This weekend, we travelled to Shrewsbury Food Festival to join the volunteering force, affectionately known as Team Orange.
We help out on the Wenlock Spring Demo Stage by working backstage, helping chefs prepare their ingredients, washing up, cleaning the hob a lot and generally lending a hand.
As always, the Wenlock Spring Team were fantastic at providing us with bottled water to keep the crew and chefs hdrated during the warm weather.
We help out on the Wenlock Spring Demo Stage by working backstage, helping chefs prepare their ingredients, washing up, cleaning the hob a lot and generally lending a hand.
As always, the Wenlock Spring Team were fantastic at providing us with bottled water to keep the crew and chefs hdrated during the warm weather.
We were also very pleased to be reunited with Colin Young, last years' compere who is incredibly entertaining and made firm friends among the SFSD Team because of his Trunk of Funk show playing exactly the right kind of music for their ears. He was on form this year too although I am completely biased.
This year, we were introduced to a little secret that Shropshire had been hiding from us in the form of Dr Lal Haider who left surgery to introduce the county to Persian cuisine. Whilst Dr Lal said that he was nervous, his demonstration created an amazing dish including a stunning butter bean side.
His passion for and knowledge of Persian food also shone through. It was great to hear about a cuisine that I'm not familiar with and to understand a bit more about the strong flavours Persian cooking offers.
For those who love the multiple layers of flavour that Indian food offers but aren't too keen on the heat that is often associated with it may well find Persian food of real interest.
Following Dr Lal, the effervescent Melanie Fallon from Bonbonniere gave us a taste of her delightful chocolate recipes, including some from her new book and an insight into the life of a chocolatiere.
The crowd were also treated to the return of Robert Swift, the master baker from an enviable baking heritage, to the Demo stage. As always, his recipes were delightful and a pancetta and pea loaf seemed to be a real hit with Colin, the crowd and the team backstage who were lucky enough to taste Robert's expertly created bread. I looked on with envy!
If learning to make bread that leaves the standard sliced white in the shade is of interest, learning with Robert should be your first call. He's one of the nicest chefs we get to meet at the festival!
The very charismatic Chris Burt came on next to demonstrate making what looked to be the perfect ramen, starting with dashi and even going through to the finishing touch of a water bath cooked egg.
I spent the whole time drooling and even SFSDTam's mum was super impressed. His chemistry with Colin made it even more entertaining, especially getting to see Colin in a flat cap.
He is about to launch Momo No Ki in Shrewsbury on the 10th of July, making Shrewsbury one of the first places other than London to have a ramen bar. Also making Shrewsbury very lucky.
ITV's This Morning regular, Marcus Bean, followed and the crowd was given a card with his chicken in papillote recipe to follow at home. As always, Marcus managed to share his passion for local, fresh food and showing that being a self taught chef doesn't mean being less skilled.
He managed to create three dishes during his forty (and a bit) minute slot including making honeycomb for a delicious summer dessert with Colin facing the danger of adding bicarbonate of soda to 150 degree caramel.
Finally, we were treated to a butchery demonstration from John Williams from the Pound at Leebotwood while Sam from Middle Farm explained how the pig that John was breaking down was raised. Sam explained how proper animal husbandry and high welfare created the best possible meat while John also showed the audience how succulent pork cooked using the sous vide method could be.
John was lovely and offered us some of the pork to taste - it was very strange to eat pork that looked pink but the texture was something completely new. The sousvide method cooks meat without changing the colour or making the fibres tough so you get what appears to be raw but meltingly tender meat.
What always appeared to me to be something of a gimmick finally made sense and I may now be something of a convert.
Once we cleared the backstage, washed up all of the equipment including the very beautiful Netherton Foundry spun iron pans and ensured that the stage was scrubbed to within an inch of its life, all we then had to do was wander around the wealth of stalls to examine their wares and find ourselves something to eat in Shrewsbury.
Sounds simple right? That's another story!
This year, we were introduced to a little secret that Shropshire had been hiding from us in the form of Dr Lal Haider who left surgery to introduce the county to Persian cuisine. Whilst Dr Lal said that he was nervous, his demonstration created an amazing dish including a stunning butter bean side.
His passion for and knowledge of Persian food also shone through. It was great to hear about a cuisine that I'm not familiar with and to understand a bit more about the strong flavours Persian cooking offers.
For those who love the multiple layers of flavour that Indian food offers but aren't too keen on the heat that is often associated with it may well find Persian food of real interest.
Following Dr Lal, the effervescent Melanie Fallon from Bonbonniere gave us a taste of her delightful chocolate recipes, including some from her new book and an insight into the life of a chocolatiere.
The crowd were also treated to the return of Robert Swift, the master baker from an enviable baking heritage, to the Demo stage. As always, his recipes were delightful and a pancetta and pea loaf seemed to be a real hit with Colin, the crowd and the team backstage who were lucky enough to taste Robert's expertly created bread. I looked on with envy!
If learning to make bread that leaves the standard sliced white in the shade is of interest, learning with Robert should be your first call. He's one of the nicest chefs we get to meet at the festival!
The very charismatic Chris Burt came on next to demonstrate making what looked to be the perfect ramen, starting with dashi and even going through to the finishing touch of a water bath cooked egg.
I spent the whole time drooling and even SFSDTam's mum was super impressed. His chemistry with Colin made it even more entertaining, especially getting to see Colin in a flat cap.
He is about to launch Momo No Ki in Shrewsbury on the 10th of July, making Shrewsbury one of the first places other than London to have a ramen bar. Also making Shrewsbury very lucky.
ITV's This Morning regular, Marcus Bean, followed and the crowd was given a card with his chicken in papillote recipe to follow at home. As always, Marcus managed to share his passion for local, fresh food and showing that being a self taught chef doesn't mean being less skilled.
He managed to create three dishes during his forty (and a bit) minute slot including making honeycomb for a delicious summer dessert with Colin facing the danger of adding bicarbonate of soda to 150 degree caramel.
Finally, we were treated to a butchery demonstration from John Williams from the Pound at Leebotwood while Sam from Middle Farm explained how the pig that John was breaking down was raised. Sam explained how proper animal husbandry and high welfare created the best possible meat while John also showed the audience how succulent pork cooked using the sous vide method could be.
John was lovely and offered us some of the pork to taste - it was very strange to eat pork that looked pink but the texture was something completely new. The sousvide method cooks meat without changing the colour or making the fibres tough so you get what appears to be raw but meltingly tender meat.
What always appeared to me to be something of a gimmick finally made sense and I may now be something of a convert.
Once we cleared the backstage, washed up all of the equipment including the very beautiful Netherton Foundry spun iron pans and ensured that the stage was scrubbed to within an inch of its life, all we then had to do was wander around the wealth of stalls to examine their wares and find ourselves something to eat in Shrewsbury.
Sounds simple right? That's another story!