SIX Rooftop listed in the Michelin Guide for the first time
Following on from its recent awards successes including securing two AA rosettes for culinary excellence, SIX Rooftop by Pneuma Hospitality Group, has been included in the prestigious Michelin Guide for the first time ever.
There’s certainly no doubt that SIX Rooftop, located on Newcastle’s waterfront, is keeping illustrious company, alongside the likes of fellow listed restaurants, Lovage, Rebel, 21 Newcastle, Ophelia, Dobson & Parnell, all firmly enhancing the city’s burgeoning foodie reputation.
The simple seasonal food philosophy of both Pneuma Hospitality’s Food Director Greg Lambert and Six Rooftop’s Head Chef, Alex Walker, has already started to make its mark at the Gateshead restaurant.
The first UK edition of the Michelin Guide was published in 1974 and fifty years later, Michelin Stars still remain highly sought after by the UK’s leading restaurants.
The Michelin Guide started in Clermont-Ferrand, France, in 1889, when brothers Édouard and André Michelin founded their tyre company aiming to transform the French car industry. By 1900 they started to give away complimentary guides filled with practical information for travellers, including maps, details on road quality, information on how to change a tyre, where to find a garage or fill up with petrol, and recommendations of where to eat and stay for the night – all cleverly designed to encourage drivers to explore more and hopefully use more tyres in the process!
By the 1920’s the Guide had become highly respected, in response to that the brothers employed mystery diners to assess the places being recommended within its pages, who began awarding single star designations from 1926 onwards to highlight the top eateries to visit. A star hierarchy was introduced in 1931, quickly followed by descriptions of the Star rankings, which remain the same to this day:
One Star – Worth a Stop
Two Stars – Worth a Detour
Three Stars – Worth a Special Journey
Across the UK there are currently only 1158 restaurants listed in the Guide, 825 with a listing, among them is Gateshead’s SIX Rooftop, 127 restaurants with a Bib Gourmand, 170 holding one star, 27 with two stars and nine with three Michelin stars.
The Michelin Guide reporting on SIX remarks: ‘’A set menu comes in ‘Land and Sea’ and ‘Plant’ formats, delivering colourful dishes that are generous in both size and flavour, using fine produce like Portland crab and Dexter beef.’’
When it comes to his food, SIX’s Head Chef Alex makes a point of cooking with fresh seasonal produce, to ensure each and every dish he produces delivers on flavour and quality, all the while keeping his food innovative and exciting.
Alongside that, Food Director Greg works closely with the entire team to ensure SIX Rooftop delivers ‘accessible fine dining’ using quality ingredients to create dishes that are full of flavour but at affordable prices.
SIX Rooftop’s recent reimagination of both its the bar and restaurant spaces, with the added presence of an open kitchen, have also played no small part in helping place the restaurant on the city’s foodie map.
Pneuma’s Food Director Greg Lambert remarked: ‘’Being included in the Michelin Guide is totally unexpected, Alex and I have just tried to do our best to bring the restaurant to life. We really can’t describe what this means to us both. We couldn’t be prouder of everyone that works with us; for us this is a real team effort. We’ve taken our time and hopefully the work we’ve put in has helped build a solid foundation for the future. SIX Rooftop is about provenance and seasonality and the producers we work with but it’s also about the entire team. Achieving this recognition is a reflection of the hard work, dedication and passion of every single member of the team working at SIX. Though we’ve secured a number of notable successes recently we’re not going to sit back, there no doubt in everyone’s mind that we’ll continue to push to progress to where we want to be for the future.’’