Eight months after Imogen Royall and her husband Matt Kenyon launched their food business they were recommended in The Sunday Times magazine and promoted on TV by chef James Martin.

Many companies in business for decades could only dream of that sort of national exposure.

For Imogen though, she was always determined that Northern Pasta Co. would be a success.

“It’s been a bit of a whirlwind,” she said. A lifelong foodie, she said they were always destined to launch a food business, but didn’t know what.

After living in Croatia for a few years the pandemic led to them returning to Cumbria and sleeping on the living room floor of Matt’s parents. Matt carried on working as a builder and Imogen got a job at award-winning bakery Lovingly Artisan, where she not only found out more about baking sourdough but also gut health.

“I learned a lot and then went home to a bowl of pasta and felt horrible. I started to join the dots…” she said.

"We wanted to bring something to people that was enjoyable and delicious and we knew we had the skills to do it. We made our first trial of the pasta and it was good and we had confidence in the product."

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After a lot of tinkering they perfected the recipe for their slow dried, bronze cut pasta using UK flour and ancient spelt, giving it a light, nutty flavour.

They invested £60,000 of their own money - including a small inheritance from Imogen’s family and savings from their previous jobs - to buy machinery from Italy and set up a small unit at Lake District Business Park in Kendal.

They started selling their pasta at Kendal Farmers’ Market and Westmorland Show and got great responses and repeat custom. They applied to Booths supermarket to be on their Accelerator scheme and were accepted.

“We are the type of people who take a risk,” said Imogen.

“We did not expect anything from it (the Booths scheme) but we knew our product was unique. Booths have such a huge reputation and to be associated with their name is a huge deal for us. It’s invaluable. It builds confidence in the brand.

"Our pasta is low in gluten and it tastes of something. It’s an incredible eating experience, just have it with some olive oil. We are trying to get people to fall in love with pasta all over again.”