Chester goes nuts for Food and Drink
The Chester Food and Drink Festival is on target for 20,000 visitors over the three days, as thousands basked in the Easter Saturday sunshine.
Lord Mayor of Chester, Cllr Brian Bailey, opened the Taste Festival at Chester Racecourse together with Cllr Mike Jones, Leader of the new Cheshire West and Chester Council, by plunging into a piece of Cheshire cheese.
Rock and roll TV chef Andrew Nutter, of Ready Steady Cook! fame, gave the audience two chef demonstrations, cooking rosemary goat’s cheese and celeriac roulade, salmon with Welsh rarebit made with Lancashire Garstang blue cheese and Italian sun-ripened tomatoes and a Toblerone chocolate soufflé with honeycomb chocolate box.
Fi Bird, a past Masterchef finalist who campaigns for healthier diets and for cookery teaching at Primary schools, organised three sessions of children’s cookery classes, which included learning how to cook meringues and pancakes.
Cllr Bailey said:
“This Festival goes from strength to strength and is now in its eighth year. Today it plays an important part in Chester, enabling tourism to grow here.”
The Chief Executive of Cheshire West and Chester Council, Steve Robinson, added:
“Today is about quality and value for money. We have some great businesses here thriving in the current climate. This is the first event the new Council has sponsored.”
Head Chef at Abode Manchester, Ian Matfin; who will be representing the North East in the Great British Menu on BBC 2, also gave a cookery demonstration. Ian, who worked under Michael Caines at the two Michelin-starred Gidleigh Park in Devon, cooked vegetable and herb soup, braised turbot with scallops, baby leeks and caviar and Goosnargh duck with orange chickory and black olive paint.
Paul Askew, Head Chef at the London Carriage Works, Liverpool, gave two chef demonstrations, cooking Asian spiced duck breast with Puy lentils, pink grapefruit, peppercorns and sweetcorn.
Paul said: “The last 10 years there has been a food revolution in the North West and across the whole country. In Liverpool, Manchester and Chester; Simon Radley’s menu will have changed drastically over the last 10 years.”
In his second demonstration, Paul showed his Spanish influences from visits to the Basque country, cooking hand-dived King scallops with carrot puree, sultanas, vanilla and Chardonnay vinegar.
The first chef demonstration of the day came from Dave Mooney, of the Belle Epoque, Knutsford and The Duke of Portland, Lach Dennis, Cheshire, who cooked a confit of naturally reared Glyn Arthur lamb from near Denbigh, with roast vegetables, pommes dauphinoise, redcurrant and mint jelly and box fresh Herefordshire broccoli. Dave added: “The Chester Food and Drink Festival is about the finest produce from the best county in England.”
Chester’s Food and Drink Festival is sponsored by Chester Racecourse and PR consultancy, Marketing Projects. More sponsors to be announced.
All recipes available at www.chesterfoodanddrink.com
Ends – 464 words
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