A restaurant’s food festival, which welcomes top chefs from around the world, has raised more than £70,000 for charity.
Around 1,800 guests attended Northcote’s annual Obsession culinary festival, which took place between January 20 and February 5.
Customers sampled innovative, original dishes from 23 world-leading chefs that hold a combined 15 Michelin stars between them.
The event was a sell-out success, living up to its reputation as an unrivalled highlight in the UK’s culinary calendar, this year raising around £73,000 for Hospitality Action, a charity that offers a range of services and support to past and present employees within the industry
This year’s line up was packed full of outstanding talent and flair, a true celebration of gastronomy, with chefs from all over the UK and Europe making the trip to Lancashire to showcase their exceptional fine dining menus, created especially for the event.
Caviar with potato crackers, lobster, beef wellington, rhubarb crumble and more were just some of the 97 dishes on the menu.
Northcote’s executive chef Lisa Goodwin-Allen said this year’s festival was one of her favourites to date.
She said: “Obsession 2022 was so well received that it did take some beating.
“We wanted to showcase culinary excellence from the UK and Europe, giving guests the opportunity to experience dishes from exciting chefs that everyone is talking about like Chetan Sharma, as well as household names like John Williams from The Ritz and Tom Sellers from Restaurant Story. To have such a great line up of female chefs was really special too.”
Lisa said the money raised will support those in the hospitality industry who may have been impacted by the cost of living crisis and other economic factors.
She said: “It has been a tough time for the hospitality industry, we were just starting to recover but now business is being affected by so many other factors.
“To support people by raising an over £70,000 for Hospitality Action is amazing. It’s a charity that’s close to my heart. I’d like to thank the team and the incredible line up of chefs who came to Northcote to help us to achieve that figure.”
Charity officials were delighted with the amount raised which will be put towards a range of support services that help hospitality people pick up the pieces after a setback, whatever issues they are facing. Each year the charity assists thousands of people through challenging times.
Mark Lewis, chief executive, Hospitality Action says: “Year after year we are blown away by the incredible support of all those who attend, donate and work towards Northcote’s Obsession festival.
“Our industry and in turn, our people have been through the mill but, together, we're so much stronger. On behalf of all those we support, thank you. The Obsession legacy speaks volumes and will transform the lives of many hospitality people and their families across the UK”.
This year, Obsession was also a celebration of female talent with four of Europe’s leading women, Anna Haugh, Sally Abé, Monica Galetti, and Nieves Barragan Mohacho, all joining Northcote’s executive chef Lisa Goodwin-Allen and her brigade, reflecting the growing number of outstanding female chefs working in the industry right now.
Obsession launched 2001 as a celebration of great food, wine and a meeting of friends, old and new. From that first event, it has evolved but the ethos is still very much the same; to offer guests a completely memorable culinary experience, created by some of the world’s most innovative chefs.
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