Visit Lancashire

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.

50 mile lunch

My husband's brother was up from 'the big smoke' at the weekend. Although there's many and plenty great places to eat near us on the Fylde coast we thought we would take a sunday drive over to Pleasington and treat him to lunch at the Clog and Billycock.

It's quite hard to impress a Londoner most of the time. Everything they have is bigger, bolder, better, tastier.
Except when it's not.

Obsessed with Obsession

You might not immediately associate Lancashire with fine dining and the world’s best chefs but they’re all here over the next 10 days – Ken Hom, Tom Parker Bowles and the Michelin starred Tom Kitchin to name but a few.

So what are they doing here? They’ve flocked in for the 10th anniversary of Obsession, Festival of Food and Wine at Lancashire’s own Michelin star restaurant, Northcote. To mark the occasion the week-long event, billed as a “gastronomic extravaganza” has been extended to 10 days this year. The top names in cuisine have been coming to Lancashire for a decade to produce a ‘one night only’ special menu using the finest local and regional ingredients. The Great British Menu winner and co-owner of Northcote, Nigel Haworth, says he is honoured to have these great cooks and friends in his kitchen – and I bet his hundreds of diners are pretty pleased too!

Midland Delight

The break between Christmas and New Year saw me hankering for a brisk walk and some fresh air so we decided to take a drive up to Morecambe and have lunch at The Midland Hotel. I haven’t been since English Lakes Hotels took over the management of the property and the rest of the family hadn’t been at all.