Food Fit for a King at the James Monro

FOOD FIT FOR A KING -
Haggis is a dish which most of us would associate with only turning up on Burns Night, but not for one Liverpool chef!

Liverpool born Paul Fuller is a chef who is not shy of experimenting and thinking outside of the recipe book with new ingredients and flavours.

At just the tender age of 23 and with seven years in the industry, Paul is now taking the helm as Head Chef of award winning city centre gastro pub, The James Monro, where he has been winning over diners with his culinary chemistry and a menu engineered from a tantalising blend of different cultures.

Creating a twist on many home cooked classics, Paul has created unique, speciality dishes such as Supreme of Chicken, Stuffed with Haggis and served with Tatties and Neeps with a Whiskey Jus to mouthwatering Sautéed Chicken Livers with Caramelised Shallots and Bacon in a Red Wine Jus.

The new A La Carte menu also offers a treat for international visitors and British diners dreaming of sunnier climates with an array of home cooked gastro pub classics inspired from the Mediterranean. New additions include Homemade Coco Chocolate and Spanish Orange Tart and British Sticky Toffee Pudding, which has already been endorsed by TV celebrity chef, Marco Pierre White.

Paul is now stirring up food fit for a king, working with suppliers at the Queen’s estate in Balmoral to source the very best venison for The James Monro menu.

“I have learnt from some of the best chefs in the city how to create memorable dishes that customers will want to come back for time and time again. Our speciality dishes such as the chicken stuffed haggis and chicken stuffed livers have been such a runaway success with diners that I’m now working with new suppliers to introduce more speciality ingredients such as purple broccoli and seasonal venison from the Queen’s estate at Balmoral, along with genuine Spanish chorizo & fennel, “ says Paul.




“The key to a successful menu is experimenting with ingredients and finding out which flavours marry together. I then allow the fresh products to speak for themselves. Every dish I create is based on hand built food. It’s rustic, it’s fresh and it’s home cooking at it’s very best,”

Training at Wirral Met College in Food Catering, Paul has built up his taste for quality cooking from some of the city’s most renowned chefs. He started his career at popular tourist and celebrity venue, The Lower Place Restaurant at the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, where he worked under the guidance of Executive Chef, Paul Askew as Commis Chef.

Specialising in creating dishes from locally sourced food, Paul moved his way up the ranks to Chef de Parte, before moving to Allerton’s Amber Restaurant, where he specialised in bistro cooking as Chef de Parte.

With promotion firmly in his sights, Paul relocated back to The Philharmonic Hall’s Rubato Café Bar, where he was promoted to Head Chef, before moving to Bistro Jacques in Hardman Street, where he worked as a Sous Chef, catering for over 100 covers a day.

Paul added: “Good gastro pub cooking is about creating excellent home cooked food, but with speciality ingredients thrown in that diners would not normally enjoy at home so customer’s leave feeling that they really have enjoyed a special dish.”

Owner William Lyons puts The James Monro’s success down to his unwavering mission to serve good quality food. He has now turned his success into a mini empire, with The James Monro being his second gastro pub to open in the city centre.

The Monro in Duke Street, which is hailed as Liverpool’s first gastro pub, also very much relies on fresh supplies, some of which are organic in origin.

He says: “At The Monro and The James Monro we have been able to set new standards in gastro pub dining in the city through the quality of our cooking. The needs of the customer are also very important and we have been able to establish a firm reputation by evolving the taste of our dishes to what our customers enjoy. There are too many chain restaurants about. At The James Monro and The Monro it is about a breed of cooking which is based on freshly cooked ingredients, with not a ping of the microwave. Just good quality cooking.”

For further information on The James Monro or to view the new menus, visit www.thejamesmonro.com or call: 0151 236 9700.

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Posted: Thursday 3rd June 2010
ID: 8370 - 490