Leeds MasterChef star Matt Healy to ‘expand his reach’ with the launch of a second location in Ilkley.

Now, three years later, Matt has shared his excitement and trepidation about the upcoming opening of a new Forde location in the Moors Shopping Centre in Ilkley this September. In an exclusive interview with the Yorkshire Evening Post, Matt said: “It’s always been on the cards to grow the brand.

“We weren’t forcing the issue – if the right place came up in the right part of town, we’d investigate further.

“And fortunately enough, my wife and I were in Ilkley getting knives sharpened somewhere when we just decided to have a little drive around, and we found this perfect little spot.”

Matt went on: “The Horsforth site is very small, 22 seats. It was a project to put me back on my feet, after losing my other restaurant because of Covid.

“But it sort of snowballed and we’ve ended up building a really good team and having a really good reputation, and it’s allowed us to be able to grow.

“People that have been coming to the one in Horsforth from Ilkley say, ‘you’ve got to open over there’ and ‘if you were to open over there, we’d be there all the time’.

“I know people say that, and a lot of times it’s quite empty, but I’m very, very excited to get a second bigger site and to cast the net a bit wider on what we do, and try and get a different demographic over there.”

Forde has established a strong reputation in Horsforth, serving brunch and coffee during the day and offering Yorkshire charcuterie, local cheese, small plates and fine wines in the evening. Matt is enthusiastic about expanding this concept with his new 40-seat restaurant, located next to the recently opened Italian restaurant Pranzo.

He went on to say: “What I want to do is, as the brand grows, have a core menu – any Forde you go into, you’ll get the same charcuterie board, or cheese board, whatever dish that may be.

“And then we’ll change the menu to fit the site, to fit the town, the city that we go into.

“The Ilkley site will be different in a sense that it’s bigger and we can offer more, but the core of what we offer will be the same as Horsforth – really lovely small plates, a banging Sunday roast, great cocktails and great wines.”

You can learn more about Forde Ilkley through its official social media channels, where Matt mentioned he will be sharing updates on the site’s transformation.

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