New documentary will show the hurdles and highs of taking The Art School to Aintree

A new documentary has gone behind the scenes to show the hurdles and highlights of taking top city restaurant, The Art School, to Aintree.

Liverpool-based LA Productions has filmed the programme, which is set to be broadcast before this year’s Grand National.

Chef patron of The Art School, Paul Askew, can be seen leading his team towards first place in the race for perfection, serving a stunning seven course fine-dining experience enjoyed amid all the drama of the famous festival.

And while the smiles of the usually cheery Mr Askew might slip on occasion, he stresses: “It’s not because I’m a grumpy old chef, but because I want everything to be perfect.”

The Grand Feast demonstrates the well-respected chef’s absolute pursuit of quality, as well as his passion for local produce and offering world class hospitality.

“I want to look after people,” he says.

And while there might be obstacles to creating the kind of culinary masterpieces for which he is renowned, Paul says of the programme: “I hope it shows that no matter what’s thrown at us, we rise to it and find a solution, because that’s our job.”

The idea to film came from Colin McKeown, whose Kirkdale-based company is behind powerful and hugely successful documentaries like Merseyside Detectives: The Murders of Ashley & Olivia and Anthony, and dramas like Granite Harbour, Moving On, and Broken.

It was filmed over the three days of the Grand National Festival last year ‘in the sunshine’: “They couldn’t have picked a better year,” adds Paul.

It’s hoped The Grand Feast will have a city launch as well as being broadcast on mainstream TV.

The Art School has become firm fixture at the National and 2026 is the fifth year the award-winning chef and his expert team have taken the Sugnall Street restaurant experience to the racecourse.

It takes up residence in Paddock Lodge, the Grade II Listed former home of Mirabel Topham, who directed the course for nearly 40 years, and who lived there from 1937 until 1980, even after the sale of Aintree in 1973.

“This is partly about the history of the building we’re in, what was Topham House,” says Paul.

But it’s also about the heat in the kitchen when the premier eatery has a temporary new home.

“It’s very different being a restaurant at Aintree, and it’s quite disorientating for the staff because what we’re doing is bringing our tasting menu, wine menu and service and putting it in a house in the middle of a racetrack.

“We do a course in between each race, so it’s seven courses and an afternoon tea with our champagne partners Charles Heidsieck. 

“Once we’re in it’s lovely, it’s the getting in and getting out that’s the challenge, keeping standards and keeping the feel of The Art School and level of hospitality we like to give.” Not easy when 1,000 plates a day leave the pass!

“We did design the field kitchen but you are in a tent at the back of a house, there isn’t a commercial kitchen in the main house, and so it’s the process of how you deliver food in a smooth and silky way.

“We deliver world class hospitality at a world class steeple chase..

“We want to show the best of Liverpool because that’s what we do, with local produce from around the city region and a menu themed around the racecourse and the history of the building.”

For the first year that meant a dessert in homage to Mirabel Topham, with a Mirabel plum; and this year to her husband Arthur Topham ‘who loved his betting and loved his booze and he always wore a top hat’ and so there’s a dessert designed to look like his hat.

“We always have a bit of fun, but with flavours and taste to match what The Art School’s brand is.

“The documentary is the behind the scenes realism of what it means to do a tasting menu for 70, 80, 100 people for three days on the bounce, with people changing their minds at the last minute – and why I also find it quite emotional.”

Paul goes on: “The reason I became a chef was because of a person I met called Albert Roux (the French chef who, with his brother Michel, operated Le Gavroche in London’s Mayfair, the first UK restaurant to gain three Michelin stars) and the first time I met him was at Aintree when it was the Martell Grand National in the ‘90s.

“I was invited as a guest by Seagram who’d just acquired Martell when I was opening The Lower Place at the Philharmonic Hall, and as I walked in the first person I met – and I had no idea he was chef of the day – was Albert.

“I literally didn’t see a horse all day because I sat talking to him and went off to the kitchen with him, sharing lots of stories, and it’s amazing, here I am 25 years later, almost following in his footsteps.”

It’s hard work for Paul and his team but when the big race, begins on the Saturday, everything stops.

“Everyone leaves the house to go to the main stand and the Art School seats,” he reveals.  “It gives the staff a chance to sit and we have a glass of champagne, we have a little bet … and we sometimes get a few tips but I don’t think we ever do very well.

“I remember as a little kid at seven years of age, sitting in front of the TV because the world stops for the Grand National and it’s nice to carry that tradition on, especially when you’re on the course with the noise of nearly 90,000 people and the atmosphere is incredible.

“The whole city comes alive. It’s a fabulous place to be when that’s going on, that’s for sure.”

Find out more about The Art School restaurant HERE.

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