Bistro La Barrique is the latest venture from renowned chef Michel Lemoine.

Originally studying cookery in his native France and first working in Paris, Michel came to London in the 1980s to work with such illustrious names as the Roux Brothers, Alistair Little, and with Simon Hopkinson at Bibendum. Moving to the west country in the 90s, Michel spent a period as the head chef at Bristol’s Glass Boat. By 1998 he had become a partner in Byzantium and went on to build a reputation for quality French bistro cuisine as proprietor of the highly regarded No.5 French restaurant in Bath, in which he retains an active role.

Diversity, quality, great value
With Bistro La Barrique Michel has fulfilled his ambition to create an authentic French restaurant well suited to its neighbourhood location between the Bishopston, St Andrews and Redland districts in north Bristol. With its emphasis on creating a relaxed, warm and welcoming ambience, and providing diversity, quality and great service at an affordable price, La Barrique is somewhere that customers will want to visit again and again.

As Michel says “I’d been involved in food and wine tasting evenings where we were combining a number of smaller, succulent dishes with complementary wines. This fun and interesting experience became the inspiration for the ‘Petit plats’ approach that is now the cornerstone of our style at La Barrique”.

TV & Radio appearances
Although committed to spending as much time as possible in the kitchen at La Barrique alongside assistant chefs Olof, Jack and Klaus, Michel will also be maintaining his parallel media career, making regular appearances on the UKTV Food channel, while also continuing to present on cookery-related themes for BBC radio.

You can see online video of some of Michel’s appearances on the TV show 'Great Food Live' by clicking here to visit the UKTV Food web site.