THE Liverpool restaurant of a chef who started his culinary career in Chester has been named as one of the top twenty in the UK.

Chef owner, Gary Usher and his restaurant, Wreckfish, have been voted number 19 in The Estrella Damm National Restaurant Awards 2018 annual Top 100 UK restaurants with another of his restaurants, Hispi, based in Manchester, also in the top 50.

The awards, based on the votes of 180 industry experts, including chefs, food writers and restaurateurs, named Liverpool based Wreckfish, number 19 on the list, despite being open just eight months.

Chester and District Standard:

Gary Usher

South Manchester based restaurant, Hispi, was awarded the 46th spot on the list, up 8 places from last year, and Gary himself was also shortlisted for the prestigious ‘Chef’s Chef of the Year’ award.

Gary said: “I couldn’t have been more chuffed when we found out Wreckfish had made the Top 100. However, to find out it’s in the top 20 is just amazing. Both the Wreckfish and Hispi teams really deserve this recognition and I’m just so proud.”

The wins come less than two weeks after Gary smashed crowdfunding records with the UK’s fastest UK based food project on Kickstarter to hit $100k, raising £1 every second for 24 hours for his next bistro, Pinion in Merseyside. Pinion is set to open in Autumn 2018, alongside his sixth restaurant, Manchester city-centre based Kala.

Gary Usher worked at the Michelin starred Chester Grosvenor before spending time at Chapter One, Chez Bruce, York & Albany and Jamie’s Italian.

He opened Sticky Walnut in Hoole in 2011. After a few years, Gary decided to open a second bistro. With no support from the banks, Usher launched a crowdfunding campaign through Kickstarter and Twitter.