Preston’s Must-Try Food Spot
Taking over Preston’s city centre culinary scene is Jay Oates, better known as The Tipsy Chef. Known for his burgers and bao buns, Ali Gudgeon went along to find out more about the social media sensation
With a passion for food and a good work ethic, Jay has worked his way up from a pot washer to head chef to owning his own successful street food restaurant. “I was 15 when I first started working in a kitchen in Doncaster,” explains Jay. “What began as a pot washing job, turned into getting involved with the food. I helped with salads, starters and this then progressed to chef shifts.”
After four years, he took a short break to work abroad and have some time out. Back on UK shores his chef journey continued working in traditional pubs and tapas restaurants. After moving to Chorley and working at another tapas place, the owner opened another restaurant and asked Jay to be head chef. “I threw myself headfirst into this role and was in charge of the menus and everything which was a big responsibility but I loved it.”
But then COVID hit and Jay was furloughed. “When I went back after COVID it just wasn’t the same so I left.” Jay went to work for a family business in Preston Markets. Whilst he was there, a unit became available and Jay decided to put his dreams into action of opening his own eatery. The rest, as they say, is history.
Jay’s street-food outlet in Preston Market Hall opened in April 2022, boasting some of the best Uber Eats reviews in the city thanks to its popular Asian-fusion menu. “I never wanted The Tipsy Chef to be just takeaway. I wanted it to be more of an experience for people to sit and enjoy the food, take in the atmosphere,” says Jay.
“Social media has been invaluable to us. In the early days we had YouTube star Adam Moran (known as BeardMeatsFood) visit us. This guy has 2m subscribers on YouTube and really helped get our name out there. People come from afar based on these online reviews. Customer feedback has been amazing. I’d say 99 per cent of the reviews are 5-star, which is just amazing.”
With the site in the Market Hall taking off, Jay had his sights set on bigger things. It was a natural progression to move into larger premises. In summer 2023 Tipsy Chef opened on Lancaster Road in the city to huge praise. Taking a lot of his inspiration from Pinterest and Instagram, Jay wanted to create an eatery with cool Manchester vibes, upbeat music and most importantly, the best street food.
“I got a graffiti artist to come in and create the art on our walls,” Jay says. “My dad said, ‘this is your personality on walls!’. He spent three full days here and the result is amazing!” Aesthetically pleasing, colourful and very Instagrammable, the restaurant is definitely a cool place to visit.
With a mouth-watering menu which includes the chef’s signature burgers and bao buns plus a selection of loaded fries, Jay creates his own sauces too – currently standing at 25 different flavours. Vegetarian and gluten-free options are also available, keeping everyone happy. Paired with a delicious tipsy cocktail, who could resist with names like Tipsy Sunset and Big Fat Chorley Wedding!
“It’s all about big bold flavours. Stuff that blows your palette away! And I only make food I like. It’s as simple as that. I don’t like mushrooms so I don’t make any of our dishes with mushrooms! We work with Livesey’s butchers on Preston Markets and all our meat is fresh every morning. We order the meat the night before so it’s all fresh and local.”
There’s still one question bugging me though, where did the name Tipsy Chef come from? Jay explains: “It all goes back to when I was 14 and I was given a randomly generated PlayStation name: TipsyChefPanda and the name sort of stuck. When I was furloughed and had time on my hands, I started streaming and my username was TipsyChefJay. So, when it came to starting up on my own, the name seemed the obvious choice.”
With a thriving restaurant, what could be next for the Tipsy Chef? “I’m thinking about getting a mobile van in addition to the main restaurant,” says Jay. “It would be great to get out on the road and do some festivals and maybe weddings. It would get the name out there and would be nice to have the freedom. That way if people can’t come to us then we’ll go to them.”
