Fun for all family at Taste 2 festival

Aug 16 2008 by Jane Hall, The Journal

THE region’s biggest food and drink festival will be the must-be place for all the family.

For while parents enjoy looking around the stalls piled high with the freshest local produce, wine and beer marquee, cookery demonstrations featuring local celebrity chefs and chat to Hairy Bikers Simon King and Dave Myers, children can take part in fun activities.

An exciting mix of crafts, cookery sessions and face painting will be on offer at The Journal Taste 2 food and drink festival in association with Tesco on August 30.

The one-day event at the Macdonald Linden Hall Hotel, Golf and Country Club at Longhorsley, near Morpeth, Northumberland, will be a celebration of the region’s best food and drink and follows on from The Journal’s successful Taste 1 festival in April this year which saw more than 10,000 people descend on the National Trust’s Gibside estate at Rowlands Gill on the outskirts of Gateshead.

Encouraging children to join in with the day’s foodie theme will be Gillian Kenyon and Jane Lunec, of Cool Cooks. The duo, whose child-friendly, healthy and easy-to-prepare recipes appear every Friday on The Journal’s Taste website at www.journaltastene.co.uk, will be cooking up a storm with everything from pizza faces to fruitilicious feasts for budding Jamies and Nigellas to take away and eat.

Gillian, 51, is a trained home economist from Jesmond, while Jane, 45, from Longbenton, North Tyneside, is a former kitchen demonstrator and primary school teacher who now works as a family learning tutor for Newcastle City Council.

They met when their children – they have five between them aged 16 to 21 – were at nursery school together in Newcastle, and the two mums struck up a friendship.

But it wasn’t until Gillian was looking for a new career after being made redundant from a slimmed-down Sainsbury’s, that their friendship turned into something more and Cool Cooks came into being. The venture’s philosophy is simple: to make cooking fun with a mixture of healthy and sweet seasonal dishes which budding chefs can get their teeth into at after-school classes and fun holiday time activity days.

Meanwhile, Michelle Ibbetson will be keeping kids busy with arts and crafts projects. The 48-year-old former window dresser with House of Fraser, runs Krafty Kidz based in Low Fell, Gateshead.

This will be the second time Michelle has supported The Journal Taste campaign. Krafty Kidz proved to be one of the most popular non-food attractions at our Gibside event.

The idea for the business was sparked five years ago by her own two children, Claire, 17, and Joe, eight.

“I have always done arty things with my own children. All the activities have been tried and approved by Joe and Claire. If they don’t like it, it doesn’t become part of the offering,” said Michelle. Krafty Kidz started out running children’s parties, but has now added activity days to its repertoire for the likes of the National Trust, Sure Start and school parents’ associations.

“I really enjoyed doing the first Taste event,” Michelle says. “My craft activities went down a storm, and the event itself was very enjoyable. I’m looking forward to being involved with Taste 2, not just working with the children, but getting the chance to have a look around at all the food stalls as well.

“All the activities I do are keepsake crafts, which means children get to make and keep them. I will probably have a choice of eight to choose from for Taste 2, including a ceramic package, where children will be able to decorate plates and mugs. All the crafts are around £6 and I provide the aprons and wipes for cleaning up.”

Castles in the Sky is an all-female run face painting team. Set-up just over a year ago by Amanda Glendinning, 36, from Shiremoor, North Tyneside, Taste 2 will be the largest event Castles in the Sky has attended. Amanda was taught to face-paint by a clown when she worked for a national family pub chain. “I’m an arty person anyway, and I was doing face painting for friends and relatives. I suffered from ME, but when I recovered from that about 18 months ago, I decided to go for it and set up Castles in the Sky. It seems to have taken off and now I’m doing face painting parties for children and adults as well as events.”

There will be a charge for all the children’s activities at Taste 2. For more information, go to www.castlesinthesky.me.uk, www.krafty-kidz.co.uk or www.coolcooks.co.uk