Swiss chef buys Michelin-starred restaurant Juniper

Swiss chef Michael Riemenschneider has bought the Michelin-starred Juniper restaurant in Altrincham, Greater Manchester.

Riemenschneider, chef patron at the Michelin-starred Abbey Restaurant in Penzance in Cornwall, acquired the business from previous chef-proprietor Paul Kitching.

Kitching relocated to Edinburgh earlier this year.

Riemenschneider will take over Juniper this week and plans to reopen the restaurant after a refit later this month.

Juniper, which closed after Kitching left, will keep its Michelin star until January but Riemenschneider warned it would be unlikely that it will retain it because Michelin won’t have sufficient time to assess it.

“It means the pressure is a bit off and you can showcase what you want. But we will work hard to get it back,” he told Crains Manchester Business.

He added: “I do not want [Juniper] to be an “in” restaurant because “in” restaurants always go out of fashion. I want people to appreciate the food and not come there because they can be seen in it. I am all about standards in food.”

Riemenschneider started at the Abbey this January after the restaurant was sold by former chef-proprietor Ben Tunnicliffe, to Bill Treloar the owner of Mousehole's Old Coastguard hotel, Cornwall.

Former Juniper chef proprietor Paul Kitching are in the process of setting up a new restaurant with rooms in Edinburgh. Backed by a private investor, the venture will be called Hotel Angela, after Kitching’s mother who passed away five years ago.

Michelin starred restaurant the Abbey sold >>

Michelin-starred chef Paul Kitching quits Juniper >>

Michelin-starred chef Paul Kitching to set up new venture in Edinburgh >>

By Kerstin Kühn

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