Northern culinary powerhouse Northcote has announced an all-star line-up of visiting chefs for the 25th anniversary edition of Obsession, its annual mid-winter ‘Glastonbury of Gastronomy’ in Lancashire’s Ribble Valley. The festival will host more than 1,700 diners over 17 consecutive nights from 24 January to 9 February next year. The 21 participating chefs with 27 […]
A restaurant offering a ‘fine-dining’ take on classic northern dishes has launched in Rochdale’s newly restored Victorian Gothic town hall. The Martlet Kitchen, named after a mythical bird with no legs, has taken flight under chef Darren Parkinson, formerly of Shibden Mill in Halifax. It is open all day from breakfast, via a straightforward lunch […]
Philosophically inclined chef Sam Buckley is taking his acclaimed Stockport restaurant Where The Light Gets In to Manchester city centre this winter for a five-month series mixing residencies with workshops and talks. Titled ‘A play in the City’, the series is billed as ‘a unique four-act programme that combines food, art, and urban living into […]
Chef Steven Smith, who left the acclaimed Ribble Valley gastropub Freemasons in Wiswell in June, has announced his next move – to head up futuristic Japanese restaurant MUSU in Manchester. Steven transformed Freemasons over 15 years into one of the most commented-on venues in the annual Harden’s survey, which described it this year as ‘a fine-dining […]
Chef-patron Steven Smith has left Freemasons at Wiswell, the fine-dining pub in Lancashire’s Ribble Valley that he has established as a regional star over the past 15 years. Born and raised in nearby Blackburn, Steven plans to open a new venture in the region, although he has no concrete plans as yet. Head chef Matt […]
A major upgrade to The Stafford Collection’s Ribble Valley star has been announced at the same time as the property has released the 2024 line-up for its phenomenally successful Obsession festival. A new single-storey ‘Pavilion’ is to be built in the grounds, to create a 48-cover ‘signature’ destination for Lisa Goodwin-Allen who took over from […]
Glaswegian restaurateur Nico Simeone is suing a landlord for £4.4million arising from the 2022 closure of the Liverpool branch of his Six by Nico after flood damage. In papers filed to the High Court, lawyers say repeated floods and mould in the waterfront building on Liverpool’s North John Street left the restaurant “malodorous and unhygienic” […]
Highly rated Manchester pasta specialist Sud is relaunching its four restaurants as Rigatoni’s – less than a year after their last name change. Brothers Alex and Mike de Martiis (pictured above) founded the group as Sugo in 2015 with a single site in Altrincham, adding further branches in Ancoats, Sale and most recently the city centre’s […]
Gastronomic stars from Greece, Italy and Portugal will line up alongside a roster of Britain’s top chefs for the 2024 edition of Obsession, the annual festival of chefs hosted by Northcote fine-dining hotel near Blackburn in Lancashire. Michel Roux Jr will cook with his daughter Emily at the grand finale on Sunday 4 February in […]
A tasting-menu restaurant that combines three of the hottest cooking trends – hyper-localism, Japanese and Middle Eastern cuisine – has launched this summer in Lancaster under the name Now Or Never. Jeff Marshall, a former private and development chef, and his wife Nichola, a keen forager who acts as sommelier and runs the front of house, say […]
