Mark Birchall is no stranger to top-flight kitchens, having been right-hand man to Simon Rogan at L’Enclume for just shy of a decade. But being part of someone else’s restaurant is one thing, running your own is entirely different. Yet this softly spoken chef has exceeded all expectations with his Lancashire restaurant Moor Hall.
Though he exudes a quiet confidence, Birchall is 100% swagger free, often to the point of introversion, and is not one to shout about his achievements. Instead, he chooses to quietly go about his business, an approach that often sees him miss out on publicity opportunities. Born in Lancashire, Birchall was inculcated into the world of fine dining from early on in his career. In 2011 he won The Roux Scholarship, one of the UK’s most high-profile cooking competitions, while other CV highlights include a spell with brothers Joan, Josep and Jordi Roca at El Celler de Can Roca in Spain.
From the very early days of Moor Hall, Mark Birchall made no bones about the fact he was gunning for three stars. Two stars came quickly and, just eight years after its launch, the Lancashire-born chef’s restaurant has attracted a third. Reacting to the promotion at the Michelin ceremony earlier this year, a visibly emotional Birchall said: “You dream about these things. You almost act out in your mind how you would be, but the emotion is incredible. We got our first star in 2017, and that feeling is incredible. Like one of the best feelings ever, up there with anything in my life. But this has just destroyed it.”
While the overall approach of the restaurant – which is on the edge of the upmarket village of Aughton – remains the same, Birchall has gradually, and by his own admission, obsessively, tweaked every detail of the experience to make it as good as it can possibly be. This policy of constant, incremental improvement has created a restaurant that can go toe-to-toe with any other establishment in the country. It’s therefore no surprise that Moor Hall has been named National Restaurant of the Year not once but twice (2019 and 2021).
Though he exudes a quiet confidence, Birchall is 100% swagger free, often to the point of introversion, and is not one to shout about his achievements. Instead, he chooses to quietly go about his business, an approach that often sees him miss out on publicity opportunities. Born in Lancashire, Birchall was inculcated into the world of fine dining from early on in his career. In 2011 he won The Roux Scholarship, one of the UK’s most high-profile cooking competitions, while other CV highlights include a spell with brothers Joan, Josep and Jordi Roca at El Celler de Can Roca in Spain.
From the very early days of Moor Hall, Mark Birchall made no bones about the fact he was gunning for three stars. Two stars came quickly and, just eight years after its launch, the Lancashire-born chef’s restaurant has attracted a third. Reacting to the promotion at the Michelin ceremony earlier this year, a visibly emotional Birchall said: “You dream about these things. You almost act out in your mind how you would be, but the emotion is incredible. We got our first star in 2017, and that feeling is incredible. Like one of the best feelings ever, up there with anything in my life. But this has just destroyed it.”
While the overall approach of the restaurant – which is on the edge of the upmarket village of Aughton – remains the same, Birchall has gradually, and by his own admission, obsessively, tweaked every detail of the experience to make it as good as it can possibly be. This policy of constant, incremental improvement has created a restaurant that can go toe-to-toe with any other establishment in the country. It’s therefore no surprise that Moor Hall has been named National Restaurant of the Year not once but twice (2019 and 2021).
