Devon chef launches own company, second restaurant planned

By Peter Ruddick

10-Feb-2012 - Last updated on 10-Feb-2012 at 09:55 GMT

Noel Corston, collecting an award from fellow Devon chef Michael Caines, will launch his own company and second restaurant this year

Noel Corston, a chef who has run the North Devon restaurant The Courtyard for almost a decade, is this year forming his own company and plans to open a second restaurant in the area after re-launching his first site as a brasserie.

The Courtyard in Woolacombe will be re-opened as NC@EX34, after which Corston will turn his focus to the next venture for his new company, Noel Corston Restaurants, a signature restaurant.

Corston said the brasserie style concept would retain the same local sourcing, quality of offering and relaxed style which has proved popular since The Courtyard opened. The business won Best Restaurant at the North Devon Food & Drink Awards 2011/12 and Corston collected the award from fellow Devon chef Michael Caines.

"The menus at NC@EX34in Woolacombe will focus heavily on seasonality, with a very strong South West accent present throughout the sourcing, preparation, cooking and service. They will offer much more than The Courtyard in terms of variety, but will remain underpinned by the solid cooking techniques which form the foundations of my business," he said.

Before The Courtyard, Corston previously worked at a number of restaurants in the West Country and for a number of years at The Canteen in Chelsea Harbour before travelling and working at a restaurant in Mexico.