Recipe for Success at Chester Food & Drink Festival
Thousands of food lovers braved the weather for the first day of this year’s Chester Food and Drink Festival. This year’s main course of events at the new Chester Racecourse venue, kicked off with a packed main stage for two celebrity cookery demonstrations from TV chef Simon Rimmer.
The Lord Mayor of Chester, Cllr Jim Latham opened this, the seventh Chester Food and Drink Festival. More than 100 stalls of local produce made in and around Chester and the North West took record sales.
Chairman of the Chester Food and Drink Festival Stephen Wundke said: “There’s a food revolution in Cheshire and Simon is at the centre of it. We are delighted Simon has returned to Chester’s Food and Drink Festival for the fourth time. Simon is Cheshire’s celebrity chef, owning restaurants in and around Cheshire.”
Simon’s first cookery demonstration featured soul stuffed with asparagus, served with red pesto, a second course of fillet of beef, white bean and chorizo stew and hazelnut meringues for dessert. The second demonstration included vegetarian black pudding, with asparagus and potato salad, a second course of sea bass, with a rosti and cherry tomato, bacon and avocado salsa and hazelnut and chocolate meringues for dessert.
Simon said: “This is my fourth year at Chester, which is one of my favourite Festivals. It’s a great Festival at Chester and there are more people here than ever packed in. Cheshire has fantastic food producers, brilliant people and produce. The North West of England has the most diverse agriculture in the whole of Europe.”
Earlier, Cllr Latham opened the Taste Festival events on stage, by plunging an iron into a slab of Joseph Heler’s cheese, which was held by Simon Rimmer. The cheese had been carried by the great and the good of Cheshire around Chester’s Walls to mark the start of the cheese rolling, at an event last month.
In his speech to mark the official opening, Cllr Latham said: “I would like to congratulate Stephen and his helpers in setting up such a marvellous Festival. As the Mayor of Chester, I welcome anything that brings people to this city and this Festival does bring people in from across the region.”
David Mooney, of The Belle Epoque in Knutsford, The Duke of Portland Hotel, in Northwich and The George & Dragon in Tarvin, gave the first cookery demonstration of the day, creating six ways to use an organic chicken. This included two chicken breasts stuffed with Cheshire cheese, two legs made into a ballotine, with a new potato salad, homemade potted chicken livers and chicken soup.
Alan Coxon, who was voted among the top 10 TV chefs of the World, in a BBC poll across 100 countries, gave the final cookery demonstration of the day. Alan asked two members of the audience to assist him in making Panna cotta with liquorice and ginger shards of sugar work, with pineapple flavoured in Rum, a Mexican dish of salmon marinated in chilli, with avocado and a chocolate mousse with brandy.
For more information about other events happening over the Chester Food & Drink Festival please visit www.chesterfoodanddrink.com
Chester’s Food and Drink Festival is organised on behalf of Chester City Council with support from the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA), Cheshire County Council, Made in Cheshire and North West Fine Foods and Visit Chester & Cheshire, the tourism board for Cheshire and Warrington.
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Notes:
Simon has written three books, The Accidental Vegetarian, Rebel Cook and Lazy Brunch. Simon owns Greens in West Didsbury and Earle in Hale, Cheshire. Simon has appeared on Recipe for Success, Something for the Weekend, UK TV Food, Great British Menu, Grubs Up and Sunday Morning.
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