Marc Wilkinson’s Fraiche in Good Food Guide top 50 restaurants

Aug 15 2012 by Jade Wright, Birkenhead News

WIRRAL’S Fraiche is celebrating after being included in the Good Food Guide’s top restaurant list.

The best-selling guide has today praised the standard of dining in the region and again listed the Oxton restaurant among the top 50 places to eat in the country.

The book, which will be published next month, lists Marc Wilkinson’s small but perfectly formed Michelin-starred restaurant as number 25 in its top 50.

In the all-important cooking score – which rates the standard of a restaurant out of 10 – Fraiche achieved a seven, which denotes “a high level of ambition and individuality, attention to the smallest detail, accurate and vibrant dishes.”

Chef patron Marc said: “Fraiche may well be the highest-rated single-handed kitchen in the UK. As for the rating I’m very proud to not only be in the top 50 in the UK but also to promote modern food in Merseyside.

“There now comes the point where if I want to push into the top 20 I will need staff and it’s something I’m looking at now. It’s amazing what I have achieved on my own in the kitchen, front of house is also going from strength to strength with James Campbell and the guys.”

It’s been an impressive year for Marc’s five-table Oxton restaurant after it retained its Michelin rating for an impressive fourth year.

Fraiche was also named in the top 50 in the Sunday Times’ top restaurants and won the BBC Olive magazine’s Alternative Restaurant Awards.

It is a labour of love for Marc who often puts in 80 and 90-hour weeks.

He said: “Because I look after it myself I can make sure there is a real attention to detail. We could expand but then my concern would be that the quality could suffer.”

Marc spends his free time experimenting with new potential dishes.

He said: “I’ve got more toys in the kitchen than Willy Wonka.

“I can sit for hours when the restaurant is closed and experiment with different flavour combinations. There are more failures than successes because what I am trying to do is quite extreme.

“But every now and again I will stumble across something which really works. Only the absolute best makes it onto the menu.”

The Good Food Guide was set up to improve the standard of cooking in post-war Britain. It does not take advertising and every inspection is paid for and conducted anonymously.

Some restaurants appear in the guide regularly but they must earn their place every year. Restaurants cannot elect or pay to be included and they have no input on their score or review.

The guide is compiled and written from scratch every year so there are always new entries, changes of score and deletions.

In total there are 85 restaurants from the north west featured in The Good Food Guide 2013.

Elizabeth Carter, consultant editor of The Good Food Guide, said: “It is fantastic to see that there are really strong dining options to be enjoyed across the region with a mix of new entries sitting alongside first-rate fine dining establishments and perennial favourites.”