Northcote's Obsession 15 is over, so what's next for Nigel Haworth?

Northcote’s Obsession food festival has finally drawn to a close after 15 nights; and the kitchen has seen new and old faces alike, create an array of international delicacies.
The Staff Canteen caught up with Nigel Haworth, the brains behind Obsession, to find out how he was coping in the wake of the festival.

“I’m sort of unwinding,” said Nigel. “I think it will take a week to get out of my system because it is a huge event and a massive adrenalin rush.”

Nigel was inspired to create the Obsession food festival in the UK after travelling to California in 2000. January seemed like the perfect time to him to hold such an event to increase the trading period. “Now it’s the busiest time of year,” explained Nigel. “People want to come back year after year.”

Having been at Northcote for 30 years now, and Obsession running for half that time, Nigel was impressed by the continuous support it still receives.

He said: “It went amazingly well. It surpassed all my expectations and it was an incredible event. When you start things, as I did 15 years ago, we did four nights and it was reasonably successful, it’s then keeping it going. That’s always the hard bit.”

With the support of Gold Medal Travel, chefs from all around the world were able to stay for longer and do their preparation and cooking at Northcote.

“We managed to get a high quality of ingredients, which surprised many. That’s a credit to all our suppliers,” Nigel continued. “But truffle was the stand-out ingredient… we used nine kilos of it.”

Nigel praised Margot Janse and Gaggan Anand but was particularly impressed by Martin Klein from Hangar-7, and said: “He was extremely good and extremely talented at communicating. He was picked out by the staff as being very inspirational.”

He also revealed the recipe for Obsession success. “It’s getting the really interesting chefs with the great personalities as well as being great cooks,” he explained. “The food’s just been amazing. When you do events like this, you always expect it to be good, but it really surpassed all expectations.”

A low point throughout the two weeks was a temporary shortage of edible charcoal, needed in several of the dishes. Nigel said: “Shaun Herggat alone needed two kilos. It has to be a particular type, called Japanese edible charcoal, not just an old piece of wood that’s burnt.”

As plans for next year go, Nigel is looking to make some decisions in the next few weeks. “To be honest with you,” he said. “We could fill 25 nights, but it’s having the stamina to do it. You’ve just got to get the right blend of chefs. We’re already looking at recruiting from Peru and Mexico. We had a fantastic line up this year, we were very lucky.”

Nigel will also be flying to the Maldives to cook in six weeks time and said:“On your travels you can always look and find gems that you didn’t know about.”

In celebration of 30 years, chef Gary Jones will travel to Northcote to cook on St Georges Day, and Nigel is set to cook at Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons in June.

“I think we’re also going to do something for our customers particularly to celebrate 30 years and that’s in the plan for later in the year,” Nigel added. “It never stops at Northcote, it never stops.”

By Molly Mileham-Chappell