63 Degrees Restaurant Manchester + Lavender’s Blue

Spinning Plates

After tiny plates, small plates, medium sized plates, large plates, supersized plates in London, how refreshing it is to head up north to order a three course set menu. Starter: Velouté de châtaignes (chestnut soup); main: Filet de dorade poêlé (pan fried sea bream fillet); pudding: Crème brûlée, correctly served with a torched top. Photogenic, subtly rich, and very French. In case diners forget this is a Parisian restaurant, the walls are hung with pictures and maps of the French capital. Chef owner Eric Moreau’s business card is emblazoned with a picture of Sacré-Coeur.

It’s the perfect temperature for serving coffee and Monsieur Moreau assures us 63 degrees Celsius is the optimal temperature for cooking. “Cooked long and low at 63 degrees, food tastes like you’ve never tasted it before. So 63 degrees represents for us the love and care that goes into all our cooking.” But before all that heat we need a chilled bottle of Sancerre. “’Au jour d’hui comme autrofois’ Domaine Daniel Brochard is a 2018 to 2019 vintage. It’s produced as Daniel Brochard’s ancestors would have done without any fining, filtration or temperature control to give an incredible intensity of flavour. The aroma is packed with intense gooseberry and nettle perfume.”