Meet Yorkshire Food Heroes at York Food Festival
The theme for the 2010 York Food Festival (17 th to 26 th September) is “Meet the Yorkshire Food Heroes”. The Festival is working with Yorkshire’s National Parks, the National Trust and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust to promote sustainable producers; especially those whose work helps maintain traditional landscapes. The Festival has developed the 2010 programme to include a series of innovative ‘collaborative stands’ at the Festival’s market, shared by quality producers from specific Yorkshire environments. Other Hero events involve an exciting line up of Michelin Star Chefs on stage with their favourite suppliers, ‘Slow Food’ Tastings, York Farmer’s market and demonstrations.
Key ‘Meet the Hero’ items include:
- Informal daily tastings conducted by Slow Food North Yorkshire, include:
- A comparative tasting by Tom Wallis of Lowna dairy of his award winning Goat’s Cheese.
- Yorkshire Rapeseed Oil discussing the production, health and gastronomic benefits of their oils.
- Collaborative stands, shared by producers from specific areas in Yorkshire, include:
- A series of producers from the southern Dales led by Robert Phillip of Hellifield Beef. Robert’s Highland cattle play and important role maintaining the flora of Yorkshire’s Limestone landscape.
- A second group led by Philip Trevelyan, Organic Millers and Sheep Farmer, from Pickering and the surrounding Moors. Producers of Trout, Watercress and Heather Honey all attend.
- The Festival Market Place:
- Key Yorkshire attendees include Penny Hodgeson, producer of Thornhill Dexter Beef, Whitby Seafood and Richard Elmhurst, of Round Green Venison.
- The Festival sets aside day stands for small producers to attend for one or two days, these include Brunswick Organic Nursery, which provides a workplace for adults with learning difficulties and Yorkshire Wold’s Apples.
- York ’s regular farmers markets takes place within the Festival on Friday 24 th September.
- Demonstrations by Yorkshire Producers include:
- Phillip Leverington of Fresh Catering who will work alongside a succession of producers that can be found in the market place. James Wright of Taste Tradition will do a butchery demonstration of rare breed meat raised in the North Yorkshire Moors.
- Producer’s Day
- A show including demonstrations from Yorkshire Michelin Stared Chefs Andrew Pern and James Mackenzie on stage with their favourite Yorkshire producers and a Yorkshire Produce Buffet for lunch.
Background information:
York Food and Drink Festival, first run in 1997, was taken over by an independent (not for profit) company in 2008. The new organisation is dedicated to the promotion of regional produce.
The breadth of the Festival makes it unique with:
- The free entry markets and demonstrations continue until 7pm.
- The Festival runs across the city and in the surrounding area with shops and restaurants offering special menus, deals and events.
- The ticketed programme also continues through both the day and the evening with a full complement of dinners and tastings; many in York’s historic Mansion House and Guildhall.
Pre-Festival Event:
Meet the Yorkshire Food Heroes in our Cookery Class and Venison Meal
Oh my Goodness. What a brilliant time we had!
On Thursday 12th August, 7pm, York Food Festival goers had the opportunity to join Yorkshire Venison Farmer Nigel Sampson of Holme Farm and Chef Stephanie Moon of Rudding Park for an amazing cookery class.
But fortunately, you don’t have to miss out completely – you can still have the opportunity to enjoy this menu, on Tuesday 21st September, at Stephanie Moon’s Dinner in the Mansion House.
We watched Stephanie demonstrate the Venison starter and then the main-course, while she and Nigel explained why Venison is prepared and cooked as it is, and how to keep the meat moist.
We also learned about food presentation and using the plate as a frame to build our food picture on.
We then each made our own starter, which included preparing a raw quail’s egg yolk as part of our ‘Picture on the plate’ and then shared a communal meal of the food cooked.
Starter: Assiette of Venison :Venison Tarter, Marinated venison salad, and Peppered scorched venison
Main course: Venison steak with Herb crust, Carrot dauphinoise, summer greens and Rosti potato.
Dessert: Bailey’s and Coffee Meringue Roulade with Hazelnuts and Summer Fruits.
Ronald Smith said, “This has blown me away! The Food was wonderful.” While Sarah Waite, who was working beside Ronald said, “I just loved the Venison Tartare – I didn’t expect the raw meat to taste so good, it was full of flavour!”
The event highlighted the 2010 Festival’s theme “Meet the Yorkshire Food Heroes”. See www.yorkfoodfestival.com/festival.php?cat=1 for more information.
The Cooking Rooms is a new cookery school in York offering a range of food and drink experiences for all ages and abilities to the people of Yorkshire and beyond.
Stephanie Moon, daughter of a Yorkshire farmer, is Consultant Chef at Rudding Park and loves to share her favourite recipes and ideas for wild food in her “Wild Cooks” blog http://wildcook.wordpress.com/ .
Nigel Sampson is Managing Director of Holme Farm Venison and a farmer who uses the entire animal, in every sense of the word. That is, he makes clothes even from the skin.
A huge thank you to Nigel, Stephanie and Luke for a brilliant evening, where we learned so much, enjoyed a fabulous meal and just had fun!
Chocolate Heaven in York
Thousands of people are employed in the manufacture of confectionary in York, the city of Quaker chocolatiers, Rowntrees and Terry’s. This year the city is to mark that heritage with a celebration of chocolate. The York Food Festival is bringing high quality artisan chocolate centre stage in September 2010, running a ‘Chocolate Day’ in the Market, chocolate demonstrations at 5pm daily in the Festival market place and the Festival launch event will be a chocolate show in the historic Guildhall. Meanwhile the local authority is running a “Big City Read” project in the run up to the Festival, centered on the contemporary novel ‘Chocolat’.
Key Events:
The Chocolate Launch Event: Friday 17th September, 7pm
The event includes,
- a history of chocolate presentation,
- a demonstration using chocolate in ‘savoury’ cooking,
- a chocolate taste workshop – comparing different estate chocolates,
- a ‘make your own’ chocolate cookery workshop,
- a chocolate cocktail demonstration and
- a matching chocolate with wine tasting session.
Death by Chocolate: 18th September, 7pm
For lovers of chocolate, this event is a must. Join Ivan Day, world famous food historian, for a mouth-watering introduction to the history of chocolate.
Kit Kat ‘Town and Gown’ Lecture at York St John University: Monday 20th September, 6.30pm
In 1935, KIT KAT started life in a York factory. Celebrating its 75th anniversary, David Rennie, Managing Director, Nestlé Confectionery UK and Ireland, delivers this York St John University Public Lecture.
The Chocolate Fountain Market: Tuesday 21st September, from 9am Free entry
A range of artisan chocolate makers take stands at the centre of the Festival’s market, around the Fountain in Parliament Street. Stand holders include local chocolatier Sophie Jewett who is winning a reputation for highly original chocolate fillings including York Ale, Local Honey and Yorkshire Blue Cheese. Others include Choc Affair, a local hand made chocolate producer, who uses Fair-trade chocolate to make their luxury gifts. Also, see the Award winning White Rabbit Chocolate Company whose gifts and chocolates can also be purchased on-line.
A Taste of History (with York Chocolate Club) Saturday 25th , 6.30pm
Join expert the museum’s curator along with local chocolatier and founder of York Chocolate Club, Sophie Jewett as they take you on a sensory exploration of York’s rich chocolate history.
To see what’s on every day, see the Festival’s Chocolate programme on http://www.yorkfoodfestival.com/festival.php?cat=14
Wine Events at the York Food and Drink Festival
Festival Wine Fair Saturday 25 th Sept:
Held over two sessions: (12pm – 4pm or 6pm – 9pm)
Simply buy a ticket, pick up a glass at the door and then walk around the stands which offer tasters of over 80 different wines.
Introduction to Food and Wine Matching: Sherry and Tapas. Saturday 18 th Sept
Held over three sessions: (1pm 2.30 and 4pm)
Meet one of the Festival’s favourite wine critics, Charles Metcalfe, and let him talk you through these surprisingly good pairings.
Daily Introduction to Wine Everyday at 1pm
Whatever day you come, there is a light-hearted introductory wine event at lunchtime. Join local wine experts like Karen Hardwick and Peter McKenna in Melton’s Too to cover topics like South African Wine; Fizz; and Burgundy: the Douro Valley and Port
Grand Cru Saint-Émilion Dinner. Thursday 23 rd Sept at 7.30
A Champagne and canapé reception; followed by a four-course dinner and 8 different Grand Cru wines. Commentary from Yorkshire Post Wine Critic: Christine Austin.
The programme also includes :
- Pink Champagne,
- Chocolate and wine, as part of the Festival’s Chocolate Launch
- A charitable Champagne afternoon tea in the Mansion House
- And an old favourite revived – Cheese and Wine matching.
Welcome To Yorkshire Sponsors York Food and Drink Festival
York Food and Drink Festival has been one of the key annual events in Yorkshire for some time, but this year acknowledgement of that has come from Welcome to Yorkshire, as they are showing their support both financially and help with marketing.
Dedicated to promoting Yorkshire, the Welcome to Yorkshire website is the official visitor site for Yorkshire and lists everything from what to do, where to stay and how to keep Yorkshire special.
Sharing the promotion of Yorkshire as one of its primary aims, the theme for the 2010 York Food Festival (17th to 26th September) is “Meet the Yorkshire Food Heroes”. The Festival is working with many key organisations such as Yorkshire’s National Parks, the National Trust and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust to promote sustainable producers; especially those whose work helps maintain traditional landscapes.
The Festival has developed the 2010 programme to include a series of innovative ‘collaborative stands’ at the Festival’s market, shared by quality producers from specific Yorkshire environments. Other Hero events involve an exciting line up of Michelin Star Chefs on stage with their favourite suppliers, ‘Slow Food’ Tastings, York Farmer’s market and demonstrations.
The markets and many of the demonstrations are free to enter. Tickets, for many other events, can be bought on-line or by calling 01904 466687.
A full programme of events can be found at http://www.yorkfoodfestival.com
Source: Press Release