Tristan Welch to open PARKER’S TAVERN, Cambridge
The new restaurant and bar – representing a delicious taste of Cambridge – will be led by the East Anglian born chef and located in UNIVERSITY ARMS, CAMBRIDGE
May 24thCambridge
Parker’s Tavern will launch this Winter and will be a stand-alone destination restaurant and bar serving good, honest, locally sourced food – a delicious taste of Cambridge. The independently run restaurant will be overseen by East Anglian born and bred Chef Tristan Welch. It will be a beautiful, flamboyant and idiosyncratic restaurant – the perfect place for all day dining and amongst the most desirable social venues in Cambridge. Everything served will have British origins and will be rooted back to Cambridge and East Anglian producers.
The restaurant will be overlooking Parker’s Piece and part of the UNIVERSITY ARMS which is also set to open in the Autumn. It has been designed by Martin Brudnizki to feel as though it belongs to Cambridge with the feel of a University college. The impression is akin to eating in halls, except that there are chairs with blue velvet and burnt orange linen, sofas in burgundy wool mixed with red leather Chesterfields, white marble, pewter and Cambridge blues.
There will be up to 110 covers in the restaurant and 61 in the bar and the food menu will consist of a selection of new modern classics, complimented by a seasonally changing menu, which will be “as unpredictable as mother nature”. Whether guests decide to eat in the restaurant, in their rooms or relax at the bar or in the Library, Parker’s Tavern will deliver “what you want, where you want, when you want.”
Tristan Welch
Tristan grew up just outside Cambridge and the Parker’s Tavern launch also marks his homecoming to an area that he has remained rooted to, following years of working abroad.
Tristan started his culinary career in London, where he trained under Gary Rhodes, before he joined Le Gavroche, working under Michel Roux jr, where he won the Award of Excellence from the Academy of Culinary Arts, which recognises exceptional talent and ambition in young chefs. After working in Paris at L’Arperge he then moved on to Scotland to the award winning five star Glenapp Castle as Head Chef where he was awarded the prestigious Gordon Ramsay Scholarship Award. Tristan was then employed as Head Chef at Gordon Ramsay’s prestigious Petrus at The Berkeley, before he re-launched Launceston Place in Kensington and his most recent role was at Cotton House and the Beach Café, Mustique. In 2009 he was a finalist on BBC2’s Great British Menu and he can still be seen as a regular guest on the likes of BBC1’s Saturday Kitchen, BBC1’s The One Show, Good Food channel’s Market Kitchen and many others.
To Parker’s Tavern, Tristan will bring his experience from around the world, in some of the finest restaurants, back to his British roots. He is wholly inspired by mother nature and is has a true passion for the sea, spending each of his summers in North Norfolk. He likes to “cook the market” and his favourite ingredients are fresh ingredients. He adopted this ‘farm to fork’ philosophy during his sabbatical from fine dining, which he took when he moved to Sweden and focused on cooking for his three children and various charities, prompting him to fall in love with a rural lifestyle.
Tristan says “I am thrilled to finally be coming home to Cambridge to create a modern British restaurant in the heart of the city. The menu will be as flamboyant as I am, with dishes reflecting my personality and passion for fuss free, beautiful and downright delicious food, cooked with locally sourced and seasonal ingredients. I am honored to have been so involved in the project, literally firm the ground up, and can’t wait to showcase it to the local community and visitors alike.”
Why Parker?
Parker’s Piece, also known as ‘the city’s playground’, is one of the best known open spaces in Cambridge, located in the heart of the city, bordered by Park Terrace, Regent Terrace, Parkside and Gonville Place. It has a fascinating history; its origin is derived from Edward Parker, a cook and the very first ‘restaurateur’ in Cambridge, who held the original lease to the land, which at the time was used for grazing. It was named after him in 1613 after it was exchanged by Trinity Collage with the town of Cambridge to be used as Common pasture.
Parker’s Piece is also famed as the birthplace for the rules of Association Football in 1848, which were pinned to the trees surrounding Parker’s Piece by university students. The ‘Cambridge Rules’ were soon adopted by many of the teams in the area and further afield, and they were later used as the basis for the new set of FA rules. In the 19th century, Parker’s Piece was used as a first-class cricket-pitch and a sports ground for Varsity matches between the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford, whilst in 1838, a feast for over 15,000 people was held there in honour of Queen Victoria’s coronation, complete with bands, choirs, sports, games, fireworks, and even a hot air balloon. In 1911, local history was made again, when former Cambridge undergraduate and aviator W.B.R. Moorhouse made an emergency landing in Parker’s Piece.
Today, the space is a place football, cricket, fairs and picnics and remains an important space providing recreational facilities for the city centre.