The Olive Tree Bath retains Michelin Star in 2023 Michelin Guide

Chris Cleghorn, Executive Chef at The Olive Tree Restaurant, has retained one Michelin star for the fifth year running in the Great British and Ireland Michelin Guide 2023.  

Nestled within Bath's multi-award-winning Queensberry Hotel, The Olive Tree Restaurant received its first Michelin Star in 2018 and has retained it ever since.  This endorsement is testament to the ongoing dedication, hard work, creativity, talent development, highest quality producers and fastidious standards that are the hallmark of Chris Cleghorn’s kitchen.

This Michelin distinction is in addition to the restaurant’s ongoing 3 AA Rosette status and follows on from Chris Cleghorn winning the Hotel Restaurant Chef of the Year at the 2022 Hotel Cateys, known as the industry ‘Oscars.’ The Queensberry also won The Catey’s Independent Hotel of the Year Award in 2020.

Michelin is a globally recognised brand. Following last night’s announcements, there are now 188 restaurants in the UK that hold at least one Michelin star. There are 160 one-Michelin-star restaurants, 20 two-Michelin-star restaurants and just eight three-Michelin-star restaurants – no restaurants were awarded three stars in 2023. The Olive Tree is now the only restaurant in Bath, and one of only 114 outside London, to hold a Michelin star.

Image: One of the dishes available at The Olive Tree Restaurant

Chris Cleghorn said, “Everyone in the UK hotel and restaurant industry is facing extremely tough challenges right now.  Achieving a Michelin star, and then retaining it, is a source of great pride for the team and I. A Michelin star reflects and rewards the years of dedication and hard work that we have all collectively, and continually, put in to create our own Olive Tree-style and individuality in the South West, and in the UK, restaurant scene.”

Chris recently provided an editorial opinion piece for Boutique Hotelier, one of the industry’s leading publications, reflecting on the significant value that a Michelin star brings not only to a restaurant operation, but to a hotel business.  Chris said, “Our direct and recent experience illustrates that this value is at least doubled, if not trebled, when you marry a Michelin star restaurant with a hotel - especially an individualistic, characterful, independent hotel such as The Queensberry. We had a happily successful restaurant prior to the star.  However, in our first year of Michelin endorsement, we saw an immediate increase in F+B revenue. In 2022, despite industry turmoil, this further increased by a staggering 60%.” 

"Michelin’s endorsement immediately makes our restaurant, and our hotel,  more relevant to a broader audience, attracting a wider range of global guests to The Queensberry, with a firm booking in The Olive Tree.”

Chris added that Michelin is constantly adapting to current trends and challenges, as is The Olive Tree, and therefore remains a highly relevant accolade. In recognition of the present cost of living challenges, Chris has adapted The Olive Tree's menus to provide a lower-priced four course menu, so that any perceptions of being ‘too expensive’ are met with pragmatic offerings that still offer an Olive Tree experience. 

Chris says, “We know that a significant number of our guests come and stay and dine with us to mark special occasions. For these guests our 6 and 9 course menus and drink pairings offer the full experience to savour.  The relevance of our star couldn’t shine more brightly in these situations.”

However, for Chris and the owners of The Queensberry Hotel, Laurence and Helen Beere, the star also provides a vital magnet for recruitment.   

Chris says, “For me, what makes the star even more valued is the attraction for incoming chefs and restaurant team members.  We can only provide the level of service, experience and exceptional dining for our hotel guests if we have the right talent on-board. Our reputation, enhanced by the Michelin accolade, means we continue to attract keen and hungry chefs to our kitchen, in particular apprentices.  They want to learn in a recognised quality environment. As such The Olive Tree now offers a four-day working week, controlled hours and excellent rates of pay - the ambition of so many hotel kitchens!”

Laurence Beere said, “We are immensely proud of Chris and the whole of our team within The Olive Tree for yet again being recognised in the prestigious Michelin Guide. Our industry at large is still going through ‘a difficult time’ and Chris has continued to lead our team and our restaurant through with an admirable commitment to all the right things. This star continues to shine exceedingly brightly for all of us.”

Image: Laurence & Helen Beere, owners of The Queensberry Hotel & Olive Tree Restaurant

Laurence and Helen bought the Queensberry Hotel and Olive Tree in 2003 following a career with The Savoy and Cliveden. For the past 20 years, the couple have worked relentlessly to create the four-AA-red star, 29-bedroom property, investing continually to place it at the forefront of the boutique hotel market in South West England.

To find out more about The Olive Tree Restaurant, click here. To discover more about the Queensberry Hotel, click here.