The homecoming

Super chef Ellis Barrie and brother Liam return to their home city of Liverpool this month with new restaurant, Lerpwl

- Emma Mayoh

You can’t help but love Ellis Barrie. The talented chef is a fizzing ball of excitement; enthusiastic about the future, expecting a new baby and excited to open the doors on the new restaurant he launches this month, with brother Liam, on Liverpool’s Albert Dock. It’s been a long time coming – a few years in the planning – but their efforts have paid off.

‘It feels good to be opening in Liverpool,’ beams Ellis. ‘The city is absolutely buzzing – a great food scene, bar scene and its art and music. Scousers love another Scouser doing well, too, and there has been so much support and energy for the restaurant.’

HIs natural enthusiasm and lust for life is probably the approach that has earned him his culinary stripes. Growing up in Liverpool, when most young boys were dreaming about becoming a footballer or a musician, young Ellis was already having cookery lessons – spurred on by the influence of talented male cooks in his family.

‘My grandad was a cook in the Territorial Army and my dad’s dad was a dab hand in the kitchen, too,’ says Ellis, who will appear in BBC One’s rebooted.