Seasoned pastry chef returns to her home town

Alison Seagrave recieves the Hi-life Best Chef Award from Raymond Blanc

Alison Seagrave, who was formerly resident at The Berkeley, Knightsbridge, and Head Chef at Harvey Nichol’s award winning Second Floor Restaurant and Brasserie in Manchester for the last 3 years, has with her new venture, Macaroon, returned to her home town of Rochdale.

Macaroon is a patisserie with chairs, serving home made cakes and desserts to eat in or take away. There is also a range of hot drinks, home made light lunches of soup, salads and sandwiches available to eat in at the Bury Road establishment.

Ms Seagrave has previously cooked for Prince Charles and Diana, the Queen and the Queen Mother. She has worked for some of the biggest names in the food industry, including Jean-Christophe Novelli and John Williams at the Ritz. She has worked closely with Marketing Manchester & Springboard judging various competitions including Northwest Future Chef & School Buffet’s scheme, establishing the 'Young Chef Apprentice Scheme' and has also helped develop chefs of the future by teaching part time at Hopwood Hall.

Reveiwed in The Guardian last weekend, Macaroon is described as: "Located on a leafy suburban main road, this bakery-cafe specialises in sweet things, from toffee popcorn cupcakes to blueberry pavlova, served alongside open sandwiches, salads and savoury tarts. Everything is made on site, and Seagrave's cooking pedigree and fastidious sourcing (high-quality French flour, Belgian chocolate, etc) shine through in the likes of her impossibly light, moist cupcakes and eponymous macaroons. These pretty, palm-sized almond discs are perfectly crisp without, densely chewy within, and filled with a variety of creams, from pistachio to peppermint."