HAPPY NEW YEAR !
W L
HAPPY NEW YEAR !
BY PAUL ASKEW , CHEF PATRON OF THE ART SCHOOL RESTAURANT
Welcome , dear reader , to the beginning of a brand-new year .
So first and foremost , I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year and from me and my team , we wish you all the very best for 2024 and beyond .
So we suddenly find ourselves at the dawn of new beginnings , fresh chapters and resolutions made . Let ’ s hope we can keep them all ! And we bid goodbye – fondly – to 2023 . It ’ s a year which presented new heights for us to scale and renewed our sense of ambition . This is the dawn of our biggest year to date , as in September we will reach our 10th birthday . There ’ s a little more on that further below .
December was an exceedingly busy month for us at The Art School . The festive season is always special and it was a wondrous pleasure to welcome you all to dine with us across our range of fine-dining menu experiences . Seeing so many familiar faces was lovely and equally heartening to meet many new patrons too . I hope to see you all again soon .
January was a lovely way to start to 2024 . I had four very special friends dropping in , one each Thursday , to cook – with my help and with our exquisitely paired wines . January 11th featured ‘ A farewell to Le Gavroche ’ with Steven Doherty MCA , followed by January 18th and a special evening with James Golding of ‘ The Pig ’ & Royal Academy of Culinary Arts . Then on January 25th Gary Jones was warmly welcomed , recently of Le Manoir aux Quat ' Saisons and he ’ s a leading Michelin-starred chef from the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts . Then finally on February 1st , my good old friend Simon Rimmer of Greens and Sunday Brunch is our special guest at The Art School .
I can ’ t help but feel the year is going to accelerate exponentially towards our tenth anniversary month in September . Time has always flown rather rapidly and it will be spring before we know it .
Getting to this point has been a life-changing journey for everyone who is part of our story – recall how we took that wild leap of faith back in 2014 when we first set eyes upon our fledgling home and the adventure has not stopped since . To reach this occasion is truly momentous for us and testament to everyone ’ s hard work who are part of The Art School ’ s story - ten years is going to be special and there will be more special events to reveal in due course .
With our heart at The Art School , we continue to work with some stellar external events . December was particularly busy on top of Christmas as we catered for the MotoGP FIM Awards during which some of us were based for a week at Liverpool Town Hall . This was a splendid occasion and another prime example of how well the city hosts such garlanded global events and it was a fabulous project for us . And we also found ourselves back with our good friends at The Jockey Club for some Aintree action as part of a prelude to the main event in April – our 3rd year at The Grand National beckons and tickets for this have been racing out . We were honoured to work in a new collaboration to promote The Art School at Aintree for future bookings , with a taster of our food , champagne and wines for guests .
I ’ d like to finish by saying 2023 was quite the year , wasn ’ t it ? Principally with Eurovision taking over in May and acting as a much needed catalyst for our great city ’ s hospitality industry . And we need to find more momentum , shift into different gears to keep this hospitality moving in the right direction throughout 2024 and far beyond . I feel we can make this a fantastic year . As always for me and my team , there ’ s much more to do .
With much love as always , Chef Patron Paul Askew x
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