January 22nd, 2025
Discover a Lake District Foodie Bolthole
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Jane Hunt talks to Robert Stacey, the executive chef for the Levens Hall Estate, which includes overseeing all of the foodie developments related to Levens Kitchen and Levens Bakery, two food-related venues associated with the visitor attraction of Levens Hall and Gardens. The latter is one of Catapult PR’s travel PR and tourism PR clients and one for which we have shaped various award-winning PR campaigns, which have so far resulted in 10 awards, adding to our travel PR agency credentials.
Food and drink – and catering PR – has also been our remit for many years, with Jane Hunt having handled the national catering PR for British Gas and also worked with many chefs in the South West region – and in the North West since moving back north.
This gave Jane added incentive to explore this story! The interview discovers Robert’s prestigious background as a chef in top London restaurants and culinary roles, explores how he came to be in the South Lakes and discovers how the vision for Levens Kitchen has evolved over the past six years or so.
She then finds out more about the relatively new addition to the food options at the Levens hall and Gardens site – Levens Bakery – for which she handled PR stories at launch time last year. Discovering what other food delights visitors and non-visitors alike can enjoy should be the mission of anyone who is travelling to the southern Lake District this year or, indeed, local residents who want to enjoy a very good coffee or lunch out – or that all-important Levens Kitchen thing of brunch!
Jane tries to get to the bottom of what the most popular menu choices are at Levens Kitchen and also discovers what it is that Robert Stacey would most like to bottle up and sell!
Jane discovers a few other things she didn’t know – of great interest for those visiting nearby Levens Park for a wonderful stroll along the river bank or picnic – as the takeaway options available from Levens Kitchen can allow walker or families to make up their own picnic hamper. But that’s not all they can take out with them, as listeners to the podcast will find out.
The podcast might also help those who are travelling up the M6 to gain some inspiration of where they can stop off for refreshments, gloriously baked items or lunch, as Levens Kitchen is just a short drive from Junction 36 and well worth a bit of a detour. The same is true for anyone on the road to Ulverston or Barrow or anyone taking the more traditional route between Lancaster and Kendal, with Levens Kitchen being just a short drive from Milnthorpe. As Robert Stacey explains, it really is located in a perfect place.
