Hanley chef celebrates inclusion in top restaurant critic’s book

A chef who opened a dumpling restaurant after struggling to find work during the coronavirus pandemic says it is “pretty cool” to be featured in award-winning food critic Jay Rayner’s latest book.

Little Dumpling King in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, had already been mentioned in a Guardian write-up by Rayner two years ago, but Rob McIntyre said inclusion in Nights Out In The Kitchen “makes a massive difference”.

Rayner wrote that he enjoyed the restaurant’s atmosphere and its “loose-limbed goofy approach to life”.

McIntyre was delighted. “If Mr Rayner enjoys what we’re doing, then we must be doing something right,” he said.