Visit Lancashire

Embarking on a journey through Lancaster

Armed with a newly printed trail map, my wits and an army of loyal tourist board members, I set forth to try out the new Lancaster Heritage themed Treasure Trail – a heritage themed walking trail through the city of Lancaster with clues to solve along the way.......

Obsession Cookbook

Well, the 10 day marathon that is Obsession 2010 has come to an end for another year. The event finished last night with Northcote’s own Nigel Haworth stepping up to the plate with his  “phenomenal blend of textures and mouth-watering flavours”, to quote one of the diners and the wine which accompanied the rhubarb dessert got a real thumbs up – “the wine was perfectly chosen as its bouquet resembled rhubarb”!

The good news is that while you’re waiting until next year’s fabulous festival, Obsession lives on in the Obsession Cookbook. Featuring the original Obsession dishes as well as easy to cook at home recipes from talents such as Heston Blumenthal, Raymond Blanc, Michel Roux junior and Angela Hartnett, the Obsession Cookbook celebrates all things passionate about cooking. The book of over 100 recipes is on sale on Northcote’s website at a price of £35.

A Fairlie French Obsession

Having been in the kitchen from 8 in the morning, I think Andrew Fairlie, the chef from Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire, was glad of the short break our interview gave him! Andrew has been on Nigel’s hitlist for nine years and only now has he been able to work a trip to Obsession into his own busy schedule, due to the extension of the Festival dates into February.

Something fishy’s going on at Obsession...

Last night it was the turn of Jacob Jan Boerma to take centre stage at Northcote’s Obsession 10 event. Another international guest chef, Jacob comes from the Restaurant De Leest in the Netherlands which has 2 Michelin stars.

Jacob says he is very honoured to be invited to this event. “This is a good opportunity to show the people the style of our kitchen and the way of cooking in The Netherlands. I think it is also important to learn from this event and maybe some day we can hold an event like this in The Netherlands.”

Obsession 10 in Pictures

This gallery, of a week in the kitchen at Northcote during Obsession 10, is representative of a wide range of images taken throughout the festival by photographer Allen Markey. This year the festival continues until February 3 – a ten day celebration, marking a decade of Obsession.  Reproduced as part of the visitlancashire Blog,  by kind permission of Allen and Northcote. For contact details or more information about Northcote Northcote.

Obsess-Hom...

Sitting by a roaring fire at Northcote, waiting for Ken Hom to return from his lunch with Nigel, the place appears serene and positively ‘normal’ considering the magnitude of the guest chefs of the days before  and the one we’re about to meet.  There’s lots of activity; polishing glasses and cutlery, Head Chef Lisa having her portrait taken by Obsession’s photographer Allen Markey (whose pictures you’ve been seeing in the blog), phonecalls coming in (though if they’re after a seat at a table....it’s sold out).  Though we offered to help chop some veg (and perhaps see if it’s quite so calm in the kitchen) Lisa politely declines, then heads off to start prepping 150 spring rolls.

Obsessed with Ken Hom

Having met the legend that is Ken Hom today at Northcote during the Obsession 10 festival, we asked Ken your questions posed on Twitter...

What is your favourite wine?
Mr Hom said, “People often think that wine doesn’t go with Chinese food but I disagree; one because I like drinking wine and if you are having a Chinese dish of duck or pork I think a red wine really complements the dish.  A red wine from France or the new world would be my choice!

Feeding our Obsession

We thought we were getting just a little obsessed with Obsession – but then we met Northcote Head Chef Lisa Allen, she came to help with the second Obsession 9 years ago, thought a year at Northcote would be great experience before travelling... and she’s still there.

Catching her on a short break we found out why Lisa had stayed so long. “The thing I love about Northcote is there’s always a challenge and as long as things are new, and there’s someone there who’s really enthusiastic, and they’re feeding you (no pun intended) then people are going to stay!” 

Chicken Obsession

So who is Reg and what’s his Obsession connection?
 
Reg is the “chicken man”, the Johnson of Johnson and Swarbrick, one of Northcote’s suppliers of duck and chicken products from the village of Goosnargh. So what makes him stand out from the rest? “His high quality products at a good, but not over-inflated price.” says Nigel, an advocate of supporting high quality, local producers.

Then there’s Peter Ascroft, the “cauliflour man” from West Lancashire who supplies much of Northcote’s green vegetables, as well as growing the Lancashire pineapple (a beetroot to you and me!).

Origins of Obsession

So, what is the story behind Obsession? To find out, we took a trip to Northcoteto meet Nigel Haworth and Craig Bancroft, Northcote’s leading lights.

It all started with a trip to America 11 years ago. At the invitation of a friend, Nigel travelled to Carmel in California to help at the area’s food festival. 250 diners were served each night while the vineyards of the Napa Valley provided the perfect wine accompaniment to the cuisine. It got Nigel thinking, with its lush countryside and delicious local food could this be done on a smaller scale in Lancashire? And the answer was of course – yes!

10 years, 56 chefs and over 300 varieties of wine later, Obsession is still going strong and Lancashire remains the only place where top flight chefs will clamour to cook at someone else’s restaurant! By Nigel’s own admission, many of his chef friends have started festivals which have faded away so 10 years is a big deal.