Deep inside the bones of a famous old Stoke-on-Trent pottery factory a hidden culinary wonder has emerged into the light.
Award winning chef Cris Cohen has launched H I D D E N, a unique fine dining experience, to great acclaim.
Cris announced a short run of special dining events on Thursday and Friday evenings, and Saturday lunchtimes, on the run up to Christmas, with the promise of more to come in 2026.
It’s a very special experience. Eight to 10 guests sit around a long table while Cris, with the help of his brother and his son, prepares a unique menu in front of them.
The kitchen is part of the old Spode fine bone china factory. It feels like the perfect place as the care, skill, and artistry shared in Cris’s cuisine sits in a similar place as the work of the former pottery workers who created art while masquerading as factory labourers.
It’s a hidden gem of a place. Customers approach the restaurant by climbing functional, concrete factory stairs. Cris explains his art as he cooks, telling stories about his love of his craft while delivering a nine course menu at the evening sessions. It’s a mere five courses for Saturday lunch.
The atmosphere is convivial, with diners encouraged to join in. As we sit together, friendships are formed. No-one leaves as a stranger.
The dishes are a joy. We shared plates of many contrasts, from a flavourful celery sorbet, which tasted incredible and I don’t even like celery, to juicy beef cheeks, celeriac, and onion, and salmon and fig, to an autumnal dish which combined seasonal squash with treacle and miso, ginger parkin, apple, and cashew cheese.
Chatting to guests on the way out, everyone had thoroughly enjoyed both the food and the overall experience.
But H I D D E N is also a rebirth. This isn’t Cris’s first rodeo; his previous venture, FEASTED, was much loved before it, like many other hospitality ventures, fell foul of the ill winds blowing through the hospitality sector.
Cris has been working across the UK, supporting restaurateurs and developing menus. There’s money in consultancy and Cris’s services are highly prized, but the lure of running his own kitchen, and his burning passion for storytelling with food, proved too strong to resist.
He’s an artist, a storyteller, an acclaimed chef. If there is any justice, this new project won’t remain hidden for long.
For a chance to visit HIDDEN in the new year, please follow the link to
