Anyway, as you probably know by now, I like food. So every time there's some kind of food festival event, I like to try and go- I love looking at the stalls of local, independent producers, and watching cooking demonstrations. Plus when a city puts on a food festival, the restaurants get in on the act too and offer cheap deals or special menus for the "foodie" crowds. And some festivals even get the celebs in!
The first festival I went to this autumn was the York Food and Drink Festival, held back in September and lasting a week. D had a week off work and suggested a day trip to York- I forgot the festival was on, but was pleasantly surprised once we got there and spotted it- a massive long row of tents and stalls in the central square (Parliament Street?) and a tantalising aroma of spices, meat and baked goods.
The festival's main aim seemed to be to showcase the best of local food and drink producers, and a quick check on the website just now confirmed that! Furthermore, it isn't run by the City Council- it's totally independent and not-for-profit. On the Monday when we were there, all visitors were given the chance to vote in the Yorkshire Post's Readers Awards- we were given a form with a list of stalls to go round and sample their products, marking them out of ten. My favourites were Indie Ices (from Leeds!), who sells delicious, authentic and creamy kulfi (Indian ice cream), The Chilli Jam Man, who makes a range of chilli jams ranging from mildly spicy to blow-your-mind hot, and Keelham Hall Farm Shop's incredible rhubarb and mango pork sausage (sounds freaky, but is actually amazingly tasty- I kept going back for another sample!)
Since the festival, both Indie Ices and The Chilli Jam Man have become a lot more well known and popular in Leeds and on the Yorkshire Foodie Scene- Indie Ices have just started a collaboration with home cooked Indian food delivery service Manjit's Kitchen, and The Chilli Jam Man was on Calendar News! If only I'd written this blog immediately after the festival instead of being lazy and waiting this long, I could have been one of those smug "I told you they'd be big" kind of people, but as it is, you're just going to have to believe me that I SAW THEM FIRST!
Anyway, I was mightily impressed with the York Food And Drink Festival. Not only were independent, local producers heavily supported and promoted, but there was a huge variety of events taking part all over the city- Leeds Loves Food could do with taking a few tips from these guys!
(Oh and as for the winner of the Yorkshire Post Readers' Choice Award- Newfields Organic Produce. So I dont always have my finger on the pulse.)
Three days later, I hopped on a train with D and we went to Nottingham to the Nottingham Food & Drink Festival. It was a much smaller festival than York's, with only 20 or so stalls, but they had celebrities! And one celebrity in particular, who I must admit to having an incredibly huge crush on, the lovely Gino D'Acampo. I think it's the accent. And the dashing good looks. And the....anyway I digress. Yes. Food festival. My first impression was that the Nottingham foodie scene isn't quite as impressive as the one in York, or the one in Leeds. Yes there were quite a few decent local stalls, but most of them seemed to be from Leicestershire! I was glad to see that Homemade Cafe (one of my favourite places to eat when I was a student in Nottingham- check them out if you're ever there. Amazing sandwiches and cakes.) had a stall at the festival. However the focus did seem to be on the celebrity theatre and demonstrations, and there was much more of a commercial feel, with chains such as Yo!Sushi and Wagamama setting up stalls there.
I was impressed with how many celebrity chefs Nottingham managed to get in for the festival; the lovely Gino, Ainsley Harriott, Momma Cherri, Atul Kochhar and Sat Bains- the festival's main aim definitely seemed to be to pull in the crowds and raise Nottingham's profile. And this definitely all becomes clear when you read that the festival was put on by We Are Nottingham, who run the Business Improvement District for the city centre- "improving your experience when you visit Nottingham" So more a tourism/business venture than promoting local producers/independent activity then. Or maybe I'm just horribly cynical.
Anyway, Gino. Mmmm. There was a massive queue for the book signing. And a massive crowd for his demonstration. I was part of both. And yes, he was amazingly lovely and good looking and charming and even a little bit rude (you might not want to take your children to one of his live shows!) even if he did only boil some pasta, add some pesto to it (he got someone in the audience to make it!) and then make a tiramisu in a glass- one of my biggest hates; Tiramisu should be done in a big dish so all the sponge and cream and alcohol layer up together like a big old creamy spongy alcoholic lasagne. So 2/10 for the cooking and 10/10 for the entertainment. And 12/10 for the looks.
The third and final foodie festival that I have visited so far this autumn was the World Curry Festival in Millennium Square, Leeds. Held in a big marquee on the first weekend of October, it promised big things- celebrity chefs, a corporate day, local food producers, curry samples....but the general opinion of the event was that it was a bit of a disappointment. Firstly, on the Saturday, the first of the public days, the curry had all run out by 2pm! And secondly, on the Sunday, torrential rain meant that it was literally a washout...rivers of rain flowed through the tent! D and I went on the Sunday luckily, and braved the rain (my feet were soaked through after five minutes!) Tickets were originally £6 but for some reason, we only paid £3 for the Sunday- maybe the organisers had decided to cut the price following complaints and refunds on the Saturday.
The curry on offer was provided by students from Leeds City College- a great idea to encourage young talent, but a bit of a shame for any local curry businesses who may have wanted to showcase their dishes at the event. There weren't that many stalls at the festival- and most of them were selling pre-prepared curry sauces in jars and various spices- not much to sample, and not much to excite any curry enthusiasts. The college students had cooked a variety of curries from all over the world, from India to China to Jamaica to Malaysia etc, and you could sample four of them plus bread and rice for £5- a pretty good deal I thought, especially as there were eight dishes on offer and between two of us we managed to sample the lot. They were tasty, although nothing was particularly original or mind-blowing.
We settled down after lunch in front of the demonstration stage to watch Hemant Oberoi who cooks at the Taj Hotel in Mumbai, and then Jean Christophe Novelli, that well known curry chef (!) who threw a ton of spices together and told the audience that curry didn't have to follow any rules; you could just experiment and see what worked. Entertaining, yes. Informative, authentic and correct- maybe not.
I know I sound like I'm putting a complete downer on the festival but I just felt that if Leeds wants to host a World Curry Festival and promise "a celebration of all things curry" then they could have done it so much better. More stalls with samples and offers from local businesses. Not confining it to a marquee but making use of all the space on Millennium Square so that it wasn't so claustrophobic feeling and crowds could flow more easily. Maybe even not putting so much emphasis on the "corporate day", which from the brochure looked pretty good, but making it more accessible to visitors from all over. The best part was definitely the involvement of local students, investing in the city's culinary future and providing opportunities for them to learn about a great type of cuisine.
I look forward to next year's festival however, and hope that the organisers manage to make it bigger and better, in order to pull in more visitors to Leeds and mark it as one of the country's great foodie destinations. We have the knowledge and the skills, we just need to use them a bit more!
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