08/01/2025

Après, Cheddleton

Après is the second restaurant from Thom Bateman, the Cheddleton chef with a rapidly growing national reputation. Upstairs from the Michelin recommended Flintlock in the Staffordshire Moorlands, Après offers an outstanding tasting menu experience for just sixteen diners, presented by Thom and his chefs.

Après is the new fine dining restaurant from Thom Bateman. I’ve been eating at his first venture The Flintlock at Cheddleton since it opened in 2020 so have experienced first-hand how his food has just got better and better.

Offering quality but reasonably priced set menus, bistro dishes, knockout Sunday lunches, as well as tasting menus, within two years The Flintlock was awarded two coveted AA rosettes. Recently upgraded to three rosettes, plus inclusion in the prestigious Michelin guide, Thom has seen his national profile rocket including appearances on BBC TV’s The Great British Menu and Andi Oliver’s Fabulous Feasts.

Now, Thom is taking it to the next level. While The Flintlock will continue to offer an a la carte menu, bistro-style set menus, Sundays lunches and the like, Après will focus solely on an enhanced tasting menu experience.

APRÈS BY THOM BATEMAN

Situated upstairs at The Flintlock, Après seats just sixteen diners. This allows for the preparation and serving of even more creative and intricate dishes.

As well as the next-level quality of the food, Après has introduced interaction between chefs and diners. A now common feature of high-end restaurants, chef’s tables, open kitchens etc. can play a part in creating more memorable experiences. At Après, each course is served and explained by the chefs. In my experience, understanding the enormous thought and work that goes into each dish does give diners a much deeper appreciation and enjoyment of what we’re eating.

In the run-up to Christmas 2024, there were a limited number of services before Après’ full launch on Friday 24 January 2025. While I would normally wait for things to settle before trying a new restaurant, I’ve eaten enough of Thom’s brilliant food that made it impossible to resist.

APRÈS MENU & BAR

On my visit, the Après tasting menu was comprised of nine courses at £95 per person. The first three courses come under the understated heading of ‘Snacks’. These were followed by bread, two seafood dishes, a meat main course, a pre-dessert, and dessert.

As well as the usual range of soft and alcohol drinks, cocktails etc, there were two optional choices of wine flight. My partner and I chose the standard at £65 per person. There was also a premium pairing at £145.

If you’ve previously been to The Flintlock, entering through the main door you would have gone through the bar area to get to the restaurant. Now, the Flintlock entrance is on the canal side, while the main door takes you into the refurbished bar. In a modern, black and white style, it has the Après mountain-themed branding: Après (French for after) being a nod to après-ski or the activities after a day of skiing.

On that rainy December night, the cosy, faux fur-lined seating was a welcome retreat to choose a wine flight and have a pre-dinner cocktail (Negroni, £10.50). The first two courses of the tasting menu were also served in the bar before we were shown upstairs to Après.

SNACKS

The first snack was a delicate beignet or crisply fried little doughnut, robustly flavoured with aged Parmesan. On top were creamy horseradish aioli and finely diced, beautifully fresh-tasting chalk stream trout. To finish were as a sprig of dill and a little lemon zest.

The second snack included beef from an outstanding local supplier who’s always featured on Thom’s menus: Dunwood Farm. Here it came in the form of sirloin tartare in a crispy croustade shell. Like the beignet before, it was probably dinky enough to pop in the mouth in one go. But I nibbled away to make the delicious morsel last as long as possible.

Enhancing the full-flavoured beef were sweetish, tangy black garlic, and very on-trend lacto-fermented red pepper. The final flourish was (another chef favourite) purple shiso leaves, plus grated toasted hazelnut.

UPSTAIRS AT APRÈS

Prior to the final snack, we went to our table upstairs in the Après restaurant. Having the best seat in the house next to the tiny kitchen, I could glimpse the dishes being finished. But if you’re hoping for the macho drama associated with some chefs, you’ll be disappointed. Because Thom’s kitchen exudes a calm, composed, and well-organised air.

Our last snack was especially appropriate for a restaurant evoking après-ski: tartiflette. A rich dish of cheese, bacon, and potatoes, tartiflette has apparently been popular with skiers in the French Alps since the 1980s.

At Après it came as two separate elements. In the bowl were braised potato and caramelized onions in a light mousse. Instead of the traditional French Reblochon, was Tunworth Cheese, the highly-regarded British Camembert.

The top of the tartiflette had an attractive sprinkle of burnt onion powder and spots of bright chive oil. Alongside came a plate with a skewer apiece threaded with crunchy buttered toast and pickle, plus fatty and tasty acorn-fed cured ham.

Hugely enjoyable, it was very much lighter than the tartiflettes I’ve previously eaten. But with six more courses to go, this was probably just as well.

PARKER HOUSE ROLL + BUTTERS

Literally speaking, the next course was bread and butter. But what bread! And oh my god, what butter!

I’d eaten the Parker House Roll in several different guises at The Flintlock. Based on the soft and fluffy, sweetened roll made famous by the Parker House Hotel in Boston in the 1870s, I’d had it as both individual rolls and, as here, a flower-like pull-apart bread to share.

Beneath the familiar honey glaze the bread was as impossibly soft, buttery, and delicious as always. To eat with it were two flavoured butters.

My previous favourite had been Thom’s intensely savoury miso and onion butter. But that’s now been knocked off the top spot by his insanely good crispy chicken skin butter. Not for the fat-phobic, the butter had seemingly been whipped with chicken fat as well as having little crispy bits of skin speckled through it. On top were even more of the delectable crispy nuggets.

When Thom asked how it was, I joked that he needn’t bother bringing me any of the other tasting menu dishes. Just more of the bread and chicken butter, please. However, if he had, I guess I would probably have dropped dead from heart failure. But what a way to go!

If that wasn’t your thing, there was the second, perfectly good, butter flavoured with Marmite. I must admit though that neither my partner nor I ate much of it. Because we were completely obsessed with the chicken butter.

HAND DIVED SCALLOP

The next course was an exquisite specimen of one of my favourite shellfish. Scallop. As you should expect in a fine dining restaurant, these were hand dived. Sourced from Orkney, these are considered some of the best in the world.

For my taste, it was cooked perfectly. Pan roasted in butter until the outside was temptingly browned with a hint of charring, but only just cooked within. In fact, I’d say it was possibly the best scallop I’ve eaten. And I’ve eaten plenty.

The accompaniments suited the delicate, sweet-tasting mollusc beautifully. At the bottom of the bowl was a smooth velouté sauce with a hint of coconut. Warmly spicy and sweetish, it was based on vadouvan, the French take on an Indian masala. Diced braised pink radish and a lightly tart apple gel nestled beneath the scallop, while on top there was refreshing julienned crispy Granny Smith apple. The leafy garnish was bronze fennel and, another chef’s current favourite, apple marigold with its herby, zesty flavour.

NORTH SEA HALIBUT

It must have been my lucky evening, because the next course featured another of my favourite seafoods. Halibut. I think this was the most impressive looking dish of the night. As Thom explained it, I couldn’t stop turning the pearlescent bowl around and around, looking at it from every angle.

The fish had been brined (this enhances taste and texture) before slow poaching in brown butter. The taste was fresh and delicate, its savouriness intensified by a dusting of toasted nori seaweed powder and a generous spoonful of caviar.

I never would have guessed, but the golden fried shell beside the halibut was crispy Jerusalem artichoke skin. I could imagine eating rather a lot of those. The golden yellow pool bringing everything together was a rich and perfect smoked butter Champagne sauce.

What you can’t see in the photo are the additional elements that contributed to making this one of the most enjoyable dishes I’ve eaten in a while. There was more artichoke, both roasted and a delicious, caramelised puree, plus braised sea aster and compressed cucumber.

VENISON

The seventh course was Venison from another quality local supplier Sprinks Farm.

This was a very striking-looking plate with a piece of venison loin in its deep crimson sauce the main feature. Full of flavour and marvellously tender, Thom explained that the loin had been cooked over fire then rested in garlic butter infused with spruce. The intense venison sauce was finished with white port and there was a perfectly poached chunk of pear too.

There was more venison in the shape of a powerfully meaty and softly slow-braised ragu. This sat beneath an earthy, glazed maitake/hen of the woods mushroom which, in turn, was piled with black truffle. A delicious smooth puree of celeriac and peppercorn sauce was topped with something I hadn’t tried before but enjoyed its sweetish grassy taste: crispy reindeer moss.

I really loved this dish, so am hesitant to say that one more thing might have improved it. With the soft ragu and celeriac puree, plus lots of that wonderful venison sauce, it would have been good to have another firmer element to mop them all up. Maybe a few cubes of celeriac fondant or similar?

I should mention the wine flight at this point. I’m in no way a connoisseur, but I think the pairings were the best I’ve had.

Expertly introduced but in an accessible way by restaurant manager and sommelier Patrick, every wine was a delight. But the Serbian Trianon served with the venison was especially delicious.

RAW MILK ICE CREAM

I’d only discovered wonderful Tagg Lane Dairy and their herd of grass-fed Jersey cows last year. So it was great to see them featuring on the first Après menu in the pre-dessert. Their raw milk had been turned into a light, refreshing ice cream sitting on malted milk crumble.

On top were a little tart cherry gel, a sprinkle of subtly flavoured rose petal sherbet and crispy puffed wild rice. Not especially sweet, this was a good transition to the final course: a dessert which really pulled out all the stops.

MONT BLANC DESSERT

Fittingly for a restaurant whose name is inspired by skiing in France, the tasting menu ended with Après‘ tribute to the French dessert Mont Blanc. The original is a combination of chestnut puree and cream formed into the distinctive shape of the highest mountain in the Alps.

However, we were presented with something that turned out to be far more inviting.

Forming the peaks of the mountain were two different types of shards. Light meringue and melt-in-the-mouth blond chocolate crisps. Alongside was a smooth pool of caramel and rum sauce.

I wish I’d taken photos of the inside to show you. But I’m afraid I was too engrossed in eating it and periodically saying ‘oh, my god’ to stop and do that. But inside was a dome of creamy, incredible smoked chestnut parfait with raisins steeped in Pedro Ximénez sherry, and a Pedro Ximénez gel.

As someone who rarely raves about desserts, I pronounced this one ‘ridiculously’ good with pleasure piled upon pleasure.

APRÈS: SOMETHING SPECIAL FOR NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE

Since he opened his first restaurant, Thom Bateman has produced quality, tasty food you can’t help wanting to dig in to.

But, based on what I ate at Après, I’d say the creativity and detail involved in his latest dishes have gone up more than a few notches. Combine that with a modern presentation of personal interaction between kitchen and diners, including Thom centre stage, then you have something qualitatively different and very special in this area.

At heart though, it’s still about great tasting food that brings huge enjoyment. And with Thom’s increasing national reputation, I’ve a feeling that more and more diners from outside the region will be joining us locals at Après.

Highly recommended.