Lisa Goodwin-Allen is Executive Head Chef at Northcote and was promoted to the position in 2015 after almost a decade as Northcote’s only female head chef, a role she first took on at the age of 23. She works alongside chef patron Nigel Haworth to maintain the Michelin star that Northcote has held for the last 20 years and is passionate about using seasonal and locally sourced ingredients to incorporate her Lancashire roots into her creative dishes.

She began her culinary career at Lancaster & Morecambe College and worked at the highly acclaimed Holbeck Ghyll in the Lake District and at David Everitt-Matthais’s two Michelin-starred Le Champignon Sauvage in Cheltenham before arriving at Northcote in 2001 as a demi chef de partie. She quickly moved up through the ranks and was promoted to chef de partie within a year with junior sous and sous chef positions following soon after.

“Definitely one of my biggest achievements was becoming a head chef at such a young age, that was the turning point of my career,” Goodwin-Allen told Four magazine. “A big part of my food is that I’m a Lancastrian girl. We’re very lucky to be in this area because of how much local produce we’ve got. We also look back at a lot of things in the Lancastrian heritage and how we can turn it into a fine dining dish with our own style on it.”

We also look back at a lot of things in the Lancastrian heritage and how we can turn it into a fine dining dish

Goodwin-Allen has been named Restaurant Chef of the Year by the Craft Guild of Chefs, Best Chef of the Year at The Northern Hospitality Awards and has reached the finals of The Roux Scholarship and Young Chef Young Waiter competitions. Her wild rabbit and leek turnover was served at the banquet celebrating the National Trust that was the finale of the BBC’s Great British Menu TV series in 2010. She returned to the show as a guest judge in 2016 and was also a chef mentor on MasterChef: The Professionals in 2015.

In 2017, Goodwin-Allen was involved in Springboard’s FutureChef, an industry-backed resource aimed at inspiring young people aged 12 to 16 to cook through classroom activities, demonstrations, competitions and awards. “I love to encourage people to come into this fantastic industry where you can learn so much and meet so many interesting people.”

Outside of work, Lisa loves to spend time with her husband and young son, often cooking with them.