Now firmly recognised as one of Europe’s premier gastronomic events, Obsession celebrated its 17th year recently, presenting 23 outstanding chefs sharing 16 Michelin stars between them. Held at Northcote the AA Hotel of the year 2016/17, a renowned country house hotel situated on the edge of the Ribble Valley.
This year Obsession’s incredible line-up of chefs travelled from across the world and included chefs from Italy, Australia, Portugal, China, USA, Japan, and Slovenia as well as several UK locations.
For those fortunate enough to have a ticket, and they are extremely difficult to come by, the culinary delights that arrive at the table are a work of art and examples of fine dining at its finest.
If you are unable to attend the next best thing we would suggest is to follow the event on twitter. The easiest way of catching all the highlights is to watch what appears on #obsession17.
We weren’t at Obsession but we were on twitter and we did watch #obsession17 closely, as did 1000’s of others. To witness the engagement with #obsession17 was quite something and of course we got involved too.
Behind the scenes at Northcote, where dishes the acclaimed Chefs were producing meticulously and at a rate of knots that almost defied belief, were the front and back of house support staff.
Throughout the 17 days of the latest Obsession event we sent many tweets and many of those received the sort of engagement we like and enjoy.
The tweet however that got most engagement was a reply to Obsession photographer Allen Markey from our Kitchen Porters Club twitter page.
Allen sent a tongue in cheek (at least we hope it was) tweet congratulating the KP’s and the ‘Kitchen Porters Club’ just had to reply, we just didn’t expect the reaction we got…
There are many things our industry is great at, encouraging young people to join our industry, supporting peers through industry charities and applauding unsung heroes, amongst many others.
KP’ing goes on behind the scenes at every restaurant and the jobs that KP’s do quite simply enable the kitchen to function and flow. Without KP’s no kitchen can work.
The people following #obsession17 on twitter that evening appreciated that and when we tweeted our own well done reached it 3,491 other twitter pages. People with influence and substantial personal twitter networks simply shared and got involved.
So, great to see that in the middle of one of Europe’s premier gastronomic events, KP’s were front of mind for their efforts alongside chefs with 16 Michelin stars and food that could justifiably lay claim to belonging in an art gallery.
We would like to thank Electrolux Professional for sponsoring our coverage of Obsession17. A summary of the 17 days of with some wonderful images is available here.