Young National Chef of the Year 2018, Danny Young on celebrating British produce

Young National Chef of the Year 2018 winner, Danny Young on why he loves to use British produce and Northcote's new innovative indoor garden.

• See more Young National Chef of the Year 2018 blogs from Danny Young
• When was the final of the Young National Chef of the Year 2018?
• See the latest recipes from Danny Young

In his latest blog, Danny talks about forthcoming menu changes, celebrating the use of British produce and the latest innovation at Northcote.

It’s been quite a few weeks since my last blog, it’s been really busy with the summer season just kicking in at Northcote. We’ve had a couple of menu changes quite close together from Spring into Summer, which will be launched in the coming weeks.

As you know, these are the best seasons for British produce and our suppliers have been delivering us some amazing asparagus, seabass, heritage tomatoes amongst many other wonderful ingredients. I’ve been working alongside Lisa as she develops the new menu for Summer, English peas and broad beans will be making an appearance as they are coming along nicely in the Northcote garden, and the stunning heritage tomatoes from the Isle of Wight will more than likely have a whole dish dedicated to them - as they rightly deserve!

Since my last entry, we have had an urban cultivator installed in the Northcote kitchen. If you don’t know what that is, it’s basically a high-tech indoor garden. This has given us such a boost in using types of herbs or plants. For example, our Head Gardener, Phil Dewhurst, has been working closely with us chefs in the kitchen to grow the right quantities of herbs that we need for our menu.

On our current menu, we have a beautiful Squab Pigeon dish, created by Lisa, where we use our own grown turnip shoots and this has come about through working with Phil to use the cultivator to grow what we need in terms of and quantity but also exceptionally high quality.

We try to use the cultivator in ways that are unique to us – we can grow things that we can’t readily buy from a supplier due to yield restrictions, and in the long term this helps us reduce our purchasing costs on ingredients.

In the last few weeks, I was invited along to cook in Malta with Nigel Haworth. He had originally been invited last year by a restaurant called Ta’Frenc, which is in Gozo, Malta. Nigel offered me the opportunity to join and support him cooking for 2 nights of dinners.

It’s always good to see how other kitchens work and operate, and the added bonus was getting to experience their local produce and cuisines. There’s always a little time to be made for sampling the local food and drink!

It’s going to be a busy Summer for all of us at Northcote so catch me on the next blog after I’ve had my summer holiday too!

About Danny Young:

Danny is Young National Chef of the Year 2018 and won the competition at the Restaurant Show at Olympia London in October. Danny is currently sous chef at Northcote in Lancashire. His first experience in fine dining came after he left school when he secured a job working in a Michelin starred kitchen. Danny has come in second place in the Young National Chef of the Year competition for the last two years and was North West Young Chef of the Year in 2014.