Right off the motorway a broad, verdant valley opened up with sweeping views of the hills in the distance. Cattle were grazing by the banks of the river and along the road there were various signs of longstanding prosperity: stone churches, substantial houses and several well-maintained inns. Better still, when we arrived at the restaurant nine miles away there were peas and broad beans, salad leaves, nasturtium flowers, French Beans, wilted greens and leeks thinner than a pencil all growing in the restaurant’s gardens.
This was not the sun drenched south of France or Italy or even some lush corner of Spain but another far-flung corner of the Roman Empire – the Ribble Valley in Lancashire where just over 20 years ago chef patron Nigel Haworth and host Craig Bancroft opened Northcote Manor.
Although the potential of the countryside may have seemed quite limited in those days the practicality of the hotel’s location must have been obvious. In simple terms, it’s a mornings drive from London and about 40 miles from the North of Manchester and Merseyside.
Haworth and Bancroft have fashioned an effective and long-lasting partnership by understanding what their well-heeled customers want and delivering it. It is clever to ensure that the first thing that customers see on arrival, on a table in the hotel’s bow window, is an inviting bank of several dozen champagne glasses, part of Bancroft’s simplistic but highly effective approach to customer care “ We make sure that they’re happy when they arrive and then keep them going”
The kitchen’s distinctive contributions begin with a comprehensive reworking of local ingredients: a first course of organic Lancashire cheese melted over free-range eggs with bacon; ducks, bred in Goosnargh 10 miles away, their legs cooked as a confit that would satisfy any chef or citizen of Toulouse; and miniature Eccles cakes as petits fours.