THE GOOD LIFE…
After a successful career in London and Manchester, chef Dominique Ashford decided to ‘downshift’ and relocate to an idyllic farmhouse in the Ribble Valley
A specialist pastry chef, who has worked as head chef at the Houses of Parliament, has relocated to the Forest of Bowland to pursue her dream of running a rural B&B and working with leading Lancashire-based master stove makers ESSE.
Following a successful career in the capital, Dominique Ashford who trained at Michelin-starred Roux Brothers restaurants and Terence Conran’s Le Pont de la Tour, will be working on new product development, testing, performing cookery demonstrations and hosting cookery classes for ESSE.
During her time working in Manchester, Dominique was also responsible for creating stunning desserts with unusual flavour combinations for Aiden Byrne at Manchester House, where she will continue her work as a dessert development consultant.
In 2017, Dominique won a prestigious bake-off in Manchester to find the ultimate Eccles Cake recipe. Her winning entry – which included chocolate, cherry and stout finished with cream – beat equally indulgent creations from Lisa Goodwin-Allen at Michelin-starred Northcote and Steven Smith of the multi-award-winning Freemasons, Wiswell.
Dominique struck up a relationship with the Barnoldswick-based stove maker after stopping for a coffee at ESSE’s factory cafe whilst out cycling in the area. Spotting the bank of ESSE range cookers lining the wall, Dominique immediately understood their potential for baking amazing desserts.
“I’m used to working with large capacity commercial ovens and when I saw the quality of the cakes and loaves emerging from these amazing ovens, I had to find out more about them,” recalls Dominique, who runs her rural bed and breakfast with partner Andrew.
Dominique returned to do a cookery demonstration for ESSE a few weeks later and was impressed with the results: “Because of the weight and depth of the ovens, they simply don’t lose any heat, so you can be confident about baking delicate dishes like meringues, which require real precision to get absolutely right. The heat is also incredibly consistent and evenly distributed, so an ESSE really does bake amazing cakes and desserts.”
ESSE has installed a new 990 ELX electric range cooker in the kitchen at Dominique’s farmhouse B&B where she will develop new dessert recipes for the ESSE cafe as well as hosting guests at occasional demonstrations and cookery courses.
Dominique will also be sharing mouth-watering dessert recipes and baking tips on the ESSE website and social media. She joins an established product development and demo team that includes former River Cottage head chef Tim Maddams and cookery writer and tutor Philippa Vine.
