The team at Northcote has always been ambitious about growing the business and offering its award-winning food to a wider audience. Today, that ambition is greater than ever with the new ownership of the 26-bedroom luxury hotel and Michelin-starred restaurant, enabling Northcote to launch an exciting new venture.
Blooming Onion is an outside catering concept that provides the exceptional quality food for which Northcote is renowned in a variety of external locations. It won’t offer just Northcote-style food, however, as the style of cuisine that Blooming Onion will serve will be very much driven by whatever is requested by the client.
“They will provide the criteria and we’ll provide the magic,” says chef patron-director Lisa Goodwin-Allen.
Craig Bancroft, managing director of Northcote, says that Lisa is very much the driving force of Blooming Onion, although he is very closely involved with ensuring the project has everything it needs to get off the ground: “It’s an exciting time for us as we believe the potential for growth is huge.”
It is not the first time that Northcote has taken its exemplary catering talent offsite. For nearly 20 years, until 2019, the hotel was the corporate and match-day caterer for Blackburn Rovers Football Club at Ewood Park and has also operated Northcote at Home, providing bespoke dinner parties in a domestic setting.
Now, with an injection of investment from new owners Alf and Clare Ellis, the drive to create something bigger and available to a wider market has become a reality. Adopting the name Blooming Onion has been a key factor in ensuring that the new business will offer something for everyone and operate in a variety of locations.
“The name Northcote at Home put us in a box, meaning that it was very much about creating Northcote food in a home environment,” explains Lisa. “With Blooming Onion, we will do anything from a barbecue to a canapé event, or something more elaborate, whether it is in the home, a corporate location or at another venue.”
The inspiration behind the Blooming Onion name reflects Lisa’s love of onions, one of her favourite ingredients, and the fact that it is a nod to the northern roots of Northcote: “Bloomin’ ‘eck!” chips in Craig.
Certainly, Goodwin-Allen’s enthusiasm for onions knows no bounds, whether it be punchy-flavoured English onions, pearly pink mellow Roscoff onions from Brittany or gentler spring onions in summer. “Onions are such a great ingredient,” says Lisa. “They have so many different layers of flavour and provide great structure to so many dishes.”
Blooming Onion opens the market up for a wide variety of clients, both corporate and private. The venture has already teamed up with a high level, blue-chip company, based close to Northcote, to undertake the catering for VIP clients involving buffets for 50 guests. A canapé reception for 100 covers has also taken place for Stratstone. Equally, private dinner parties, such as a birthday or anniversary celebration at a client’s home are catered for – something that Lisa’s team has extensive experience of organising.
Blooming Onion can operate in any location, it doesn’t even matter if there is no kitchen in place: “We have catered for an event held in a hangar where we had to take our own induction ovens and trestle tables,” says Lisa. The base for dishes can be prepared in Northcote’s kitchen and then transported to the location using a newly acquired refrigerated van. “We have a very large kitchen at Northcote so we have all the space we need for preparation.”
All catering for Blooming Onion is undertaken by Lisa’s kitchen brigade,with the catering team employed directly by Northcote. “All of the team members engaged in Blooming Onion projects will be Northcote F&B team members to ensure the delivery is consistent, genuine and matches Northcote’s high standards,” adds Craig Bancroft, managing director of Northcote. “We will aim to grow the team at Northcote as the catering arm of the business expands.”
There is a minimum spend of £3,500 per event, which will cover events up to 50 or so miles from Northcote in Langho. Further afield, additional costs, such as overnight accommodation and transport, may have to be factored in. At this stage, nothing is off the menu: “We are open to enquiries for events of any size and in any location,” says Lisa. “We’re very ambitious and will deliver parties to the highest expectations, whether it is a style of food of your liking or something highly creative.”
No problem! For instance, if a client requests a Middle Eastern-style buffet: “We love a challenge and would be happy to prepare any type of cuisine, and we would do it with a Lisa Goodwin-Allen twist,” says Craig.
The creation of Blooming Onion has been made possible by the support and encouragement of long-standing guests of the hotel, Alf and Clare, whose acquisition of Northcote marks their first foray into the hospitality sector.
“They are very passionate about the industry and have had great success as entrepreneurs in building up their own businesses, Ultima Furniture Systems and DIY Kitchens, based in Yorkshire, and want to grow the business here,” says Lisa. “It’s a massively exciting time for Northcote. There are endless possibilities and opportunities. Who knows how big you can grow an onion? If you leave it in the ground long enough, it can grow blooming big!”
