The chef and restaurateur says it is with a “profound sense of sadness” that the restaurant is closing, citing soaring costs and low consumer confidence as the reason behind the decision.
Describing the past 18 months as “very tough”, Cottam says that a sharp rise in energy bills, at a time when she was unable to secure a fixed energy contract, coupled with high food inflation and interest rates had created a perfect storm for the business.
Home launched in August 2017 on Kirkgate in Leeds city centre but relocated to the city’s then new Brewery Wharf development in November 2021 (pictured below), taking on a riverside premises. The tasting menu only restaurant serves Cottam’s creative and inventive style of food and draws inspiration from nature and art with menus starting at £65 and rising to £145 for the enhanced collection that features premium ingredient such a wagyu beef, caviar, lobster and fresh truffle.
The restaurant was shortlisted in the National Restaurants Awards Opening of the Year category in 2022.
“The thing that started the whole ball rolling was the energy crisis,” she says. “We moved the restaurant in November and in January energy prices rose, and companies weren’t offering fixed contracts. Our energy bills were £2,000 a month and rose to £10,000.
“Luckily, we are a really professionally run independent restaurant, we stockpiled cash and kept an eye on costs in a detailed way, but at the same time butter and oil prices rocketed.”
She says the subsequent rise in interest rates, which cut people’s disposable incomes, was also felt by the restaurant at a time when it was already struggling.
“There was a race to the bottom. We could see restaurants slashing prices, which gave people budget options. People who went out once a month and for birthdays and anniversaries and who would typically visit us were now going to similar restaurants that were offering menus for less or just a restaurant that was half the price.
“The market has exacerbated the situation. Costs have gone up, but the margins are not there.
“It is with a profound sense of sadness that we find ourselves succumbing to the insurmountable economic pressures that have affected so many businesses.
“Because this outcome is not due to any fault of our own, we can hold our heads high. We have given our all and have no regrets.
“Our industry is facing yet another crisis and the one way the new Government can help in a meaningful way is to eliminate or reduce the VAT for us.”
Future plans
Cottam says she intends to pursue future projects and is looking at ways of keeping her team together. “My team have said ‘wherever you go, we go’. We will be coming back, and I’m pretty certain it will be the same team.”
While there are no concrete plans in place, she says that any new project would be different to Home.
“I don’t think the whole tasting menu thing is done but people just can’t justify the cost of it at the moment. To come back and do something like I’m doing now would be the wrong thing, but will I be doing it again in the future? Absolutely.
“I’ve done a lot of soul searching already and thinking about what I should be doing if I’m not doing the style of food I’m doing now. I’d like to look at things in a more simple, honest, straightforward kind of way and do something smaller, more community based.
“My restaurant at the moment is hard surfaces and black and moody and glamourous and I think my next thing will be the opposite of that. It will be in an old building with lots of original wood and heart and soul cooking. That’s where I’m leaning right now.”
Cottam also runs relaxed modern British restaurant The Owl in Leeds’ Mustard Wharf, which is unaffected by the closure.
