We speak to Mary-Ellen McTague, Chef Partner at the brand-new Pip restaurant, found on the ground-floor of highly-anticipated Treehouse Hotel Manchester.
Hi Mary-Ellen, can you share with us a bit about your culinary background? We hear you’ve worked across the pond!
Well, I started out in 1999 at a Michelin starred hotel in the Lake District called Sharrow Bay Country House Hotel. It was a bit of a baptism of fire, but I loved cooking and was determined to make a go of it. I then travelled and worked in The States before coming back to the UK to work at the Fat Duck in Bray, under Heston Blumenthal. I spent four years there, working my way up to sous chef and then spending a final year doing historical research and development for the Hinds Head and the Fat Duck. That really piqued my interest in combining food and social history with modern cooking techniques, which is an approach I use to this day, including with the Treehouse menus.
So how did your partnership with Pip and Treehouse Hotel Manchester come about?
It was Robbie Bargh of Gorgeous Group, originally from Manchester, who first made the introduction. I was immediately drawn to the sustainability ethos of the hotel group.
Tell us more about Pip’s food offering.
I’m working on the ground floor restaurant, Pip, and the conference and banqueting menus. The menus have a strong focus on seasonality, low-waste, and celebrating the best local ingredients and products we can find, and of course, delicious food!
And what makes Pip so unique?
The menus have been created around relationships I’ve built with excellent local suppliers over the years, a keen interest in local food history, my experience in Michelin starred restaurants which has engendered a commitment to the highest possible quality, and my background in low waste cookery which fits in really well with the hotel group’s commitment to sustainability.
Sounds brilliant, we’d love to hear in more detail about your ethics and ethos in terms of cooking and the food itself?
In terms of ethos, I love food which has a sense of place, whether that comes from local or personal history and traditions, unique ingredients, an amazing local producer or some other source. Food that tells a story, as well as tasting and looking beautiful, is the ultimate goal. On the ethics front, it’s really important to me to work with suppliers who are as sustainable as possible, whether that’s regenerative farming processes or picking veg to order, it’s not only an important responsibility as someone buying wholesale food, but people who care about the planet generally really care about what they produce, and so the quality of that produce tends to be excellent.
Looking at the Pip menu, what are some of your favourite dishes?
The Lancashire Hot Pot has a special place in my heart. It’s a dish my mum used to make, it harks back to the industrial revolution which had a huge cultural impact on Manchester and the North West as a whole – it had a big impact on the way people around here ate. Not to mention it’s a very comforting and delicious dish to eat!
What inspires you most when you cook?
Ingredients. Everything starts with them. I base menus around what is available from the farms that supply us, then I look back though old cookbooks for a bit of inspiration. I always like to think about what will make the main ingredient in a dish really shine, and crucially, what will make a dish as enjoyable to eat as possible.
Do you have any advice for aspiring chefs?
Firstly, to understand that it’s a challenging job, but that it’s worth putting the effort in as the skills you will learn are transferable and life enhancing. If you can cook, you will always have friends, and they will also probably do the washing up! Secondly, to work with someone who inspires you if you can, whether it’s their food, their approach, whatever. It makes long days in the kitchen much shorter if you are doing something that you believe in.
Lastly, what ingredient do you believe no kitchen should be without?
Onions. They’re the start of all good things. The smell of onions caramelising has got to be one of the most comforting cooking smells ever.
