MasterChef gave me a great springboard to enhance my skills. I became the executive chef at Olham Events Centre up at Olham Athletic for 3 years. That’s where I met my business partner, we opened up a pop-up restaurant which went well, so well, we opened WOOD Manchester on First Street in 2017. The rest as they say is history.

What can we expect from you in the future, is there a Michelin Star on the horizon?

I look back on MasterChef with fond memories. I wouldn’t be here without it, but now it’s time to look where I’m going and not where I’ve been. I’m continuously pushing myself forward as a professional working at the very top of my game at one of the very best restaurants in the city, aiming to be one of the very best restaurants in the country.

We’ve floated around the Michelin guide and that’s very much the mission here, accolades and being recognised in the industry is especially important to me. It’s my ambition to do that, it’s the team’s ambition. Everyone that works at this restaurant knows what the focus is. We come in, we work hard every day, we try and work better than the day before with consistency. The service is great, the atmosphere is good. We’ve been through hard times like anybody else, there’s no point dwelling on those, you learn from them, move forward and become better at what you do. They can’t ignore us forever. I hope we get it, because I’m knackered and that’s when the hard work starts!

The finish, branding and etiquette that stands around the entire company, is sophisticated, opulent and the same as what we do. The garments last for a long time, the same as an experience it never goes away. I remember every fantastic dinner I’ve ever had, everything that I’ve ever done that’s meant anything to me has always had food in there at some there. If you think back everyone is the same: roast dinners with grandparents who might not be here anymore or a family wedding or a picnic with the kids, a birthday cake with Colin the Caterpillar. It’s food and it brings back memories and everyone has a memory. It’s the passion and everything around it, clothes and food go really nicely.

Do you know what the hardest thing was about visiting, I could have walked away with the whole shop. It’s slick, it’s the best way I can put it. My Harrington is just right, you put it on and it feels right, it looks right, you’re not rooting around in your pockets trying to find things, its measured to perfection. I love the copper rivet detailing with ‘Made in Manchester’, the way the story with the copper wire translates through – it means something, it’s a great jacket, a luxury item but one that I’ll have for the next 10 years. You can tell how durable it feels, it’s a lovely item.

WOOD Manchester is open Wednesday - Sunday.

Book your visit: https://woodrestaurantgroup.com/manchester

Manchester, the world’s first industrial city, is not only home to our 127-year-old factory, but also a melting pot of world class culture, creatives and culinary trailblazers.

Over the coming months, we will be handing over the reins of The Journal to local business owners in homage to our great city. It’s a place after all that people do (and make) things, a place we’re extremely proud of. This week, we’re delighted to introduce Simon Wood, 2015 MasterChef winner, Chef Patron and owner of WOOD Manchester, which brings together passion, creativity and powerful flavours in an unintimidating fine dining experience.

We sat down over a cheese and onion pie, to discuss cooking, clothing and a shared obsession for quality.

What can we expect from you in the future, is there a Michelin Star on the horizon?

I look back on MasterChef with fond memories. I wouldn’t be here without it, but now it’s time to look where I’m going and not where I’ve been. I’m continuously pushing myself forward as a professional working at the very top of my game at one of the very best restaurants in the city, aiming to be one of the very best restaurants in the country.

We’ve floated around the Michelin guide and that’s very much the mission here, accolades and being recognised in the industry is especially important to me. It’s my ambition to do that, it’s the team’s ambition. Everyone that works at this restaurant knows what the focus is. We come in, we work hard every day, we try and work better than the day before with consistency. The service is great, the atmosphere is good. We’ve been through hard times like anybody else, there’s no point dwelling on those, you learn from them, move forward and become better at what you do. They can’t ignore us forever. I hope we get it, because I’m knackered and that’s when the hard work starts!

Dining at WOOD is a treat, it’s an experience, it’s not just a cheap restaurant or going out for tea, that’s me being northern, but whatever you want to call it. It’s going out for a dining experience, for between 3 or 4 hours, it’s 10 courses, paired wines, sommeliers, you’ve got chefs, the restaurant manager and myself serving you the food where we tell you about the dish and the inspiration behind it. It’s a journey from when you get here and sit in the lounge with your mini cheese and onion snacks, (a familiar taste similar to Walker's Cheese & Onion crisps that everyone understands), you settle down with a gin & tonic – everyone is happy.

Then you move from the lounge into the restaurant where the menu flows. We’ll have different things like egg, chips and ham until we get to the beef main course and soured onions, dishes with local Heaton Park honey, then desert will come along. At the moment it’s artichoke with black apple and toka bean which represents a playful crème brûlée but takes 75 days to make. The effort and thought process throughout the menu journey is there and I believe it’s exceptional. I’m very proud of what we’re doing here.

What’s your favourite dish on the WOOD menu?

I get asked this all the time. It really depends what mood I’m in. If I’m hungover: eggs, chips and ham because you can take that dish, not tell anyone, put it on two slices of orange Warburtons, have a sandwich in the back and it sorts you out. From a chef’s perspective, it’s the beef main course at the minute blending classic flavours and served with playful authenticity.

It’s beef, its bones, whey soured onions, we use a flat iron soured parlee, I have a rag pudding on there which nods to my Oldham heritage. In that pudding we’ve got oxtail, ox shin, kidney, the suet from the same animal. Next to that, I have a bowl of dripping so it’s bread and dripping which is familiar and comforting but in that we have fried bread because, why not? We make our own bread here. The fried bread is topped with bone marrow, shaved hearts and tongues from the same animal which have been brined, salted, smoked and cured before serving then we have burnt end butter. Again, with more bone marrow, then we make a salt out of skins from roasted potatoes – the best crispy bit which is turned into a salt and we season the butter with it. We even use the buttermilk from the cows that produce the meat, just so we’re not wasting anything to make our onions the best. It’s a take on hot dog onions but more complex, we add a little spoon of that into each little pan of onions which is served with a loaf. So when you’re eating all of this together you can butter your bread with the bone marrow burnt end roast potato butter and just eat everything together like when you’re having your tea at home. It’s complex, interesting and delicious.

What’s your advice for anyone trying to make it in the industry?

Trust your instinct and practice, more than you ever think you need to. If you’re going to do it 20 times, do it 100. Go and get experience, knock on a chefs door, send them a tweet, a DM, letter, or an email and say: ‘I want to work in food, can I come get experience with you.’ They’re going to have to do it for free, people can frown on that, if I want to learn from the best, they’re not going to pay for me to teach me. You’ve got to do it, everyone has, I’ve done it. I’ve got someone downstairs in my kitchen now who is here from Peru for 3 months because he wants to work at this restaurant and learn. Go and learn, never stop doing that at any level. You do this profession for love not money.

Tell us about your personal style and your introduction to PWVC?

I discovered the brand through Thom Hetherington, I saw him wearing one of your jackets. It’s a great brand. It’s very much like what we do here, it sounds silly comparing tailoring to cooking but it’s the little details.

Everything is there for a reason. Even if you don’t know it. On my Harrington jacket, the copper detailing is there because of its link to what happened in the war with Private Jack White. To save wounded soldiers, he tied a copper telephone wire to his pontoon, jumped overboard and towed it to shore when he came under enemy fire. So that detail is there for a reason, it’s such a great story.

The finish, branding and etiquette that stands around the entire company, is sophisticated, opulent and the same as what we do. The garments last for a long time, the same as an experience it never goes away. I remember every fantastic dinner I’ve ever had, everything that I’ve ever done that’s meant anything to me has always had food in there at some there. If you think back everyone is the same: roast dinners with grandparents who might not be here anymore or a family wedding or a picnic with the kids, a birthday cake with Colin the Caterpillar. It’s food and it brings back memories and everyone has a memory. It’s the passion and everything around it, clothes and food go really nicely.