Galton Blackiston at Norwich City
Galton Blackiston spends quite a lot of time at Norwich City football club. He's a season ticket holder, shareholder, fanatical fan and good friend of the club's main shareholder, Delia Smith, and the current manager, Nigel Worthington.
He hasn't missed a home game at Norwich all season, so it's almost natural, then, that the Michelin-starred chef-proprietor of north Norfolk's Morston Hall should host an evening of his food at his beloved football club, under the title "Morston Hall returns to Carrow Road".
Following the success of last year's event, Smith's catering company at Norwich City, Delia's Canary Catering, had no hesitation in inviting him back. But this time, word must have spread across East Anglia as more tickets were sold for the formal black tie dinner than in the previous year.
At Morston Hall, a restaurant and hotel with seven rooms, situated on the coast near Holt in north Norfolk, Blackiston caters for small numbers, normally about 30-40 covers a night.
So the stakes were upped when his operation returned to Carrow Road. Blackiston's team of 10 had to prepare four courses for 220 guests paying £50 a head and what made the challenge greater was that it was being filmed for a fly-on-the-wall documentary for Anglia TV, to be aired later this month.
However, when I visit him before the event, Blackiston is in a chipper mood. He has just heard that his restaurant has retained its Michelin star, and his treasured Canaries are riding high at the top of Nationwide Division One.
So wasn't he worried about moving from the cosy environment of his own restaurant to a full-scale sit-down event for 220 people?
"It's a massive risk," he concedes. "There will be several people there who have never been here before, so of course we want to make a good impression.
"If I can serve 220 fillets of beef medium-rare then that's absolutely great. I want the food to be cooked as well as I can. I want it to be the best of Delia's events."
Blackiston says he has learnt from last year's experience, when the team catered for 180. He feels that last year's menu may have been too involved and may have made the preparation and serving a tough task.
"We served warm chicken with a rocket salad as a starter and grilled bass as a fish course - this was pretty tough."
This year, the menu is simpler, he says. The starter - a warm confit of Norfolk duck leg on sautéd Lyonnais potatoes with a bigarade sauce - should be easier to serve, and the fillet of beef should be more manageable.
Three days before the event, Blackiston took his five chefs from Morston Hall and joined up with five other chefs from Delia's Canary Catering team. Out of the 10, two were dedicated to pastry. The day before was spent preparing and explaining the dishes.
Blackiston says: "It's not fair to expect the Norwich chefs to interpret my recipes - so we shall be up there for three days to ensure it all works well. It's a very good exercise for our lot. They are quite molly-coddled here and get one-to-one tuition to learn how to cook properly, so it's a good experience for them to work under a bit more pressure."
But it's not just a work-out for the chefs, because the event raised money for Norwich City's coffers. There was also a raffle for Children in Leukaemia Fund. Blackiston doesn't charge anything for the event and pays his own staff for being there, so all the proceeds from the £50 ticket price go to the club.
"It's like my charity event of the year and repayment for Delia for all she has done for us - she's been brilliant to us since we opened and has even done the foreword in my book - and she doesn't do many forewords."
Well, they have a fair bit in common - food and Norwich City - but it was that love of the football club that sparked their friendship more than 20 years ago.
In fact, Spike, as Smith calls Blackiston, first met Smith when she was visiting her good friend Peter Tovey, who owned the Miller Howe country house hotel in the Lake District. Blackiston was working there as a commis chef with Tracy, who is now his wife.
Blackiston and Smith hit it off immediately, sharing a passion not only for good food and wine, but also for Norwich City. Since then their friendship has blossomed and Smith makes no secret of being thrilled at the success of Morston Hall, and she says she is "delighted" to have Blackiston back cooking at Carrow Road.
Galton on delia
On delia and Morston hall
"She's a great mate and has been a brilliant supporter of us for the 12 years we've been at Morston Hall. In fact, she and Nigel Wynn Jones (Smith's husband), were one of the biggest advocates for us coming back to Norfolk when they heard we were thinking of setting up our own venue. So she has had her part to play in Morston Hall."
on Delia and cooking
"I know she sometimes gets a bit of flack, but I don't think she has ever professed to being a chef. Her recipes are targeted at the domestic market, but one thing about them is that they work."
on Delia and Norwich City
"They (Smith and Wynn Jones) have transformed the club. I've been watching Norwich City since I was five and have been a season ticket holder for donkey's years. Delia and Nigel didn't have to get involved, but they have turned it around.
"The catering facilities at the Top of the Terrace (where Blackiston's event was held) are state of the art and you won't get better anywhere. You can't fault them - they have worked bloody hard for the club."
Delia on Galton
"We never talk about food, just football!"
menu
- Warm velout‚ of celeriac with apple pur‚e and crisp bacon
- Warm confit duck leg on sautéd Lyonnaise potatoes with bigerade sauce
- Pan-fried fillet of locally lined plaice, coated in brioche crumb, on roasted tomato fondue with tartare sauce
- Roast fillet of Norfolk beef (supplied by Arthur Howell), served with fondant potato, mashed swede, etuvée cabbage, sauce béarnaise and beef gravy
- Panna cotta of vanilla with blood orange jelly and blood orange sorbet
- Two cheeses with biscuits
- Coffee and truffles
Suppliers
Arthur Howell (butchers)
- North Norfolk Fish
- Cheeses from Neals Yard
Delia Smith and Norwich City
If you cut Delia Smith in half, she would probably bleed the yellow and green colours of Norwich City football club. Since she and husband, writer and editor Nigel Wynn Jones, became shareholders in the club in 1996, there have been some real changes. Both have invested millions of pounds and considerable time and effort, but have also tried to generate other income streams.
This explains why, in 1999, Smith set up Delia's Canary Catering to run all the food and beverage operations at Norwich City and to generate profits outside football.
Since then the business has grown dramatically to an annual turnover of £2.7m, with profits of £650,000 making up just over a fifth of the club's income.
On match days, the average crowd spends about £60,000, but revenue isn't restricted to match days. Since Smith took over at Norwich, she has orchestrated considerable investment in the catering facilities and staff, employing a head of catering, Lindsey Greenstead-Benesch, and an executive head chef, Lucy Crabb.
That's not to say that Smith has divorced herself from the food side. In fact, she still overseas all menus for the restaurants and events held at the club.
These were tough decisions that weren't popular in the local press, who thought the money should have been spent on players rather than kitchens, but it demonstrates long-term thinking and planning. In two years' time, the catering is targeted to make £1m profit for the club's coffers.
However, the decisions appear to be paying dividends and there are few supporters that would currently complain with the Canaries sitting on the highest perch at the top of the first division.
At the end of the season, if the club is still in the same position, the riches of the Premiership beckon. Smith reckons this will be "massive" for the club, but would also have knock on effects for the conferencing and catering facilities, which would become a "sexier" venue.
And redevelopment works continue. This year, the new South Stand has been opened. An on-site hotel is planned, which will increase business customers outside match days, and the catering team might well expand into outside events.
Events at Norwich City
Each quarter, the catering team produces a list of between 15 to 20 events. They include food and wine workshops, celebrity dinners, sporting events, family days and themed evenings.
Most events sell out and some, such as the BBC Good Food Lunch, are fully booked within hours of being advertised.
Events to come
Friday 13 February and Saturday 4 February St Valentine's Romantic Dinner, £32.50
Saturday 14 February Valentine's Party, Parisian Style, £29.50
Wednesday 18 February Food and Wine Workshop, Sweet Pastry, £95
Friday 20 February An Evening with Alan Hansen, £40
Wednesday 17 March St Patricks Day, £32.50
Thursday 18 March Food and Wine Workshop, Fish and Shellfish
Sunday 21 March Mother's Day Sunday Lunch
Friday 26 March 1970s Disco
Delia's Canary Catering on 01603 218704 or visit www.deliascanarycatering.com
Catering facilities at Norwich City
Three restaurants, including Delia's Restaurant & Bar (seats 140); open for match-day lunches, as well as the public on Saturday evenings. There are also two other large function suites suitable for up to 550 covers, one ground-floor exhibition hall, plus 17 smaller function rooms for groups of 10 to 150, 26 executive boxes and 26 kiosks and bars.
Morston Hall
Morston Hall, Morston, Holt, Norfolk NR25 7AA.Tel: 01263 741041
One-Michelin-starred restaurant
Restaurant seats 30-40, serving a set-dinner menu
Menu changes every night - cost £38
Single sitting: 7.30pm for 8pm, open every evening
Sunday lunch - cost £24
Also cookery demonstrations and events
Hotel
Seven hotel rooms, all en-suite
Offers weekend breaks, and longer stays
Residential three-day cookery courses
