THE finest produce from across Hampshire was celebrated at the Winchester Food Festival.
The event, in its second year and organised by Hampshire Fare, was held in the Outer Close of Winchester Cathedral on Sunday, July 14.
There was a wide range of food and drink stalls from Caribbean sauces, cider, trout, fresh vegetables, herbs, olive oil and more.
One of the highlights was the chef stage with Colin Savory from the Northbrook Arms in East Stratton, Matt Whitfield and Tom Nabulsi from the White Horse in Otterbourne and Addin Mazlin and James Harris from Lucky Lychee, Winchester, showcasing their talents.
The festival also had its own twist on the Ainsley Harriott classic, Ready Steady Cook. The cook off saw Martin Dawkins - The Rustic Chef and Gary Moreton-Jones from the newly opened Kavi, create dishes with ingredients sourced from the festival producers.
@hampshire_chronicle Winchester Food Festival 2024
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Before cooking up a storm at the chef stage, Colin Savory said he had taken some advice from the well known Tom Kerridge. Colin said: “Tom Kerridge a couple of weeks back when he was doing one of his demos advised me to just keep talking. We'll go with that and see how it goes.
“We've got the toasted flatbread off the new menu with roasted red onions, spiced chickpeas and mint yoghurt. Then I've got a stuffed loin of pork with apricots and herbs, fondant potato, braised red cabbage and some pig skin crackling.”
Colin added that he had been at the Northbrook Arms for eight months and that July 14 was 24 years to the day that he took his first commis chef job.
The event was officially opened by Hampshire County Council leader Nick Adams-King, who was introduced to the crowd by Hampshire Fare commercial manager Natasha Dochniak. Cllr Adams-King said: "We looked around local politicians to find one who looked like they liked food the most, here I am.
"The really great thing about this is around us we can see so many wonderful products we produce here in Hampshire. We have fantastic producers of all sorts of different produce which is grown and processed in the county.
"That creates a really positive place where we can encourage those businesses to contribute to the economy. Natasha and her team do a fantastic job in promoting that for all of these businesses.
"Throughout the year, you'll find lots of these producers at markets and shows and all of them are assisted to get there by Natasha and her team."
For more, visit hampshirefare.co.uk.
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