AA promotes seven restaurants to three-rosette status
The AA has announced the latest additions to its restaurant awards, with seven establishments being honoured with three rosettes.
The winners include two restaurants in London, four in the rest of England and one in Scotland.
The London restaurants being elevated to the three-rosette-status, which rewards outstanding restaurants demanding recognition well beyond their local area, include Simon Rogan's two-year pop-up restaurant Roganic in Marylebone and Michelin-starred Hakkasan's second outpost in Mayfair.
Roganic chef-proprietor Simon Rogan said he was delighted with the award. "We've only been open for seven months so it's a great achievement by head chef Ben Spalding and his team, who have worked very hard," he said. "We're very happy with the way Roganic has been received and the progress it has made and we're starting to look at other options for the future."
Acorn award winner Paul Foster, who was also named 2011 Young Chef of the Year by the Observer Food Monthly, has won three rosettes for his cooking at Tuddenham Mill in Newmarket, Suffolk. He said: "I'm over the moon. It's great because it puts us in a different category, which, after all the hard work we have put in, we deserve to be in. There are now two restaurants in Suffolk with three AA rosettes Bildeston Crown being the other], doing completely different food, so it's great for the county."
Restaurant Mark Greenaway at No 12 Picardy Place in Edinburgh is the only Scottish addition to the ranks of three AA rosettes. Chef-patron Greenaway said the award was completely unexpected. "We've only been open for 11 months so we really didn't expect it," he said. "But it's a really great achievement for the whole team, who have really pulled together. It shows that we're being recognised for what we believe in: great food at honest prices."
Meanwhile, Gravetye Manor in East Grinstead, Sussex, which last year underwent a £2.5m refurbishment after it was bought out of administration by Jeremy Hosking in 2010, regained its rosette. Sales and marketing manager Celine Jorgensen said: "After Gravetye Manor went into administration we lost all of our accreditations and it has been incredibly hard to get back to where we want to be. To have won this in such a short space of time is a great success and testament to our executive chef, Rupert Gleadow, and his team."
Finally, East Lodge Country House in Rowsley also won three AA rosettes, with boutique hotel Cotswold 88 in Painswick, Gloucestershire, where former Savoy Grill chef Lee Scott is in charge of the kitchen, completing the list.
AA Hotel Services manager Simon Numphud said he was delighted to welcome 13 further establishments into the three-rosette category.
"All have demonstrated a high level of consistency and accuracy in the overall cooking standards that our inspection team have experienced," he said. "Restaurants serving food of a three-rosette standard are worthy of recognition from well beyond their local area and I am delighted that these very deserving restaurants have been acknowledged for their efforts."
The new three AA rosette holders are:
Hakkasan Mayfair, London
Roganic, London
Cotswold 88, Painswick, Gloucestershire
Tuddenham Mill, Newmarket, Suffolk
Gravetye Manor, East Grinstead, Sussex
East Lodge Country House Hotel, Rowsley, Derbyshire
Mark Greenaway at No 12 Picardy Place, Edinburgh
Peter Lederer takes Lifetime Achievement award at the AA Hospitality Awards 2011 >>
The Latymer at Pennyhill Park wins five AA rosettes >>
AA awards 13 restaurants with three rosettes >>
By Kerstin Kühn
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