CityLife

Chef Steve takes top hotel role

IT'S set to be one of Manchester's most talked about venues when it opens in the autumn, and the new Hilton Hotel has scored a bit of a coup with the appointment of its head chef.

For news reaches me that Steve McLoughlin has quit his role as head chef at trendy Manchester bar The Cocoa Rooms to take up the coveted post at the new four-star deluxe Hilton, which will occupy the first 23 floors of the iconic 47-storey Beetham Tower on Deansgate.

And there's something of a chef merry-go-round taking place in the city at the moment, for I hear David Gale is to quit his head chef post at Manchester's Rossetti Hotel, which was recently bought out by celebrity chef Michael Caines, to take up a new role within Selfridges.

Steve's departure from The Cocoa Rooms comes just five months after the much-heralded opening of the venue.

He had left Piccadilly bar The Cotton House to become a partner in The Cocoa Rooms, and had high hopes for its success. But bar boss Christian Coates tells me that he is now planning to relaunch the restaurant with a new, high-profile chef, to be announced in the next week.

Michelin star

He said: "Steve is a great chef but we wanted to go in different directions. I think Steve saw The Cocoa Rooms as an opportunity to go for a Michelin star, but you can only have a small number of covers in the restaurant to achieve that, whereas we are quite a large venue.

"We part on good terms and we wish him all the best in the future.

"I'm really excited about what we have got planned. We're going to bring something very different to Manchester."

Meanwhile, Steve will be hoping to impress the city with his skills when the Hilton opens this autumn.

The hotel will boast a 600-seater ballroom as well as the city's first sky bar, so will be sure to give Steve the highest of profiles.