Chef
– well, it had “difficult second album” written all over it. But the pressure was made more pronounced by having high-profile peers such as chefs Ashley Palmer-Watts, Jesse Dunford Wood and Neil Rankin among the list of back- ers, though Usher makes it clear that he val- ues his lesser-known supporters just as much. The £100,000 figure was chosen after Usher
played around with the idea of how much the lease would be and the likely cost of fitting out the kitchen. But in truth the new venture has cost him closer to £300,000, with the extra cap- ital coming from revenue at Sticky Walnut, a finance deal with equipment supplier C&C Catering for the kitchen, and credit cards. “A scrape of this, a scrape of that,” says Usher, who admits that his second experience of launching a restaurant has matched his first.
What’s in a name? The restaurant’s name, Burnt Truffle, was somewhat appropriately crowdsourced as well, but some two years ago when Usher first thought he was going to be able to bag the site in Heswall, in Wirral, Merseyside. In his excitement, the chef took straight to Twitter to announce his plans for a second site and the congratulatory replies quickly turned into a discussion around what to call it. “Everyone was shouting out names and someone said I should put something luxurious with something shit. I thought it was a great idea and retweeted it and everyone was saying Shit Caviar etc,” says Usher. “Then someone suggested Burnt Truffle. I retweeted it and asked what people thought. I thought it was well cool. I love it because it’s shit!” One idea that was never a contender was
Restaurant Gary Usher, which was among the staple ideas put forward when he was readying to open Sticky Walnut (a name that was sug- gested by his sister after she read the phrase on the menu). “Restaurant Gary Usher?” he asks, incredulously, his voice rising. “Restau- rant Gary Usher? No chance!”
The new restaurant can accommodate 60 covers inside, as well as a further 40 on the terrace, and in style it shares a lot of charac- teristics with its 40-cover Sticky sister. The dining room is understated, comprising sim- ple oak furniture and exposed walls. But like the restaurant’s undeniably shy owner and his well-inked arms, Burnt Truffle’s interiors have elements of flashiness, with an elegant chandelier on each of its two floors. It’s a look that works, in no small part due to the focus it encourages on the food, described by Simon Young, executive chef at London’s Jumeirah Carlton Tower hotel, during the Cateys judg- ing, as “cheffy, but without any pretensions”. More than doubling the number of covers
served comes with challenges unique to Burnt Truffle, due to 40% of the dining space being outside and the UK’s typically unpredictable weather. For that reason, the tables outside will be left for walk-ins. “It will be a case of guests being more than welcome to sit outside, but if it does rain and we’re full inside, there’s not a lot we can do about it,” says Usher.
48 | The Caterer | 31 July 2015
“A lot of people think it’s crazy that we’ve been given 100 grand and that we didn’t deserve it because we’ve got a busy restaurant already” Gary Usher
A handful of dishes from Sticky will fea-
ture on Burnt Truffle’s menu (see panel) quite simply because, in Usher’s view, they can’t be beat: “Our pâté recipe… I love it. I wouldn’t change it. There’s no point. I’m not about doing quenelles of pâté with little salads. That’s not me. It’s a slice of pâté from a terrine. That’s our style and it will stay the same [at Burnt Truffle].” Heading up the Burnt Truffle kitchen is
Michael ‘Wongo’ Wong, while Luke Richard- son remains in charge at Sticky Walnut. Usher will divide his time between the two restau- rants, while focusing on the new venture. “The way that I see it – and I’m not sure
it’s going to work like this – is we’re definitely going to be closed Mondays and Tuesdays at Burnt Truffle for the first few months. I want to make sure that we get everything right. It’s going to be a group of people that haven’t worked with each other before, so I want to give them the time to all work together for the five days that we’re open and they can all have the same time off,” he explains. “I’ll do every
service there – I’ve said for a year, but for as long as it takes – and then Mondays and Tues- days I’ll do at Sticky Walnut.” Given that Usher didn’t take a day off at Sticky for the first two years, which he says was about how long it took for the res- taurant to start turning a profit, this bold work ethic has precedent. However, deter- mining the time it will take for Burnt Truffle to break even is made somewhat trickier by all the pledges that will need to be honoured, and the enthusiasm among backers to redeem their meal vouchers has been immense.
Cash flow challenge Some took up an offer to enjoy a meal at Sticky Walnut instead, but plenty were still eagerly awaiting the chance to try out the new restau- rant, which will undoubtedly make managing cash flow a challenge during the restaurant’s infancy. What if everyone wants to redeem their vouchers at the same time?
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