hotel digs to the remote restaurant.
“I was the only stagier and treated as part of the team. Peter took influence from all over the world, lots of ingredients I’d never seen before. He had eight different varieties of pepper that would go on different dishes. I’d just turned 25 and it was my first experience of getting involved in another culture, another way of life. I had nothing to do but work so I totally threw myself into it.”
Tom headed back up North to L’Enclume to be with his family when his dad was unwell.
“When he first got his diagnosis, we thought he’d only have a few months to live. Ten years later, he was still going. It had always been my ambition to work at a three star abroad and I'd never done it because of that. I sat down with Simon and said, ‘Look, I think my dad's doing all right for now. If I don't do it now, I'll never do it.’ He was very supportive.”
So Tom headed to Geranium in Denmark for a very different experience in a huge kitchen with a huge crew of stagiers of around 17 different nationalities. The diverse team learned from another’s backgrounds as well as from scrupulously detail-oriented head chef Rasmus Kofoed.
“He’d plate a dish up and I’d think, that looks good. He’d be like, nah it looks shit. I'm gonna do it again.”
Again the siren call of Rogan’s empire lured Tom back to Cartmel to “help for a little bit” at the more casual Rogan and Co. Under Tom, Rogan and Co won a Michelin star and he was promoted to oversee both restaurants.
What he doesn’t mention until prompted is that it was also under his guidance that L’Enclume won its third star making it the first ever three-star in the North and one of only eight in the entire country - five of which are in London.
“I was very proud of that, being from the North,” he smiles, “Working for L’Enclume as long as I have done and being a part of that journey with Simon.”
The Michelin criteria is notoriously elusive but Tom keeps winning stars. Does he know how to crack the code?
“No, not at all. Look at the restaurants that have got three stars and how different they are. You've got the Waterside Inn which is super classical and the Fat Duck just around the corner which is very scientific, and then L'Enclume which is very natural. I don't think anybody truly knows how it works - which is quite cool.”
In 2020, Tom appeared on Great British Menu getting through to the banquet with his Peter Rabbit main course. An obvious choice, he says, since Cumbrian writer Beatrix Potter was president of the Herdwick sheep breeders’ association. The dish’s seamless narrative and his cooking wowed judge Michael O Hare and the panel of food critics.
“I was so nervous, it’s hard to sleep. I don’t think people realise you’ve done really well just to get there. If [the film crew] notice you’re doing a job for a second time because you’ve messed something up, all of a sudden there’s four cameras in your face. I put a lot of pressure on myself as well. It does add a whole level of jeopardy knowing it’s going to go out on telly.
“But I really enjoyed it. I made a lot of good friends doing that show. I was buzzing to get to the banquet because each day you don't get by, there’s a smaller and smaller chance. By the time it came to the main course, I was thinking, I'd hate to get this far and then not get there.”
The show gave Tom a new way of looking at the creative process.
“I did a pop up at Royal Ascot. I started looking into its history and linked my dishes to winning horses. The dessert was a cream infused with hay, oats and barley - all the things horses eat. It actually tasted really nice.”
He’s applying this creativity to his Manchester menus too, exploring the history of the region to come up with Mancunian elements. But don’t worry, he’s not going full bee-themed.
In the evening, Skof will offer two tasting menus: an entry-level and a more expensive one. At lunch, alongside the tasting menus will be a snappier starter, main, and dessert for around £50. Inclusivity is important to Tom so he’s come up with these affordable options while maintaining the impeccable sourcing and skilful staff.
Skof - in the Hanover building, that gorgeous Co-Op warehouse opposite Victoria station - will have Tom’s personality stamped upon it. His identity has been intrinsic to the look and feel of the place.
“I want to make it warm, inviting and cosy,” he says, “It’s such a beautiful building so I’m trying to keep some of those natural features.”
Warm and cosy aren’t the types of descriptors you normally associate with a fine dining restaurant. But Tom is adamant that the 36-cover restaurant won’t be a stark and intimidating space where diners feel they have to sit up a bit straighter and mind their Ps and Qs.
“There will be no tablecloths, no dress code. Nothing like that. I want absolutely zero stuffiness or pretentiousness. I want it to be amazing food, the best I can do, in an environment that’s fun and friendly. People can come in and have a night out with great food and it won't be like, oh, you have to have Champagne. If you want a beer, have a beer.”
Speaking of beer, a collaborative one with a local brewery is on the cards - no spoilers yet - and Andreas Grammatikopoulos head barman at Simon Rogan’s Windermere restaurant Henrock will incorporate the farm’s botanicals into guest cocktails. The wine list compiled with help from a master sommelier friend of Tom’s will feature planet-friendly bottles in line with the UMBEL group’s ethics.
Is he worried about opening a new place when hospitality is struggling?
“If there wasn't a little bit of worry about it, I'd be quite naive. But I'm confident in what we're going to do. We've got an amazing team coming in. Sean - who worked with me at L’Enclume and opened up Roganic as well - and Max [Lawrence] - currently assistant manager at L’Enclume are going to be key to this operation. In the kitchen, I've got Connor [Dalton] and Meghan [Montibert], sous chefs at L’Enclume. They’ve already got a flat sorted and are super excited to come to the city.”
Tom himself will also be in the kitchen - unlike some ‘celebrity chefs’ who roll their brand out and then never darken the restaurant’s door again.
Recipe development has happened at L’Enclume and pop-ups around the country: Hywel Griffith’s Beach House in Wales, Roberta Hall McCarron’s The Little Chartroom in Scotland and Luke Tipping’s Simpson’s in Birmingham. Tom’s been gauging guest reactions to see which dishes are keepers.
But while the restaurant comes under the UMBEL-rella, and Tom remains a huge fan of Simon Rogan, calling him, “a bit of a legend”, this is very much a Tom Barnes production infused with his love of Manchester.
“I want a restaurant that the people of Manchester will really want to come to, that they can be proud of. I've lived here for a couple of years now and I love it. I've always loved coming to Manchester. It's always been an ambition of mine to be here.”
Where does Tom likes to eat in Manchester?
“My favourite place at the minute is Mr. Hong's BBQ. I thought Higher Ground was great. I've been to Erst a few times. I really enjoyed that. I'm mates with Sam Buckley at Where The Light Gets In.”
And in Prestwich, where Tom lives with his partner Carla,
“I love Lupo and Osma - I used to work with Danielle years ago. I love it in Prestwich, going for walks around Heaton Park. It’s right up my street.”
It all sounds like a lot of fun, but Skof’s probably going to get at least one Michelin star isn’t it? Tom doesn’t flinch at my tempting fate.
“I've worked since I was 18 in restaurants that are either two or three Michelin star level. I did that for a reason. I’m using everything that I've learned in the past and putting it all into this. We will be striving to make it the best food we possibly can using all the best ingredients from the farm. It’s an amazing team. We’re in a good place to hit the ground running.”
Skof opens in the Hanover building at NOMA in 2024.
Excellent read, when are we going ?
I see what you did there 🙂☂️☂️☂️ ... this is a really nice story (and great that you can post the full story here - without it being edited by MCR Finest). In my first proper job outside uni an ex-boss of mine (he's got MBE actually) lives around Bamber Bridge but always used to bang on about going to Cartmel races on certain weekends ... I've never really explored Cumbria but I'd quite like to try L'Enclume and then compare it to Skof, and I've also still not tried Where The Light Gets In despite already speaking to Sam in his restaurant - hopefully soon 👍