Growing appetite for home produce

Aug 23 2008 by Jane Hall, The Journal

MORE than 100 of the region’s finest artisan producers will show off their wares at The Journal Taste 2 food and drink festival -– making it the biggest one day event of its kind ever held in the North East.

An astounding 102 producers have signed up to Taste 2 in association with Tesco – 40 more than attended The Journal’s first food and drink fair in April, which saw 10,000 people descend on the National Trust’s Gibside estate at Rowlands Gill.

It was at the end of January that The Journal launched its high profile Taste North East England Campaign to encourage consumers, retailers, hoteliers and restaurateurs to buy, use and eat local.

Taste 2 is the most visible sign of our support for the plethora of quality small food and drink businesses operating between the Rivers Tweed and Tees.

It builds on the success of Gibside, and the enormous interest generated by Taste 2 reflects the growing appetite there is across all sectors in the North East for seasonal, quality, local produce.

Last night The Journal editor Brian Aitken thanked all those involved for helping to get the festival off to a flying start – and promised lots more to come.

“We were blown away that we managed to get 62 producers and over 10,000 people along to Gibside. Taste 2 is double the size of Gibside when you take into account the stallholders and the programme of other food related activities taking place.

“It shows the enormous support there is for The Journal’s Taste North East England campaign. We have said from the beginning that Taste 2 was going to be the biggest and best food and drink festival in the North East – and with so many now signed up we have achieved that.

“When we’re all down because of the weather and the state of the economy, Taste 2 is a ray of much-needed sunshine.

“Imagine the very best line-up of produce and ingredients, incredible wines and drinks from small, unique producers, celebrity chefs and demonstrations where you can discover some of the best food and drink in the world, and you have a measure of what Taste 2 will be all about.”

Mr Aitken added: “Our sole aim has always been to get North East produce on the local and national menu. Taste 2 promotes in the most high profile way possible what’s happening with artisan food in the region and gives the small traders their chance to shine.

“Taste 2 is about passion and bringing together a group of people who really believe in what they are doing and putting on a fantastic event.”

Set against the Georgian backdrop of the Macdonald Linden Hall Hotel in Longhorsley, near Morpeth, visitors can expect an action-packed day.

Star guests will be TV’s Hairy Bikers, Simon King and Dave Myers, and former Newcastle United favourite David Ginola, who is to launch his award-winning Coste Brulade rosé wine in the UK at Taste 2. Meanwhile, nationally acclaimed wine writer Malcolm Gluck will join The Journal’s own Helen Savage at a series of tastings.

A host of the region’s top chefs, including Newcastle-born Michelin-award winner Kenny Atkinson of Seaham Hall’s White Room Restaurant, will also be showing off their cooking skills. Children will have the chance to join in the fun courtesy of The Journal’s own Cool Cooks, Gillian Kenyon and Jane Lunec.

But it is the array of quality home produced food now available in the region that will be the star. Not only can you meet the people that reared the sheep, planted the vegetables, baked the bread, made the jam and milked the cows, you can taste their produce, learn about it, then buy it to take home.