Trio of Celebrity Chefs announced for Chester Food and Drink Festival 2007
More reasons to stay in Chester over Easter:
This year’s Chester Food & Drink Festival promises an even more impressive line up of celebrity chefs for visitors to the Festival Taste Marquee over Easter. Organisers have listened to the public who voted for more chefs at this year’s event and three celebrity chefs have been announced with three more to follow, doubling the number last year.
The celebrity chef line up so far includes Michael Caines for Monday 9th April. Michael is one of Britain’s most acclaimed chefs. Since 1994, he has been based at Gidleigh Park, the prestigious 2-star Michelin country house hotel at Chagford, Devon. In 2000, he founded Michael Caines Restaurants and took over food and beverage operations at The Royal Clarence, Exeter, Britain’s first hotel. Today Michael continues as Executive Chef at Gidleigh Park, as well as being an operational Partner and Director of ABode, the group of boutique hotels that he co-founded with his partner Andrew Brownsword.
Amongst numerous accolades, Michael has cooked in 10 Downing Street for the Prime Minister, and took part in “The Great British Menu’, where his starter and dessert made it into the final rounds of a competition to cook a meal for the Queen’s 80th birthday. In the Summer of 2006 Michael was awarded an MBE for services to the hospitality industry.
Simon Rimmer will visit for Easter Saturday 7th April. Simon is a TV chef extraordinaire & vegetarian expert, passionate about good food from around the region. He will be demonstrating his culinary skills in the Taste Marquee celebrity kitchen. Simon co-presents Great Food Live and Great Food Bites. He has also had two series of his own – Rimmer’s Dinners and Grub’s Up with a very busy 2006; four new shows to his name! As well as This Little Farmer Went to Market, Great British Menu and the property show To Buy or Not to Buy, Simon is currently co-presenting Something for the Weekend and is filming his 4th series of Grubs Up for ITV.
Robert Kisby is newly appointed executive Head Chef at the recently refurbished Cock O Barton near Farndon. Robert has won many awards for his outstanding contribution to the catering industry. Formerly Manchester based, Robert has worked at the Midland Hotel, Bridgewater Hall and latterly he opened Le Mont at Urbis in 2002. He has been named Life magazines’ North West Chef of the year 2004 and Le Mont was awarded Restaurant of the Year 2003.
Other rumoured celebrity chefs are Andrew Nutter, Brian Mellor, Paul Heathcote and Gordon Ramsay.
Stephen Wundke, chairman of the Chester Food and Drink Festival; “This year there are even more reasons to visit or stay in Chester at Easter. It is a measure of how prestigious the Festival has become that we can attract so many world-class chefs. Last year we secured three first-class celebrity chefs and the demonstrations proved so popular we have really focused on this for 2007. Many of the stands in the taste marquee are taken and we now have only a few opportunities for sponsors left. Hotels and restaurants will also be offering special packages throughout the Festival for visitors.”
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), Visit Chester & Cheshire; the tourism board for Cheshire and Warrington, Cheshire County Council, Made in Cheshire, North West Fine Foods and the Rural Recovery Fund.
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Chester Food and Drink Festival Taste Marquee is planned for April 7th to 9th 2007, Easter Saturday to Easter Monday. The Marquee will contain over 100 retailers and growers with samples of Cheshire, North Wales, national and international produce, reflecting the cosmopolitan nature of Cheshire.
The Food and Drink Fringe Festival will also take place around the City from April 6 to 15, 2007 with special events, restaurants, bars and hotels all helping to make Chester the focus of food and drink within the UK, with theme nights, special family offers and accommodation promotions.
Evening events include a Champagne tasting evening on Saturday April 7. A cocktail and mixology competition, attracting over 100 attendees last year, to be held on Sunday April 8 with competitors from bars across Cheshire. On Monday April 9 plans are for a combination of music designed to stimulate the taste buds and the Gala Dinner and awards ceremony will ensure 250 people sample a gourmet menu sourced from leading producers in the North West. This is likely to be held on Tuesday April 10 2007.
Special events include the Cheese Rolling on Wednesday, 7th March, the farmers market and the ale assize and medieval banquet on Saturday April 14th.
2006 Visitor Survey 16,000 people visited the Taste Marquee and £90,000 was spent there over the three days. - 51 per cent of visitors came from a distance of more than 25 miles, making a total of 8,000 people brought into the City. - 78 per cent of people surveyed said the event was good or excellent. - 87 per cent of people surveyed said they were likely to return. - Nearly 100 producers and exhibitors were on show in the Taste Marquee, bringing their own skills and produce from Cheshire and around the world to be part of the Festival. - There were seminars and competitions in micro brewing, wines, sausages and cheeses and the opportunity to taste local paté, black pudding, bread, cereals, oils, pies, meat, fish, cheeses, chocolates, liqueurs and even a juice bar.
Festival brochures will be available across the City from March. Phone 01244 351609 for more details. For further information on the region go to www.visitchester.com. More general information at www.chesterfoodanddrink.com
Press Contacts: Jane Harrad-Roberts Mob: 07785 395705 Phil Brotherhood Mob: 07884 493370 Tel: 01244 330000 MARKETING PROJECTS Email: info@marketingprojects.co.uk
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