Michelin Guide 2023: Leeds chef Michael O’Hare reacts as The Man Behind The Curtain retains its Michelin Star

The Michelin Guide 2023 was released on Monday evening, with seven Leeds restaurants recommended in the gastronomy bible. The Man Behind The Curtain remains the only restaurant in the city to hold a star - and it’s a proud achievement for its chef patron to have held the accolade for close to a decade.

“It’s a great feeling,” Michael told the Yorkshire Evening Post. “We don’t take these things for granted, but I think it’s important to have self worth. We did expect to, as a minimum, retain the star.

“Having a restaurant is like having a child, you don’t realise how much they’ve grown or how much they’ve changed, you just see it as a constant progression. There comes to a point when you think - oh my god, this isn’t a baby anymore. This isn’t in its infancy, this has really developed. The development of the restaurant over the last eight years is phenomenal.

“The stage we’re at now, I’m genuinely really proud of where we’re at, what we’ve achieved and the product that people coming in tonight will receive. It’s a really clean and clear reflection of what I want to put out there and what a restaurant should be today. It’s more refined, it’s more fun, it’s more elegant, it’s cooler. It’s a place that I’m really happy to call home.”

Opened in 2014, The Man Behind The Curtain is known for pushing boundaries with its unconventional food, service and design, with Michelin critics praising Michael’s “original, very creative and artfully presented dishes”.

It’s been a challenging year for restaurants in Leeds and across the country, making the Michelin stamp of approval more welcome than ever for the seven restaurants included in the Guide. With costs skyrocketing and a crisis in recruiting new staff, Michael said restaurants are facing a “very unusual landscape”.

“It’s difficult for restaurants to make things work at the moment,” he added. “I think the last year has been more complicated than the lockdown and Covid years, because we knew what we were dealing with then and everyone was in the same boat. People are affected differently with the cost of living crisis.

“Furthermore, there’s a heavily advertised issue with getting staff in any hospitality sector, it seems to be very difficult. It’s a shame but I’m sure, no doubt, that it will come back around in the not too distant future.”

Michael and his team at The Man Behind The Curtain will keep pushing boundaries over the next few years - and hope to one day be rewarded with a coveted second star.

The 41-year-old said: “We’re constantly working on development and redevelopment, looking at the weaker spots of the service and food, looking at aspects that can be tweaked or refined.

"The ultimate goal is to be a two star restaurant. We’ll keep going onwards and upwards and one day I’m sure it will come. It will be a nice achievement for me and the team - and also for the city. For eight years we’ve been the only Michelin star in Leeds, so it would be nice to see more popping up in the city.”