The Good Food Guide has announced that Chef Simon Rogan’s restaurant L’Enclume, in the historic village of Cartmel in Cumbria, has been crowned “number one restaurant” for the fourth year running, also securing five years of perfect tens.
The Good Food Guide (GFG) awarded the restaurant top billing due to the “soaring sophistication of Mr Rogan’s cooking”, highlighting the 17-course tasting menu which offers “clever elements of technical wizardry to keep the ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ going,” with “the cooking forever breaking new ground”. Many ingredients are local and grown on L’Enclume’s own 12-acre farm.
Rogan said, “It’s amazing news to be number one for the fourth year running. I’m really grateful to The Good Food Guide for their faith in awarding us top spot once more, and appreciative for the enormous effect it has on our business. It’s a huge achievement but could not happen without a massive team effort.
'For me, it’s a privilege to lead this outstanding group of people. There’s no doubt that L’Enclume is approaching the most creative period in its history, and achieving the quality I dreamed of when I first opened its doors.”
The guide has also announced a brand new ‘perfect 10’ in the form of Restaurant Nathan Outlaw in Port Isaac, Cornwall, which appears at no. 2 in the Top 50. Editor Elizabeth Carter praises his seafood restaurant as “a role model of its kind – no pretensions or gimmicks, just first-class food and knowledgeable, welcoming service – and there is no doubt in my mind that Restaurant Nathan Outlaw deserves its place as one of the best restaurants in the country.”
Responding to news of the accolade, chef Nathan Outlaw said, “I honestly thought I was dreaming when I found out. Over those years of continuously cooking and serving our customers we have always tried our hardest to do our best and when you get recognised like this it means the world to us all.”