Debut restaurant serves up Michelin Guide listing six months after opening

A Liverpool restaurant which only opened this spring has been included in the prestigious Michelin Guide.

Vetch, on Hope Street, is the debut restaurant of Dan McGeorge.

His 26-cover fine dining restaurant opened in May, and since then it has gone on to earn significant praise for its relaxed seasonally-inspired menus and modern British cooking interspersed with Nordic and Asian flavour influences.

This earned the restaurant two AA rosettes for culinary excellence in September, helping to place Vetch on Liverpool’s food map. It has now earned the restaurant its first listing in the internationally-recognised Michelin Guide.

The first UK edition of the Michelin Guide was published in 1974 and 50 years later, Michelin Stars 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 compeimentary 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, and 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 1,148 restaurants listed in the guide, 824 with a listing, including Vetch, 123 restaurants with a Bib Gourmand, 165 holding one star, 27 with two stars and nine with three Michelin stars.

The Michelin Guide reporting on Vetch said: ‘’Located on Hope Street alongside numerous other eateries, there’s a homely feel to this personably and knowledgeably run restaurant.

“The décor is all about understatement, with minimalist furnishings and neutral tones. The modern, well-versed cooking successfully incorporates a range of East Asian influences including shokupan milk bread, Korean chicken wings and char siu pork belly.

“At dinner, it’s a tasting menu affair which shows the full breadth of cooking, but keep an eye out for the great value offering at lunch and early evening.’’

When it comes to Vetch’s food, chef-owner Dan McGeorge makes a point of cooking with fresh seasonal produce from across the North of England, to ensure that every dish he produces delivers flavour and quality, all the while keeping the restaurant’s food innovative and exciting.

Dan McGeorge said: ‘’Being included in the Michelin Guide is amazing news, as a team we’ve just tried to do our best to bring the restaurant to life since we opened the doors in May.

“We couldn’t be prouder; 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.

“Achieving this recognition reflects the hard work, dedication, and passion of every single one of us, but we won’t rest on our laurels, and we’ll keep striving to improve to deliver menus for our guests to enjoy.’’