The heart of hospitality: Anna Hedworth

www.cookhouse.org / Instagram: cookhouse_anna

In ancient mythology, Hestia was the goddess of hearth and home.

She was the fire at the centre, the constant people gathered around.

Her flame represented warmth, welcome and stability.

That same quiet power runs through Cook House, Long Friday and Wren founder Anna Hedworth’s work.

At the heart of everything she builds is a deep belief in hospitality as an act of gathering: creating spaces where people feel part of something shared.

It’s a comparison that feels surprisingly apt for someone who has built a career around feeding people rather than feeding an ego.

With no formal culinary training, she has forged a collective of local dining spots on every food lover’s must-visit list.

Anna’s warmth and passion shine through as she talks about her restaurants, her team and the North East.

“Restaurants are the place where life happens, where conversations are heard, romance sparks and people gather,” she says.

It’s a form of hospitality that has everything to do with consistency and tending to the details that make people feel welcome and looked after.

In that sense, Anna’s work recalls an older idea of hospitality, centred not on spectacle but on warmth and continuity.

She says: “Hospitality is about consistency, about showing up every day and getting the details right.”

Hospitality, though, wasn’t where Anna’s career began.

After seven years of hard graft and training, she started work as an architect in the early 2000s.

She says: “I just didn’t love it.”

“In one role, I was tasked with designing a pair of shipping containers on Ouse Street as an events space.”

“I’d been hosting supper clubs and informal dinners for a while at various venues around the North East, and the thought occurred to me that I should set up a permanent home in the containers.”

After some reflection, Anna followed her gut, handed in her notice and asked for a year’s rental on the containers.

From that decision, Cook House 1.0 was born in 2014.

Anna says: “Cook House started because it felt like the right scale for learning.”

“The containers were manageable and I could understand every part of it.”

For two years, Anna ran Cook House as a one-woman band, from the cooking to the washing up and the admin that comes with such an endeavour.

She says: “There’s nothing the internet can’t teach you, so when the business side of things didn’t come as easy as the cooking, I taught myself how to do it.”

When a space on Foundry Lane became available – coincidentally the same space where Anna had worked while with an architectural practice a few years earlier – she went for it.

And she’s been there ever since, as Cook House 2.0.

Anna’s architectural training wasn’t for nothing, though; her sense of use and creating the right feel runs through all of her spaces.

She says: “The architectural mindset never really leaves you.”

“Architecture teaches you restraint; you can’t just keep adding things, every decision has a knock-on effect.”

“A restaurant is a designed environment.”

“It’s not just about the food, it’s about how everything works together.”

“I’m always thinking about flow, about how people move through a space, how it wears over time and how it functions day-to-day, rather than just how it looks.”

“You’re controlling an environment; the aim is to make people feel comfortable without them having to think about it.”

Ouseburn became Anna’s home-from-home long before it became the trendy hub it is today.

The community rallied round, Anna built a small team around her – many of whom remain in position – and people were happy to pass on knowledge and help with recommendations.

Anna says: “Ouseburn has always felt like a place where people build things slowly and properly.”

“There’s a real sense of belonging here.”

Anna added Long Friday, in Jesmond, in 2021, bringing relaxed neighbourhood drinks and dining.

She then opened Wren in November, a new space designed by her partner and architect Adrian Philpotts, which sits next door to Cook House.

She says: “Each venue does a different job: Cook House is very food-led; Long Friday is more social; and Wren extends the experience as a bar with snacks.”

“Each place came from listening – to the business, to the team and to the customers.”

“Some of the most important work I do now isn’t creative, it’s about listening.”

“The team shapes the venues as much as I do.”

Creating the right team took time, and the process also taught Anna the importance of delegation.

Learning to trust the right people, in the right roles, with real autonomy didn’t happen immediately.

She says: “The businesses only work because of the people in them; they are the starting point for everything.”

As food prices continue to rise and with a VAT reduction remaining off the table for the foreseeable future, hospitality is an unforgiving place.

Rather than shying away, though, Anna has embraced the reality of conditions and begun formulating growth plans.

She says: “There is no point pretending hospitality isn’t hard right now.”

“Margins are tight and the pressure is constant, but that doesn’t mean you hollow everything out.”

“For me, the future is about refinement rather than expansion.”

“Making things better is often harder than making them bigger.”

“Growth doesn’t always mean more sites; it sometimes means calmer systems, better days and a more resilient business.”

“I want the work to support my life, not consume it.

“That feels like success to me.”

With plans for a large wine fair at Cook House in 2026, her new book Service recently hitting shelves, and three venues to run, Anna certainly won’t be short of things to keep her busy.

And while another venue might be off the menu for now, Anna has acquired more than a taste for exploring food as a creative medium in its own right.

“A RESTAURANT IS A DESIGNED ENVIRONMENT; IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT THE FOOD, IT’S ABOUT HOW EVERYTHING WORKS TOGETHER.”

Drawing on her background in architectural design, she is continuing to foster an interest in large-scale, immersive projects where food intersects with art.

She says: “I’m interested in food as an installation.”

“People are doing really interesting things in places like Berlin and Paris – things like food sculptures, architectural jellies – which really excite me.”

It’s an idea rooted in originality, restraint and a clear sense of what’s currently missing in the North East.

Anna adds: “I don’t think anyone is doing anything around food meeting art in the region at scale.”

“I’ve always focused on what we can bring to the North East that isn’t already here.”

Bringing people together across the North East sits at the heart of everything Anna does.

Hosting and creating spaces to gather is the foundation on which all her ventures rest.

And that, hand-in-hand with the North East’s natural affability, feels like a recipe for success.