Duck & Waffle's Dan Doherty: "Manchester Has Found Its Feet"

AS PART of the Hidden Banquet series for this year’s Manchester Food and Drink Festival, Dan Doherty will be coming up to Manchester on Saturday 8 October to prepare and cook a one-off banquet for 175 people at the Bonded Warehouse.

He has created a five-course dinner, in his innovative and playful style, designed around one of the most integral aspects of Manchester’s heritage, “INDUSTRY”.

Tickets are £75 per person. Proceeds will be donated to Action Against Hunger.

I’m not going to come up to Manchester and try to ram the Mancunian thing down everyone’s throat

Do you have any prior connection to Manchester?

DD: “Not at all really, I’m originally from Shropshire, so it was probably the closest big city to me but other than that, no. But it’s good to come up to a city which, in the last couple of years, has been really finding its feet in the food world, showing that it’s not really all about London. There’s so much exciting stuff going on up there.”

So that’s reaching you down there is it?

DD: “Yeah, for sure. We made a trip up in January last year, just to go and check out some of the restaurants we’re hearing about. Sorry, I don’t mean ‘we’, like there’s this huge divide but it’s definitely making waves.”

Are collaborations and pop-ups the new marketing strategy?

DD: “I guess so, although I’ve never really thought about it like that. It’s a really interesting angle and if it’s not, then it should be. We’re all friends and it’s a fun thing to do, but the bi-product is that sometimes there’s some nice PR involved and you get to reach people who you might not normally reach by bringing a bit of London to them or vice versa.”

Executive Chef Dan Doherty

Before we talk about your upcoming Manchester event, just tell us a bit more about the whole 24-hour concept of Duck & Waffle. How’s it going?

DD: “It’s going...busy. It’s taken some time to build up because culturally we’re not really used to that but there’s definitely a market for it. The weekends are actually heaving, we’ll do 300-400 dining covers between midnight and five in the morning which is nuts. It just goes to show that London especially is changing. The transport is changing, so it’s kind of logical that we’re seeing the benefit of that and it’ll give people more reason to come out without having to spend on a cab home or take a dodgy night bus. Everything’s becoming a bit more accessible.

“But you can lose concept of time because you lose the signs that signify it’s time to go home; tables being turned over or the bar getting quieter, the lights going up or people polishing stuff. Those signs aren’t here because once it’s dark, it’s dark. Everyone’s drinking away and before you know it, it’s one o clock in the morning.

Aren’t you curious to know who comes for dinner at four am and what their story is?

DD: “Honestly, you have no idea. It’s insane. I mean you’ll have celebrities and footballers there and then you’ll have a date night, a group of hipsters or an older couple. If you were to gather a typical bunch of people to represent London, that’s what it’d be.”

Duck & Waffle, London's first 24-hour gourmet restaurant

Obviously, it’s difficult in restaurants with a ‘named chef’, as people would rather visit when they know you’re in the kitchen, but that’s not going to be easy in a 24-hour restaurant. Do you do many night shifts yourself?

DD: “I’m not 100% sure I’m a named chef, so we don’t really have that problem, but people are more aware of the fact that whether you’re a named chef or not, you physically cannot be there 24/7. I remember being there for dinner then breakfast, lunch and dinner when we first opened. Now I don’t work as many night shifts as I used to, purely because it really messes with your body clock and you need a couple of days either side to recover. It’s ok if you do nights all the time, but if you chop and change it can be really detrimental.”

Tell us more about your hidden banquet. Obviously, Industry is a really big theme for Manchester, so what research did you do and how did that influence the menu?

DD: “I think there are two parts to it. I’m not going to come up to Manchester and try to ram the Mancunian thing down everyone’s throat, but I am going to include subtle influences to show people that we’ve thought about the Industry theme and that we have taken a lot of inspiration from it.

"What I wanted to do is to take the Industry side of it literally and incorporate a lot of things that you have to do yourself. The bread will be served communally, you rip that apart. There will be a play on crisps where you’ll have to do something to make them the complete dish. There will be our take on ‘meat and two veg’ where everyone gets stuck in and the dessert course especially should be great fun.”

This is all in aid of action Against Hunger, what does that charity mean to you?

DD: “I’ve been working with them for quite a few years now. As chefs we spend all our time making and talking about food; trimming things and plating them up to make them look pretty when so many in the world don’t have anything at all, so hunger is a natural thing to be concerned with. Look, if chefs stopped cooking, it’s not going to stop world hunger or famine, but if our cooking helps raise money for people with no food, then that’s a great thing.”

Will you see much of Manchester when you come up or will you just spend all your time in the kitchen before going back down again?

DD: “Good question (laughs) I’m going to be prepping all day on the Friday, so hopefully afterwards we’ll get the chance to pop out for some food and some drinks. The Saturday is just going to be really lively then I’ve got to get back to work in London really early on the Sunday morning. I’ll probably not get too much sleep, but that’s not too bad.”