Local and great has always been written with the emphasis on seeking out the best wherever I happen to be so I will be looking for new experiences in Wales, Ireland and Italy in particular but also anywhere that I pitch up.
Last year I had some brilliant experiences and met great producers and chefs, this year should be as good or even better.
Already some trips and events are musts: The Celtic Cook Off, Abergavenny Food Festival, Newport Food Festival, and the Ballymaloe Literary Festival of Food and Wine.
Three of them I managed to play a (small) but active part in whilst I missed the Ballymaloe Lit Fest, an omission that must be rectified this year.
It was at the Celtic Cookoff that I met talented Cork Chef Kate Lawlor of No5 Fenns Quay. Kate represented Ireland in the competition and was close to winning, inight lunchdeed I had her as my favourite chef on the night.I hadn't realised when I travelled over that I would be asked to join the Judging Panel which included Joe McNamee the Irish Examiner food critic, Carmel Somers chef at Good Things Café, Veronica Steele the creator of Milleens Cheese, Virginia Sumison of Loch Fyne Oysters and Aoife Cox who blogs as The Daily Spud. With talented chefs representing Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany and the Isle of Man all using the best of West Cork produce it was a great evening and a must on the 2014 itinerary.
In December I was able to get toFenns Quay for a little light Lunch. I must return for both the Celtic Cook Off and to have dinner at Fenns Quay as Kate Lawlor the Chef representing Ireland in the Celtic Cook Off has a great reputation and is rapidly making the restaurant a must in Cork. We had a light lunch as the ferry beckoned but based on that experience Dinner is a defininate date.
Both the September Food Festival and the one day December festive food fair make Abergavenny a must go destination for anyone with an interest in food.
Aber, apart from attracting some of the top chefs for demos and masterclasses, having several hundred producers at the top of their game and a whole range of activities and experiences for everyone is pushing the edge of the food world.
In 2011 the festival hosted the world's first Raw Milk tasting. Milks and creams were tasted against each other with Raw winning on every occasion and the Raw Jersey Cream being an absolute standout. Quite why Raw Milk is not available to everyone I shall never understand - it actually tastes like Milk. We also gained an insight into the big dairy companies profit making activity with Cream.
All milk has a fat content that is Cream, Jersey and Guernsey cows in particular have high content 6-8% which is why their milk tastes so good. By skimming all the milk and only returning a specific content of fat - say 4% or 1% the big dairies have the remaining cream to sell at a bigger profit, and the consumer gets a product that is less than it should be.
Add to that homogenising and spreading the fat content through the milk and you can see why drinking Milk is less popular than ever.
Abergavenny followed the tasting up in 2012 and, whilst not having a third tasting last year they brought a cow to the festival, another first.
One of my favourite experiences of the festival is the Rude Health Rants, the Hyde Park Corner of Food Festivals.
In front of an open air audience in the Castle people with a passion have five minutes to rant about their likes and dislikes in food. Cyrus Todiwallah is always great fun whilst Paulo Arrigo from Franchi Seeds gave us an epic rant on why Italian food is abused the world over, especially in Motorway Service Areas. I was lucky enough to be asked to rant on Food Bloggers v Food Blaggers and you can see the rant here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbHXAR31uWM
Yes, I will be back in September and have a topic lined up.
October sees the return of the Newport Food Festival, growing yearly the event is firmly on the calendar and 2014 looks to be bigger than ever.
Though top chefs are attracted one of the beauties of the Festival is its community focus. Local schools and youth groups compete in the TeenChef and MiniChef competitions and get mentorship from some of the guest chefs, the Festival Supper gives experience to Catering students from Coleg Gwent, both in the kitchen and front of house, and there are hands on experiences for visitors.
I was asked to do two sessions of Bread making in the hands on demo area. Obviously you cannot do the whole process but 20 or so willing victims -er participants - made a White Yeast Dough which was stored in plastic bags in a fridge for them to collect and finish at home. It is a real pleasure to bump in to some of the people who took part and hear that they are still baking on a regular basis.
This year there should be more hands on events, and they are free!
Last year I missed the first Ballymaloe Literary festival of Food and Wine, and have been regretting it ever since.
With Ballymaloe having a world wide reputation a stellar line up has been attracted. Last year the highlight was, possibly Madhur Jaffrey and this year Yottam Ottolenghi and Rene Redzepi from Noma will be high on many people's lists though I am most looking forward to seeing Australian icon Maggie Beer and have already booked her lunch!
When you add fermentation specialist Sandor Katz and gardener Alys Fowler you see how wide ranging the festival is.
The media are well represented with critics, presenters and TV chefs like Tom Doorley, Ella McSweeny and Donal Skehan from Ireland and Tom Parker Bowles, Joanna Blythman and Simon Hopkinson from the UK.
Inevitably I will have missed many major figures from the list, but at Ballymaloe you really could not get to see all the stars of the show, there are after all only 24 hours in a day, and a two day festival does not allow you to each one.
I am really excited about the fest and more detail can be found here http://www.litfest.ie/
If you have the weekend of 16-18 May free there is no better place to be.
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