Reggae Reggae Sauce creator Levi Roots is hoping to open a restaurant in Manchester.
The British-Jamaican musician and celebrity chef, famed for his appearance on the BBC show Dragons’ Den, opened his first restaurant, Levi Roots’ Caribbean Smokehouse, last Christmas in London.
And now he has his eye on opening a second in the Manchester area at the beginning of next year.
He hasn’t found a site yet but he says the Trafford Centre would be an ideal location for his new restaurant business.
He said: “Manchester would be a prime location. If there is a shopping centre type of location where young people hang out, that’s where I would be looking to locate.
“I think the Trafford Centre is a great place.”
Levi’s Smokehouse, at the Westfield Stratford City shopping centre, serves jerk chicken and other traditional Caribbean favourites, including Bajan fishcakes, ackee and saltfish and pineapple and chilli upside-down cake, turning his dreams of opening a Caribbean eatery into a reality.
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It followed the success of the Levi Roots sauce brand, which now has 50 products in its portfolio after Levi was offered an investment of £50,000 for a 40 per cent stake in the business by Dragon investors Peter Jones and Richard Farleigh.
Speaking to The Diary from the Lowry Outlet Food Festival, at Salford Quays, where Levi was demonstrating how to cook a variety of sizzling summer dishes today, he said: “It has been seven months since I opened my restaurant in London and I am now looking around for site number two.”
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It is almost 10 years since Levi urged “put some music in your food” with his Jamaican jerk spice barbecue sauce.
Crowds at Salford’s Lowry Outlet watched Levi prepare delicious dishes, including Martinique chicken curry.
And he told us his advice for hosting a successful barbecue.
“You’ve got to put flavour in the meat,” he said. “It needs a really good marinade.”
“One trick is to drink half of a bottle of Guinness, top it up with water and use that to douse the flames.
“It will add a rich flavour to the smoke.”
He added: “I love a good fish dish on a barbecue, such as fish parcels made by wrapping cod, snapper or salmon in foil paper with coconut oil and marinated in Reggae Reggae Sauce.”
