Cook a Michelin starred dinner at home – with help from a top chef

Luxury Lancashire hotel and Michelin starred restaurant, Northcote, has revealed the date for a one-off live virtual cooking experience with executive chef Lisa Goodwin-Allen.

On Friday 26th March culinary connoisseurs will be able to reserve a seat at Lisa’s table and will be invited to join her in preparing a five star gourmet meal from the comfort of their own kitchens.  

Following the phenomenal popularity of Northcote’s home delivery boxes and the restaurant’s cookery school, Lisa and the team have combined both experiences to create a limited number of Seat at The Chef’s Table boxes, which guests can cook – along with Lisa – on the night.

Lisa will begin by talking through the ingredients and the running order of the evening and then get stuck into making the main course and the dessert.

There will be an opportunity to answer questions along the way, too. 

The menu for the night, designed to serve two, includes half a bottle of champagne, Northcote’s signature cheese bread, and a starter – free range chicken turnover with piccalilli.

The main course, which will be prepared alongside Lisa, uses seasonal ingredients – roasted rack of lamb with lamb sausage, young leek, sheep’s curd and wild garlic pearl barley.

The evening will end on a sweet note with a nostalgic favourite of lemon meringue gateaux, smashed meringue and runny cream, as well as a selection of Northcote handcrafted chocolates.  

We recently joined Lisa for a preview evening to see what the experience is like. Spoiler alert – it’s great fun.

We got the snacks ready in time to join Lisa live via Zoom, and she demonstrated the main course – in our case, Yorkshire duck with smoked bacon sauce and turnips.

The quality of the ingredients is what makes a good sauce, says Lisa, as we fry off some wonderful bacon from Lancaster Smokehouse.

She teaches us two ways to dice a shallot, so we can tackle our prep like pros in future.

And, of course, the top chef is full of top tips – from using verjus instead of wine to add sweetness to a sauce, to having the confidence to cook the duck at a lower temperature than any of us would have ordinarily considered.

Then – the highlight – we get to finish off crisping the duck skin with a blowtorch.

People ask questions throughout, and Lisa’s kitchen is set up like a TV studio with close-up camera angles so we can see exactly what is happening and copy her techniques.

It makes for a really fun, convivial night with great company – and, of course, some outstanding food.

The Seat at the Chef’s Table gourmet boxes cost £195 and serve two. There are 50 spaces available which can be reserved via the Northcote website on 18th March at 12 noon. Each gourmet box will be delivered on Friday 26th March, along with details on how to join the virtual event. Delivery is priced at £15. For more information, visit northcote.com.