An Oldham head chef, aged just 28, has shared his pride after his restaurant received two AA rosettes.
The White Hart Inn in Lydgate received two rosettes for its restaurant and four gold stars for its bedrooms.
It has appeared in the coveted AA guide.
Last year, the restaurant was named in the Michelin Guide and it even let children eat for free due to soaring inflation.
Head chef Nathan Sidebottom is originally from Greenacres.
Now living in Waterhead, the chef has experience working in the two-Michelin-star restaurant Midsummer House, in Cambridge.
An Oldhamer born-and-bred, Nathan knew he wanted to be a chef aged just eight years old after baking with his grandma.
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He said: “I’ve actually got family in the industry down in Bristol, I’ve got two uncles in Bristol who are chefs as well, we used to spend the Easter Holidays with them.
"I was doing a lot of baking with my grandma, as everybody did, I’ve wanted to be a chef from a young age."
Attending Counthill School, which has since closed and merged into Waterhead Academy, Nathan started to pursue his cookery career at Tameside College, studying catering and hospitality and even winning a bronze medal in a cookery competition to find the best commis chef in the North West.
As part of his course, Nathan began an apprenticeship at The White Hart Inn.
He said: “It was one of the first places I started working as an apprentice, aged just 18 years of age.
"I worked underneath the head chef at the time, and I would describe myself as a bit of a sponge – I just took on everything I possibly could, I challenged myself.
“When I was ready to leave here, after I’d done just shy of three years, I said to the head chef at the time that I wanted to go somewhere really good, that’s really going to test me and push me.
"That’s when I went to the two-Michelin-star restaurant, Midsummer House.”
After three years there, Nathan returned to The White Hart due to family reasons, beginning part-time, before becoming a sous-chef, and eventually becoming head chef in November 2020 – steering the restaurant through difficult times during the pandemic, which saw the menu having to change repeatedly, following Covid closures earlier in restrictions.
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This month, the restaurant received a coveted two-rosette rating from the AA.
Nathan said: “They were extremely pleased with the food, to the point that they really enjoyed it. They loved the bedrooms, they loved the atmosphere of the restaurant.
“The next step is obviously to push and get three. There’s more plans to push the business forward.
“A lot of customers are over the moon for us. Being as well established as The White Hart is we’ve got a lot of returning customers, a lot of regular customers.
"They’re ecstatic for us. We’ve had some great feedback from new punters and old punters.
“We want to get our name out there again, being awarded two rosettes and four gold stars, we’re only going one direction and that’s to get better, not worse.
“I’ve got a fantastic team in the kitchen, front of house we’ve got a fantastic team, we’re really pushing for greatness.”
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