The Forde: Review of MasterChef star Matt Healy's Horsforth restaurant

MasterChef can change lives as it did for Healy. Before TV, he was working as a development chef for Rational cookers, afterwards, he was running his own restaurant, the Foundry, in cool, regenerated, Holbeck in Leeds.

He branded the restaurant in bright neon: ‘Food to Swear By’ and Jay Rayner in the Observer swore by his toasted cheese sandwich. He loved the Marmite butter, the chorizo in cider and his roast chicken, describing the food as ‘a collection of well-trodden paths, walked with precision and care’ Healy was on a roll.

He earned an entry into the Good Food Guide and recognition from Michelin. He went on to open Grön, a Skandi style ‘green’ café in Oakwood then two more in York and Harrogate. There was the £180,000 refurb of the Beehive in Thorner, the guest appearances on TV, the press interviews, the cookery classes and then Covid. The fallout from Covid rocked the hospitality industry and it hit Healy harder than most. He closed the Beehive, lost the Foundry, closed Grön. But with encouragement from his partner Holly he pushed on.

At the end of 2021 he was ready for another go on his home turf of Horsforth. This time he promised no flowers, no micro herbs, just relaxed, informal dining and in his words ‘none of the ego that came on the back of MasterChef’. And it looks as if it might be working. All the evenings I tried for, were fully booked, so it was a freezing January lunchtime when I met up with my companion James and 13 year old William.

It didn’t start well. The restaurant was more than chilly. This may well have been because there was no ceiling, just black polythene, exposed metal ducting, an air conditioning unit hanging freely and half-painted breeze blocks. Hard to tell whether it was work in progress or industrial chic. Then there was the music. Afro-American funk I believe, dialled up to 60+Db. Our server who had already supplied water and menus, very obligingly turned down the music and was so utterly charming and helpful throughout, that we forgot to worry about the ceiling and the music.

Like the Foundry, the menu stays safely within its ‘well-trodden path’. A charcuterie and a cheese board and thereafter a selection of small plates: sourdough with Marmite butter, chorizo cooked in cider, roast chicken, torched salmon, lamb tagine and beef cheek bourguignon. It’s a protein-packed menu and with the roasted baby cabbage off, it left Hasselback potatoes as the only vegetable and roast onion risotto and mushroom brioche as the only dishes without meat or fish. The chorizo in cider was as good as always and with his own sourdough to mop up the juices or to smother in Marmite butter.

If the torched soy salmon, was light on the soy, the salmon was perfectly en pointe, breaking gently into soft, translucent flakes and served with a pleasing ‘tartare’ sauce using chopped raw salmon and accompanied by some welcome greens by way of pak choi.

William, new to the small plates phenomena, was a bit taken aback when he found he was obliged to share his salmon three ways. Ditto the roast chicken, nicely done, with crisp skin, juicy flesh and served with a (thin) slice of carrot topped with pine nuts and crumbs. There were a couple of curve balls with the lamb tagine and beef cheek bourguignon.

The ‘tagine’ was a mini stew of apricot and tomato spiced with harissa, with slices of lamb draped over the top. Nothing wrong with the lamb, it was accurately cooked, pink and tender but just not a tagine. Ditto the ‘beef bourguignon’, not the classic French Burgundy stew, but a chunky piece of beef cheek, slow cooked in plenty of red wine. It was so soft and yielding and could have been eaten with a spoon and served with a fluffy cloud of horseradish mash it was a good dish with tender beef, but it wasn’t bourguignon. I’ve no issue with either dish, but there is a skill in writing a menu.

At dessert, the adults opted for affogato (piping hot coffee next time please chef) and young William, whom we’d established was not a great fan of small plates, rocked back in his chair with joy, not just for the banana cake with chocolate sauce and ice cream but because he didn’t have to share it with anyone. I know what he means. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, small plate menus are here to stay. They work for places like Skosh in York with their intricate, ingredient-led, labour-intensive dishes, but I’m not generally a fan.

While Healy’s dishes are carefully cooked and the portions aren’t all that small - you won’t go hungry - his gutsy, robust dishes would be far better suited to a three-course menu, but that’s so last century.

Healy’s had a bruising over the last three years. It’s hard not to sympathise with someone who has wrestled the fine dining, gastro pubbery and green Skandi route in such a difficult climate and yet still has the drive and ambition to start over again. Perhaps this time he has struck the zeitgeist with this modest, reasonably priced, neighbourhood restaurant, the sort of place you might pop into any night of the week for what Healy has branded, in his matchless style, (his asterisks, not mine) ‘Just Fu*#king Good Food’.

The Forde, 7 Town Street, Horsforth, Leeds LS18 5LJ T: 0113 210 0659 W: www.theforde.co.uk Open Wed-Sun 11am-11pm

Price: Dinner for two inc. a bottle wine and service £90