Taste food festival crowd have fine appetites

Apr 28 2008 by Jane Hall, The Journal

FOOD fanatics turned out in their droves on Saturday to support The Journal Taste North East England Food and Drink Festival.

More than 4,000 taste-testers packed in to the Gibside National Trust site near Rowlands Gill, Gateshead, to indulge in the region’s finest fresh food.

Farmers, brewers and bakers who stacked their stalls with their own meat, cakes and beer found their shelves bare as shoppers bagged fine foods.

Cookery demonstrations were also taking place in a nearby marquee, with spectators picking up handy hints from celebrity chefs including local BBC MasterChef finalist David Hall and Gareth Marks, who had spent the last three months hosting his Tyne Tees TV show, A Taste of the North.

And fans also stood in line to meet culinary hero and Hairy Biker Simon King. The culinary whizz, originally from Prudhoe, Northumberland, spent three hours greeting fans eager to share their own recipes. Mr King said: “Everybody here today has been great. I’ve had bairns coming up to me and telling me how to make soup and I’ve had grannies telling me how they cook their ox-tails. So it’s been brilliant and I’ve really enjoyed it.”

He also showed his support for The Journal’s efforts to encourage people to Buy Local, Use Local, Eat Local.

He said: “I’m here because I know it’s important to support artisan producers like this because they care about what they do and the quality of their food is always good. It’s dead important for folk to support them so they will come back and then we will get more quality foods on our tables and that’s what this is about. It’s about supporting our local economy.”

Visitors tucked in to Sunniside Sizzlers and Corkside Crackers sausage sandwiches from the Northumbrian Farm House meat stall.

Journal editor Brian Aitken was one of those attending the festival. He said: “I’m really pleased that people turned out in their numbers to support the Taste campaign. I’m quite proud that we have galvanised the public to support the quality food and drink producers from the North East.”

One of those who was hit by the huge rush of paying customers was Michelle Anderson, 44, who owns Kielder Organic Meats.

She had only been trading for two hours when she found her stock of fresh meat and speciality sausages had run out. Mrs Anderson, from Bellingham, Northumberland, said: “I sold the lot. I’ve never sold so much meat in such a short space of time.

“ I would love to be able to do this all the time.”

Page 2: They’ve all got a taste to help local heroes