Perfect produce is being picked and delicious dishes designed as the tastiest festival completely dedicated to Cornish food and drink gets set to fill Truro’s Lemon Quay with sumptuous sights and smells this September.
The three-day extravaganza will see over 100 different food experts, chefs and producers gather to celebrate Cornwall’s beautiful bounty, and showcase why the county’s culinary delights have helped it gain a reputation as the UK’s No. 1 destination for great food and drink.
Centre stage as ever will be an array of top chefs cooking up a storm with local produce in the theatre, with various demos and cooking advice. This year, the festival is welcoming renowned chefs from as far afield as New York and London, with headlinersApril Bloomfield(Spotted Pig, NYC) andTom Adams(Pitt Cue, London) showing why they have laid down new culinary roots in Cornwall, opening a venture on an old Georgian dairy farm near Launceston.
Delighted to be showcasing their skills and sharing their knowledge with festival visitors, Tom and April will be celebrating the talented local suppliers they are working with.
April and Tom said: ‘We’re delighted to be involved in this year’s Great Cornish Food Festival. We have been very lucky to find such an ideal setting to launch Coombeshead Farm and are so pleased we managed to find the perfect spot in Cornwall – we couldn’t be happier with our decision and are so grateful for all the support we’ve had so far.
“We work with some incredible local suppliers and use a lot of outstanding Cornish ingredients at the farm, every product we use we know where it’s from and what’s in it, which is the ultimate dream for any chef, and our primary vision at the farm.”
They will be joined on stage byPhilip Warren, renowned local farmer and much-admired master butcher, who works with a plethora of well-known chefs and restaurants in Cornwall and London.
Among the traditional treats on offer in the huge Food Hall will be some interesting new additions… Insects. Former university lecturer Fred McVittie from Cornish Edible Insects will be at the event highlighting just how meal worms, cricket flour and other insects can be used to create a veritable bug banquet.
Fred said: “I think it’s important to let people experience just how delicious insect based cuisine can be. At the festival I’ll be offering the opportunity for visitors to try not only whole insects but also some tasty dishes made from tiny livestock; spicy Italian sausage made with mealworms, cricket falafel, and maybe a mixed bug burger.”
Also attending, as sponsor of the festival’s Theatre, is Rachel Craze, founder of the Cornish Greengrocer, a new online home delivery business thatoffers the finest Cornish produce and the freshest fruit and veg.
Rachel said: “We are honoured to have been chosen for the annual BBC Radio Cornwall Challenge this year – Ready, Steady, Veggie - which will see two presenters challenged to produce a dish from a hamper of seasonal fresh ingredients within 35 minutes. The Challenge provides an opportunity to demonstrate how to produce a healthy Cornish veggie dish within a limited timeframe.”
In another head to head challenge - the Great Cornish Bake-off - two brave souls from Coodes Solicitors take their amateur baking skills up a notch to conjure up new ideas with luscious dairy ingredients fromRodda’s, Cornwall’s famous creamery.
Alongside the tasty selection of street food, which will include bold, bright, seasonal Italian dishes from Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen Cornwall this year, Sharp’s Brewery, who host the festival bar, will have food and beer pairing champions on hand to advise visitors which Sharp’s beer to sample with their selected food.
Found in a convenient, accessible, all-weather location in the centre of Truro – Cornwall’s only city – the event has become a regular favourite for tens of thousands of people from all over Britain and beyond.
The festival continues to be aFREEevent thanks to the support of key sponsorGWRand all the other sponsors committed to the Cornish food and drink scene.
The full festival line-up is available online. Seehttp://www.greatcornishfood.co.uk/festival