11-03-2025
Meet the unsung Cumbrian foodie star behind big name chefs
Lorraine Stanton may be best friends with chef Phil Vickery from their days working together in Cumbria four decades ago but that's really the extent of her celebrity/public profile.
However, for those in the Cumbrian food world, Lorraine is one of those well-known figures who connects people.
She is probably best known for running the food theatre at the Westmorland County Show – she marked her tenth anniversary in that role last year.
'I went to the show for years with my kids and got to know Peter Gott. He needed help so that's where it started,' she said.
For the last eight years she says she has been solely responsible for booking the chefs and producers, welcoming, preparing and looking after them - all in a voluntary role. 'I get paid around the country to do them, but I didn't get paid for this one until last year,' she said.
Originally from the North East, her life in Cumbria started more than 40 years ago when she applied for a job at Michael's Nook Country House Hotel and Restaurant and never left.
Michael's Nook (now closed) was one of the county's top restaurants, alongside Sharrow Bay and Miller Howe.
The hotel, where she worked for 15 years, went on to become the first hotel in Cumbria to have a Michelin star with the coveted 4 AA rosettes.
She married Simon Stanton and while caring for their two children she worked for their family property business, Mealbank Properties Ltd, in Kendal, of which she remains a shareholder.
Her many other roles in the food scene included working at the Punch Bowl in Crosthwaite to help turn its fortunes around.
'I took the whole thing on, mentoring the chef Scott Fairweather who was very talented, helping him become part of the team. It was a huge thing for me, and that's when we started winning all the awards.'
She says, as well as her long friendship with celebrity chef Phil Vickery, she now has contacts with other well-known TV chefs including Simon Rimmer, Matt Tebbut and Tom Parker Bowles, who she has arranged to appear in the Westmorland County Show's food theatre.
"I'm a kind of booking celebrity agent around here now,' she said.
These days she works part time and gets paid a daily rate for being a 'celebrity assistant' where she books chefs for events and often helps them on the day.
Last year she met Rosemary Shrager and has just booked her for this year's Westmorland County Show.
