I have always had an interest in food and culinary art indeed, my original career choice was the catering industry. During my early working days I trained under some very fine chefs, long before we became the foodie nation we are today. The main difference between my interest and those of others is; my love of food traverses the full and diverse range of edible items. From home cooked and substantial traditional fayre, to the more continental and fashionably popular fine dinning experience, often favoured by today’s wanna be socialites.
Another main difference is, I don’t blindly accept that something is great because someone else says so or indeed, because the price dictates it must be. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t actually have to fork out a fortune for well prepared great tasting food… A factor near and dear to most cost conscious (tight-fisted) Yorkshire hearts!
When people think of food & Yorkshire in the same context, it’s popular believe it’s all about, Yorkshire Pudding, chips, tripe and Black Pudding up north… Today especially, nothing could be further from the truth. Although to be fair, the humble black pudding is often a de rigueur ingredient of choice and, similar in popularity to chorizo, another fashionable commodity in today’s haute cuisine designer dishes.
Moving on, today we have some absolutely fantastic Michelin Star Restaurants in Yorkshire and, we can also lay claim to several of the most popular ‘Celebrity Chefs’.
Yorkshire now boasts the largest number of Michelin Starred restaurants than any other county in the UK. – Yorkshire’s Michelin Star Experience
Some of our most popular and well-known celebrity chefs (thanks to TV) include;
Brian Turner: Is a former Chairman (and now President 2004-) of the Academy of Culinary Arts, Brian was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire and holds many culinary Awards & accolades.
James Martin: Born in Malton, North Yorkshire, James’ father was the catering manager at Castle Howard. Consequently a career path via studying catering at Scarborough College, to his own success as a world class Chef was hardly surprising. With an extensive TV career, James has always been a great ambassador for his native Yorkshire.
Marco Pierre White: After leaving Allerton High School in Leeds without any qualifications, White decided to train as a chef. He began his training in the kitchen at the Hotel St George in Harrogate, North Yorkshire and later at the Box Tree in Ilkley, West Yorkshire. He was awarded his third Michelin star at the age of 33 – the first British and youngest chef ever to achieve this.
Rosemary Shrager: Although not a Yorkshire Lass, Rosemary has made the county her business home. In 2003, she moved her cookery school from Amhuinnsuidhe Castle in the Hebrides to Swinton Park, a luxury castle hotel in North Yorkshire.
Great Yorkshire Restaurants: I have always considered that, recommending a restaurant to another person can be fraught with danger. What if it’s a different chef on duty when your friend goes? What if, their tastes are not quite as cosmopolitan as yours? On top of that, many people wouldn’t actually know the difference between a great meal or an average one, especially if their home cooking only ever runs to opening cans or preparing the next Chicken Ding TV dinner! 🙂
I could probably think of five or six great places to eat in Yorkshire right now, and do so at the drop of a flat cap but I won’t. Half of the (although sometimes expensive) fun is, finding them for your self. Adopting this mentality also helps with finding those not already bursting at the seams with food fad fickle scoff junkies, trying to get another notch on their ‘places to be seen’ social CV.
If you love your food (as I do) that’s great, enjoy what you like, be it pie and chips or a classic Lobster Thermidor. All I ask is that you don’t turn into some toffee nosed food connoisseur, simply because you had a nice meal at a restaurant one evening. The world’s media is already jam-packed full of self-appointed (and often self-important) foodie critics preaching to the relatively uneducated eating public!
“Grub up pet”… “I’m coming darling, just posting to the blog”
Dave's Bankside Babble 