Abergavenny Box Office News

Just a week until the Abergavenny Food Festival Box office goes live on Wednesday 16 July. The full programme will be released that day on line on line at abergavennyfoodfestival.com and tickets can be bought there or through the Borough Theatre on 01873 850805. If you buy buy tickets on line you will be entered into a prize draw. One lucky winner will walk off with a fabulous Flint & Flame Classic Knife Set worth over a thousand pounds.(This is an on line only draw)

As always there is a stellar line up of chefs demonstrating, holding masterclasses or talking about food and their craft which this year includes Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall who’ll be appearing at the Borough Theatre on the Friday evening,

With Wahaca opening its first restaurant outside London in Cardiff this autumn Tommi Miers will be a big attraction.

Cyrus Todiwala has long been a Festival Favourite, whether for his spicy delights served up in the Castle area or for his entertaining views in the Rude Health Rants, and this year he is teamed up with Incredible Spice Men partner Tony Singh. Whatever the pair get up to will be highly entertaining and full of flavour.

There's a distinct taste of the  Middle East as Sam and Sam Clark of Moro bring their Moorish foods  and Iranian born Sabrina Gayhour introduces the taste of Persiana, 

More chefs will be appearing but these may just whet your appetite. Though demos in the market hall are free some events are ticketed and the Box Office can supply those that you want.

The Children's Food Academy has been a consistent feature, this year sponsored by the Organic Centre Wales, and adults get their chance too.

Amongst the new skills you can acquire at The Artisan Kitchen School (in the Masonic Hall) are making Bacon with James Swift from Trealy Farm, brewing your own Sake with Marie Cheong Thong and entering the world of Seasonal Fruit Liqueurs with Lindy Wildsmith. 

 With a full programme of events around town, over 200 stalls and a brand new Night Market on the Saturday with Street Food in the Lower Brewery Yard, as well as the Party in the Castle there really is something for everyone.

Stroller Tickets  for the main markets start at £6.50 (early-bird prices) and children accompanied by a paying adult get in for free, the Night Market is free to Stroller holders or £2 if you don't have one. Ticketed events start at £8.

The Box Office goes live on 16th July and you can download a full ‘diary at a glance’ to help plan your visit.

Finally a question, What do Abergavenny Food Festival favourites Tommi Miers, James Ramsden and Arun Kapil have in common?  They all trained at Ballymaloe Cookery School and were taught by Rory O'Connell.

Rory is a highly regarded chef and teacher and his first book Master It was Observer Food Magazine Book of the Year 2013.

I'm delighted to say that Rory will be taking part in the festival this year and is a MUST!

Check http://www.abergavennyfoodfestival.com/ for further information and to book tickets from 16 July or call The Borough Theatre 01873 850805

An exciting year ahead

What I love about January is planning for the year ahead. There is a pleasure in reviewing what was achieved in the last twelve months, and looking for new experiences in the one that awaits.

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!

 Of course the Allen family will be well represented with Darina, Rachel and Rory O'Connell all playing a very active role and a fair representation of Ballymaloe Cookery School Alumni will be there including Thomasina Miers, Catherine Fulvio, Lilly Higgins and Caroline Hennesy.

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.