Archive for May, 2010
Fork2Fork Campaign Launched
A NEW consumer website is being launched by the Assembly Government today to promote sales of Welsh food and drink products. www.fork2fork.org.uk
The website is part of Cardiff’s two-year fork2fork campaign designed to raise awareness of direct sales opportunities among both consumers and producers.
By promoting farmers’ markets, farm shops, box schemes, farm gate and online sales, it hopes to cut food miles and packaging, and boost local food sector returns.
Rural affairs minister Elin Jones will unveil the initiative at today’s IWA Food in the City Conference, Cardiff.
Meilyr Ceredig, of fork2fork, said: “We are calling on all direct sale producers to visit and send us their stories.”
Source: Andrew Forgrave Daily Post 26/05/2010
Food Festival Feeds the 5,000….
A top TV chef was a man on a mission at a new food festival which was a huge success.
Graham Tinsley MBE, the captain of the Welsh Culinary Team, made an impassioned plea to people to buy and enjoy locally produced food.
He was one of the main attractions at the first ever Wrexham Food Festival which was hailed a huge success – by exhibitors and visitors alike. The festival attracted over 5000 visitors during the two days.
Graham, who starred in ITV’s Taste of the Nation series last year, is the Chef Director at the award-winning Castle Hotel, in Conwy.
He said: “It’s an absolutely tremendous event that has provided an important showcase for high quality local produce.
“It shows that around the corner there may be a bespoke delicatessen, a cheese maker or a farm producer who supply some wonderful products.
“You don’t have to go to the big supermarkets all the time – you should search out these fine products from your local area.”
The Food Festival was organised by Xuberance Events, the company who run the highly successful Llangollen Food Festival, The Gardening Show and The Motorbike Show.
They were backed by the Local Food Project, Northern Marches Cymru.
The project has received financial support through the Rural Development Plan for Wales which is funded by the Welsh Assembly Government and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development.
Hundreds of local schoolchildren entered a competition to design a recipe to find the Taste of Wrexham.
Four finalists were invited to the festival to stage a cook off under Graham’s watchful eye.
In the cook off for the main course, Fianna Ball-Smith, a Year 7 from St Joseph’s School, was pitted against Lauren O’Connor, a Year 7 pupil from Ysgol Bryn Alyn.
After a close fought tussle, Lauren was narrowly judged to be the winner with her delicious Pan Fried Chicken with Leek and Stilton sauce.
The final of the dessert competition was also keenly contested with Lewis Melia, from Year 6, at Victoria School, vying for the title against Alexander Oulton, from Year 6 at Bronington School.
In the event, Alexander just came out on top with his a Blue Chocolate Stir with local blueberries.
Graham added: “The encouragement in the audience for the schoolchildren has been great.
“All four finalists studied hard and found out what was in season – their attitude was great and the recipes were top class.
The Festival was officially opened by the Mayor of Wrexham, Cllr Arwel Gwyn Jones.
He was delighted to be there because he was a big food lover – and was mightily impressed with what he saw and tasted.
“I have been around the stalls and the array of produce is remarkable and that’s fantastic. Importantly, many of them are local who are producing healthy food that people enjoy.
“I am sure that this will also be good for the local economy – and the way things have started this will become the biggest and best food festival in North Wales.”
Caroline Dawson, Northern Marches Cymru’s Local Food Project Officer, was thrilled that the first festival had proved so popular.
She said: “ We are off to a flyer – the response and the sheer number of food lovers who have come is just fantastic. It’s exceeded all expectations.
“There is a brilliant atmosphere. As soon as people started coming in you could pick up on this buzz – there was energy and feeling that it was going to be a good day.
“It bodes well for the future – I’m looking forward to next year and I already have ideas what I want to do.”
Among those already looking forward to next year’s festival is Robert Didier, a former chef who tantalised the tastebuds of James Bond actor Sean Connery and a host of other Hollywood stars.
Robert, who trained under culinary legend Raymond Blanc, now runs Bwlchgwyn-based Orchard Pigs, who makes a range of handmade pies and pastries – including their trademark Tractor wheel pie, using local free range produce.
He said: “The event has been really well organised and the turnout is absolutely brilliant.
“People are spending money which is in this climate is great – they’re not just looking for fine food, they’re looking for local fine food and supporting local businesses.”
Equally delighted was Jo Edwards, from Aballu Truffles, who said: “They have done a brilliant job in setting this event up – there are loads of people here and Xuberance have come up trumps again.”
Food lover Sian ap Dewi came all the way from Bangor.
She said: “It’s great to have an event that celebrates fine food and that you can find out who produces food locally and what is available.I like to know where the food I am eating comes from.”
That was music to the ears of organiser David Green, the Managing Director of Xuberance Events.
He said: “I would like to say a big thank you to all the exhibitors for supporting this first ever Wrexham Food Festival and obviously to all the food lovers who have come.
“We’ve also had amazing support from Caroline Dawson at Northern Marches Cymru and Wrexham Council. Everybody has pulled together – many hands make light work.”
Farm ice cream creates a new festival flavour
A FARM-BASED ice cream maker who won royal approval when the Queen came to Wales is on a new mission.
Richard Done, who runs Woodlands Ice Cream, in Erbistock, is creating a limited edition flavour to celebrate the launch the first Wrexham Food Festival next weekend.
For one weekend only, he is working with another local producer to make a taste-bud teasing blueberry ice cream.
The food festival has been designed as a showcase for producers like Richard and will be held on Llwyn Isaf in front of the Guildhall on Saturday and Sunday (May 15-16).
The blueberries are coming from Blue, a new business created by David Butterworth, his wife Gill and stepson Guy Springett.
They have planted 12,000 blueberry bushes on some of their 11 acres at Wood Cottage Berry Farm in Bettisfield, on the Wrexham county boundary with Shropshire.
According to Richard, the new blueberry flavour is a “marriage made in heaven”.
The company’s popular honeycomb ice cream was on the menu when the Queen had lunch at the Royal Oak Hotel, in Welshpool, during her recent Welsh tour with the Duke of Edinburgh.
Richard explained: “Sam Regan, the chef at the Royal Oak, used to work in the Cross Foxes which is our local pub in Erbistock.
“He wanted a really good ice cream so he gave me a call. He wanted honeycomb flavour which is our second most popular flavour after vanilla.
“It’s a huge feather in our cap and it was really nice that Sam chose us because he wanted to get the best ice cream that he knew to serve to the Queen.”
But this wasn’t the first time that the Queen had tasted the Woodlands ice cream.
The monarch sampled it during a visit to nearby Overton-on-Dee not long after the company was founded at the family farm, Asney Park Farm, 17 years ago.
Richard’s brother, Michael, set up the ice cream business as a farm diversification. Richard, who had just lost his job, agreed to go on the road selling the products and, three years later, bought out his brother to allow him to focus on farming. His wife Julie came in as a partner.
They began by knocking on the door of every restaurant and pub in a 30-mile radius, slowly building a loyal customer base.
The firm is now exhibiting at Wrexham Food Festival, which is organised by Xuberance Events, and backed by the RDP-funded Local Food First project set up by Northern Marches Cymru.
Project officer Caroline Dawson admitted she’d had a sneak preview of the new blueberry ice cream.
“It’s absolutely sensational,“ I’m sure it’s going to be a big hit,” she said.
“It’ is a perfect example of what we are trying to achieve. We have two companies who aren’t a million miles away from each other – they didn’t know each other before – and now they are working together.”
Festival times – Sat, May 15, 10am-5pm; Sun, May 16, 10am-4pm. Adults £2.50, concessions £2, children free.
Young chefs get tips from the top
A volcanic eruption may have kept celebrity chef Graham Tinsley and the Welsh culinary team from the world’s biggest food competition in Singapore – but nothing will keep Graham from a new competition at the Wrexham Food Festival.
Graham, chef director at the Castle Hotel, Conwy, starred in ITV’s Taste The Nation series last year as captain of the Welsh team and he currently manages the Welsh culinary team.
The team will help prepare the recipes created by Wrexham schoolchildren in the design a recipe competition to find the Taste of Wrexham.
Hundreds of Year 6 primary pupils have been been asked to design a dessert while Year 7 secondary pupils have been asked to design a main course.
Four semi-finalists will be invited to attend Wrexham Food Festival, supported by the Leader at Llwyn Isaf, this Saturday and Sunday, May 15 and 16, to assist a member of the Welsh culinary team prepare their dish live which will then be sampled and judged by Mayor Arwel Gwynn Jones, under Graham’s expert eye.
The festival is being organised by Xuberance Events, the company that runs the highly successful Llangollen Food Festival, The Gardening Show and The Motorbike Show.
It is being backed by the Local Food Project of Northern Marches Cymru which has received financial support through the Rural Development Plan for Wales which is funded by the Welsh Assembly Government and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development.
Graham and his 12-man team were packing their bags when they were told just four hours before departure for Singapore that the flight had been cancelled because of the Icelandic volcano eruption.
Graham and the Welsh team are now waiting for the culinary Olympic event in Luxembourg but first he’s looking forward to Wrexham.
Graham, who has cooked in Highgrove, Kensington Palace, Buckingham Palace and Clarence House, said: “In these competitions you look for a whole host of things, you are looking not just for skills, but hygiene, and attitude towards cooking which is just as important as preparing the best dish.
“We look at the attitude of youngsters towards food. They are bombarded with TV programmes about cooking these days which perhaps glamourises the job too much.
“When your friends are enjoying themselves you are working – at Christmas and New Year when other people are off, you are working. It’s not all a rock ’n’ roll lifestyle. The hours are bad, the pay at the start is not good.
“But it can mean the world is your oyster. There is no language barrier in cooking and you can travel to places you only dream about.”
Schoolchildren have been asked to come up with a dish which features one locally sourced product in season, using a minimum of one fruit or vegetable; not cost more than £5 and take no longer than 30 minutes to prepare the dessert and one hour for the main course.
Festival director David Green, of Xuberance Events, said: “We’re delighted to have Graham involved. He is a top class chef with a fantastic pedigree and a real commitment to locally sourced food.
“Wrexham has an abundance of high quality food producers in the area and this is the ideal way to showcase them and if we can get young people involved and interested in good food then that’s got to be positive.
“We will be starting with 40 exhibitors and priority will be given to Wrexham producers. It will be a celebration of Wrexham’s growing gastronomic credentials.”
Jonathan Miller, Wrexham Council’s health and wellbeing manager, welcomes the new competition.
He said: “We are trying to improve children and young people’s awareness of healthy eating and have put a lot of resources into schools and into the training of teachers.
“We have put cooking equipment into schools and helped set up cookery clubs and brought in S4C chef Dudley Newbery to help train teachers in basic cookery skills.
“Understanding the science of food and the balance of food for good health is important and this competition gives that another focus.”
Caroline Dawson, Northern Marches Cymru’s local food project officer, said: “It’s all about getting our youngsters to appreciate the wealth of top quality local produce that is there on their doorstep.
“Wrexham County Borough is 90 per cent rural and there is some fantastic food being produced here so it is important that we make people aware of that.
“The idea of a competition gets our young people thinking about food and how it gets from farm to fork and having Graham Tinsley involved is a real bonus with his level of expertise and experience.
“Whoever wins the competition couldn’t have better people to prepare their dishes and we then hope to feature them on the websites to let everyone try them.”
