‘Getting ten from such a historic and trusted guide for so many years still means everything to us and it shows the way we strive to continually reinvent and make things better. Longevity is really important to us and it’s a massive achievement for the whole team. We’re always pushing, always trying to make things better and looking at new ways to do things to make the guest experience the best it can possibly be.
‘Hopefully we get that little better every year so we’re very proud of maintaining the top score but we try not to think about it. We keep our heads down and do what we do and hope our best is good enough. If you think about these things or worry too much, things might slip.’
As well as L’Enclume, Simon has three more restaurants in this year’s guide – Rogan & Co in Cartmel and Roganic and Aulis in London: ‘I’m very pleased L’Enclume has been joined in the Top 20 this year by Roganic, which is a massive achievement as it hasn’t been open a year yet. The team are doing some amazing things and I’m very happy with what’s going on. We’re also hoping for good things at Rogan & Co. My old head chef from L’Enclume, Tom Barnes, has rejoined me there so the future is very positive and very bright.’
With four establishments in the Guide, Rogan has his work cut out but will there be more openings to look forward to? ‘We’re looking at a couple of other things and although I can’t say too much at the moment, I can confirm that there will be more openings and one will be imminent, possibly before Christmas.’
‘Obviously we look not to impact on our existing restaurants. We have to promote people in senior positions from our existing places and find people to step into their shoes so we wouldn’t take on anything that would risk the quality of what we’ve got already.’
