A Runcorn cook’s unique take on fusion cuisine has made him a huge internet success – and now he’s debuted a book of his unusual recipes.
Dad-of-three Stuart Snowden shares his culinary creations on social media under the name of grumpynorthernfoodie, bringing together what he admits are “weird and wonderful” feasts.
Inventions like English breakfast sushi, Yorkshire Pudding pizza and even garlic baguette lasagne have created a huge audience for Stuart.
And now all of those recipes have been whipped up in Stuart’s first cookbook – Quirky Kitchen – Weird and Wonderful Recipes.
Christmas campaign
Becoming an online creator has also had an unexpected bonus; the chance to take part in Aldi’s Christmas campaign.
“I was asked to create a video based around their Christmas advert, which we know now is based around a famous children’s story,” he said.
“I created my own Christmas factory at home, making some very different creations like pigs in blanket doughnuts and strawberry turkeys and it went out on Tiktok via my own channel gaining around 750k views and also onto Aldi’s own Tiktok.
“It ran from 3 to 8 November and was really successful on my part, bringing lots of comments and shares and prompting me to look at doing some more crazy recipes for the Christmas period.”
Stuart’s internet success has also revived his love of food.
“I worked in the hospitality industry in London for ten years and I sort of fell out of love with it,” he said.
“We moved and I got a job in a totally different industry but then started cooking and posting the odd recipe online – and a couple of the videos I did just seemed to go crazy.”
Fired up by the positive response, Stuart began cooking every night and sharing the results.
“Weirdly good”
He says his “weirdly good” dishes include full English noodles and spaghetti pancakes.
Stuart is also a huge fan of cooking using an air fryer, which he believes is an essential tool in a world where people are very cost conscious.
“It’s a lot cheaper to use than heating up your oven and there’s so much you can do in it,” he said.
Stuart has now joined forces with Found publishing company which turns the content created online into high quality books.
“Hopefully my recipes show that it’s ok to be adventurous with food,” he said.
“I want to be able to show how you can bring unlikely ideas together and turn them into something delicious.”
Stuart’s long-term aim would be to be a full-time creator, involving his family in the process.
“This is all about letting people into our lives and showing them that they can create great and tasty food too,” he said.
“And hopefully the cookery book will also help people do that as well.”
