It’s a Thursday afternoon and I’m patiently standing in line at Salt & Pepper’s new spot on High Street. This is my third attempt to get my mitts on their sticky soy-glazed wings this week because each time I’ve headed here on my lunch break I’ve been greeted by queues meandering out the door - I’m not mad though, I’m very impressed.
Back in March, the hugely popular vendor was forced to leave Arndale Market after long discussions with the council over improving the extractor fans at the stall ran out of road. Winding queues had become a regular occurrence for siblings Chloe and Cash Tao, who opened Salt & Pepper in May 2019, but ironically their popularity meant it was no longer feasible to operate there without finding upwards of £91,000 to install a new extractor.
Skip forward eight months and it's a much more brighter picture. Look out from the Arndale Market now and across the street you’ll see Salt & Pepper’s neon bee emblem glowing above the doorway - signalling to both loyal fans and the uninitiated that something very exciting has landed.
“It's absolutely incredible, we’ve wanted this since we opened in the market - it’s always been our dream, so it feels a little surreal to be actually sat in our own place,” smiles Chloe, who’s taking five after a busy afternoon in the kitchen. “We’ve not been able to really enjoy it yet, just because it’s been so busy.
“Myself, the managers and my brother haven't stopped in around two weeks because we’ve been trying to get everything ready so we can finally open.”
This is just the latest chapter in the Salt & Pepper story - a journey that began 6,000 miles away. Chloe and Cash’s grandparents moved to Salford from Hong Kong in the 1960s, working in restaurants and eventually saving up enough to open their own Chinese takeaway. "They didn't have much when they first moved over so they opened the takeaway. It was quite rough where they were and they didn't speak much English then but they worked really hard on it," Chloe tells us.
Their father then moved over to the UK and began working in a takeaway too. It was here that he met Chloe and Cash’s mum, and the pair went on to open takeaways in Bolton and later Radcliffe. The siblings also mucked in, joining the family business to earn some pocket money. And, as Chloe says, it also taught them a good “work ethic” - one that has no doubt played an important role in their success with Salt & Pepper.
Moving back to Manchester after studying in Sheffield, Cash learned the ropes in his parents' takeaway in Radcliffe, picking up recipes passed down from his grandfather, before joining forces with his sister Chloe - who designed the Salt & Pepper logo - and opening their own stall at Arndale Market.
Tapping into what they saw as a demand for “accessible and modern” Chinese food in the city centre, the pair took the most popular dishes from their parents' takeaway, and used their grandfather’s old recipes to craft their hugely popular menu, including chicken wings cooked without batter to develop a unique flavour profile.
The menu, in case you were wondering, is divided into larger plates, ‘main ones’, small bites, extras like salt & pepper fries, boiled rice and sauce pots, and some newly unveiled stuffed wraps, which sound utterly delightful.
“We call the wraps the Chinese kebabs, and the bread - called Khobez - is freshly baked near the city centre. Basically they’re a bit like the flatbreads we used to do but with everything stuffed inside. We’ve also done a few more grilled dishes to give people some healthy options too," Chloe says.
Obviously, the star of the show is the salt and pepper chicken, which I gladly test out. It seems simple but it's clear a lot of work and refinement has gone into perfecting this recipe and I’m left licking my lips long after my last bite.
If you take one thing from this piece please let it be the hash browns. As far as I’m concerned, the way Salt & Pepper serve theirs is the only appropriate way forward. Five pieces of crispy, salt and pepper seasoned potato sprinkled with house seasoning - admire them, hold them dearly, and then scoff them before anyone else does.
The shredded sticky beef with garlic, chilli and canton sauce is also sublime. Topped with toasted sesame and crispy onions, each bite is better than the last. It’s served on a bed of chips, which I happily dunk into the brand new curry sauce - well new to me, the recipe has been in the family for generations.
“The curry sauce is actually my grandad’s recipe, so when he emigrated back in the 60s and opened his first takeaway this was the first curry sauce recipe he used so it’s been in my family for ages. It’s very nostalgic for us because we grew up in a takeaway and it’s what we used to serve and what we used to eat all the time.
“It’s been ages since then, my parents sold that takeaway a while ago and they’ve not been in the business for a while, so bringing this sauce back is really nice for them. I did actually have my dad make the first batch for me though.”
It sounds like we might have a couple of backseat drivers on our hands - but Chloe and Cash wouldn’t have it any other way. “My mum and dad have been so helpful with all this, they’re very involved,” she says. “I mean, I think they like to be, because it’s still very family centred.
“We’re serving stuff that they used to so they like to have their say - they’re definitely our biggest critics anyway. If my mum comes in I’m like, 'right everyone make sure everything is on point because she will tell me if it’s not.'"
And, as for their regulars, Chloe and Cash are very pleased to be serving some familiar faces. "We've had customers who've been with us since the first week we opened all the way until now. We like to think we know most of our regular customers too, like how our parents used to know theirs.
“The location is great, we’re still in the vicinity of where all our customers are and the most important thing for us was seeing our regulars again. We can remember some of their orders, we’re a little rusty at the moment, but we’ll get there.”
As for many businesses the Covid pandemic presented many challenges and Chloe and Cash pivoted towards a takeaway model after the first lockdown. Turning to Deliveroo - something their parents had never wanted to do themselves as they felt it would be too impersonal - the move ensured the brand was able to come out the other side.
Then, when Salt & Pepper announced in March this year that their market stall at the Arndale would be closing in a matter of weeks, it’s fair to say the future looked very uncertain. Chloe explained that the council asked them to pay upwards of £91,000 to install a new system, but when an agreement couldn't be reached, they were told their lease would not be renewed.
Manchester City Council said the takeaway posed a 'health and safety risk' as they were 'so successful' that the current extraction system was not capable of handling the level of smoke that originated from their stall. While it was a setback at the time, Chloe and Cash were always confident that they would come back bigger and better.
Most likely, this bump in the road was actually a blessing in disguise - one that led them just a few metres over the road, looking back at a former version of themselves. While the queues may be the same, perhaps even longer, this latest chapter is on Chloe and Cash’s own terms - and all the better for it.
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