Michelin guide recognises East Lancashire restaurants (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Michelin guide recognises East Lancashire restaurants

4:40pm Thursday 11th October 2012 in News By Jessica Cree, Education reporter

TWO East Lancashire restaurants are reaching for the stars after the Michelin guide for 2013 was released.

The new list includes fine dining eatery Northcote in Langho, where owner Nigel Haworth has held on to the prestigious single star he first received in 1996 — but has now set his sights on getting a second next year.

And the Freemasons at Wiswell has also been recognised in the Bib Gourmand category, which lists restaurants offering excellence on a budget, for the third year running.

Northcote’s Accrington-born chef Nigel said: “We are absolutely thrilled, we are striving to keep developing the style of food that we have.

“Keeping the award emphasises the fact that we are not doing an awful lot wrong and that the team is constant.”

But Nigel added that Northcote would not settle with its one star and would keep pushing to join the elite list of restaurants with two stars, which he believed were only awarded to venues with a ‘certain twist’ and more intricate flavours in their cooking.

He said: “We are working on that, it needs something that only certain personalities can bring to food.

“There is a mystique with all of these things and I definitely have got to get another one for Lancashire, that is one of my main aims.

“The team works very hard and it would be the icing on the cake.”

While there are 138 single star restaurants in the UK only 20 have been awarded two Michelin stars.

Chef Patron of the Freemasons Steven Smith added: “Good food at moderate prices is something we do take into consideration.

“It is nice to just keep getting the recognition and hopefully it will lead on to bigger and better things like a Michelin star in the future.”

Comments are closed on this article.