A NORWEGIAN-style outdoor winter restaurant is set to open in Horwich later this year.

Diners at the pop-up restaurant — at Chill at the Cowshed — will be kept warm by heat lamps and animal hides.

The idea is the brainchild of Bolton chef Debbie Halls-Evans, who won the Nigella Lawson cookery show The Taste earlier this year.

Debbie revealed her plans as she held her first pop-up event at the Horwich ice cream parlour in Winter Hey Lane.

She said: “I want it to be an event for people. We want to create something special for people. The idea for winter dining comes from that.

“Everything feels different when you are outside.

“We’ll have heaters and animal hides. In Norway that’s what they do. We’ll be playing around with a Scandinavian menu too.”

Debbie held her first pop-up event at the venue week.

By day, Chill at the Cowshed is a cafe and ice cream parlour and when The Taste winner first stepped foot in the building, she says she immediately wanted to get involved.

She said: “A friend of a friend introduced me to the guys here at the Cowshed and I walked and, well, it’s amazing here.

"I’m very busy at the moment doing so many different things like food festivals, so I can’t take the risk of taking on somewhere permanent, so doing pop-ups is perfect for me.

“I was born in Horwich and I live in Bolton. It’s nice to know that people can have a different dining experience here without having to go to Manchester.”

The next two pop-up nights will be held on October 17 and 25, and there will a total of eight pop-up nights this year.

Guests tonight can expect a four-course menu with both bread and wine matched to each course.