Bring your taste buds to life

Apr 15 2008 by Jane Hall, The Journal

A STATELY home in Gateshead will become the culinary capital of the North East later this month thanks to a gastronomic extravaganza organised by The Journal.

Gibside near Rowlands Gill will be the setting for the first ever Journal Taste North East England Campaign Food and Drink Festival in association with the National Trust.

Delicacies and delights from across the region will be on offer to visitors as more than 50 of the area’s finest food and drink suppliers and producers gather alongside local celebrity chefs for the one-day event on April 26.

Set against one of the grandest backdrops that any food and drink festival could boast, the joint Journal and National Trust event will be a celebration and demonstration of great North East cooking and the excellent produce available between the Rivers Tweed and Tees.

Located on the Green Close next to the ruined ancestral home of the Bowes-Lyons family, not only will the festival be worth coming to just for Gibside’s spectacular vistas, winding paths and grassy open spaces spanning 400 acres, but for the chance to enjoy some of the finest produce on offer anywhere in Britain.

From the farmers to the chefs, the festival will whet your appetite by tasting, selling and cooking game and fish, tasty soups and bread, succulent meats and tempting puddings, homemade sweets and jams, fresh vegetables and free range local eggs. You can then wash all that down in the real ale and wine tent.

With a cookery demonstration marquee sponsored by Waitrose of Hexham that will house the Northumbria Larder mobile kitchen, you will be hard pushed to keep your stomach empty for long.

It is here that local BBC MasterChef finalist David Hall; Journal columnist Bill Oldfield; Richard Sim of the Made in Northumberland food project; Tony Binks of the award-winning Barrasford Arms gastro-pub and Gareth Marks, fresh from hosting his three-month Tyne Tees TV show, A Taste of the North, and now of Newcastle’s Persian-influenced Flatbread Cafe, will cook up a storm using ingredients supplied by stallholders at a series of 30-minute food demonstrations throughout the action-packed day.

Also on hand will be lifelong food lover and TV’s Hairy Biker, Simon King from Prudhoe, in Northumberland, who, like the other chefs who have signed-up for the festival, will be giving his time for free in support of The Journal Taste North East England Campaign launched in January to encourage consumers, retailers and hoteliers and restaurateurs to buy local, use local and eat local for the good of the region’s health and economy.

Mr King, who has found fame as one-half of the BBC’s unconventional cookery duo, The Hairy Bikers, with long-time friend Dave Myers from Cumbria, is a keen advocate of North East produce. Earlier this year he and Mr Myers each championed quality produce on their own doorsteps in The Hairy Bikers Come Home – A Winter Special, the first time North East food had been promoted in its own show on national prime-time television.

Last night Mr King said: “I am impassioned about local food because I care. I just want to give people a hand. I think The Journal Taste North East England Food and Drink Festival in association with the National Trust is a great opportunity for everyone to get together and see what other producers are doing, see what is out there and really get a vibe going about the wonderful produce we have in this region.

“It is also a great opportunity to have a giggle. I’m very flattered that I have been asked to get involved and I look forward very much to meeting everybody, from stallholders to the public.

“I will be at the event for at least a couple of hours, so come along and meet me.

“I’ll sign whatever part of the body anyone wants to offer up. Just get along to Gibside and show your support for our local food and drink producers. If we don’t support them, they won’t be there.”

The day, which runs from 10.30am-3.30pm, will also feature a selection of craft people as well as face painting for children to run alongside the main event.

For many of the produce stallholders – like Heighley Gate Garden Centre near Morpeth which is currently half-way through its own six week Flavour of Northumberland Food Festival, Lintz Hall Farm near Burnopfield which produces free range eggs, and HebrideanSheep.com – this will be the first time they have appeared at such an event. Scores more other exhibitors will be making a rare public appearance, attracted to the Food and Drink Festival by The Journal’s Taste campaign and the involvement of the National Trust.

Journal Editor Brian Aitken said: “This event promises to be a spectacular day of gastronomic delights for everyone of all ages. We are cooking up lots of treats for stallholders and the public alike, and thanks to the line-up of producers, suppliers and chefs we have, we expect to attract visitors from far and wide.

“Our sole aim is to get The Journal’s buy local, use local, eat local campaign message out there and ensure we have a thriving North East food and drink industry we can be proud of going into the future. It is good for us and good for the local economy.

“We are indebted to the National Trust for teaming up with us and allowing us to hold this festival in such spectacular surroundings at Gibside.

“The National Trust in the North East has been an avid supporter of local food for many years, and The Journal looks forward to working with the Trust on future projects in support of our artisan food and drink producers.”