Huntingdonshire Food and Drink Festival 2008 was deemed an outstanding success as crowds flocked to the festivals main event, Food Fest 08 on Sunday 28 September.
Around 2,500 people attended the main event at Wood Green Animal Shelter and over 30 local producers and businesses exhibited their produce and offered samples for visitors to taste. Visitors treated themselves to hog roast, real ales from local brewers and pubs, special homemade fudge, ordered themselves an organic veggie box and tasted a wide selection of cheeses, meats and homemade breads.
The main theme was a celebration of the good quality local food available in Huntingdonshire, encouraging people to buy local and thereby reducing their food miles to help the environment, as well as promoting a healthy diet.
Chefs from the Marriott Hotel took part in a live cookery contest ‘Get Set Go Cook’ with food provided by Waitrose in St Ives which proved incredibly popular along with the wine tutorial, the chocolate fountain and the butchery demonstrations.
Visitors young and old enjoyed the education zone and had a go at milking a cow, the bicycle powered smoothie maker and pressing apples to make fresh apple juice along with the exciting interactive exhibits, competitions and games.
Corrine Garbett, Sustainable Economic Development Manager; “We’re delighted that the festival has been such a fantastic success with both exhibitors and visitors enjoying themselves. This is the second food and drink festival and we are delighted that our visitor numbers increased by around 1,000 this year. Many people commented that they especially enjoyed the demonstrations and learnt more about the farm to fork process.”
Other festival events that took place over the weekend were;
The young chef’s competition unearthed the district’s cooking talent among 11 to 14-year-olds. The winner Charlotte Ward cooked a wonderful meal for two featuring Parma ham wrapped chicken stuffed with parmesan and mozzarella.
The hunt for the best sandwich Huntingdonshire is over. The three finalists were all young children from nurseries in St Ives, Huntingdon and Ramsey. The three nurseries battled it out on Saturday at the Saxongate Centre, Huntingdon and made their sandwich once again for the judges. In a close final Ramsey Nursery won the overall prize of £150 with their excellent sandwich of ham, chutney and salad.
The Huntingdonshire Food and Drink Awards 2008, run in association with the Hunts Post, aimed to uncover the district’s best in food and drink. The winners were Charlotte Ward aged 13 years won the young chef award, Fullard’s Farm in Woodhurst won the best breakfast award, The Bridge Hotel, Huntingdon won the best restaurant award, The Oliver Cromwell in St Ives won the best pub award, Top Banana in Buckden won the best independent retailer and the best food and drink producers award was won by Nutty Tarts in St Neots. These awards celebrated the fantastic range, quality and diversity of delicious food, drinks and great beer there is on offer in Huntingdonshire. All the finalists were treated to an excellent awards evening supported by The Old Bridge Hotel, Huntingdon, on Monday 29 September hosted by the BBC’s Look East News team.
Andrew Hansard, Executive Councillor for Policy and Strategic Services said; “The community’s response to the food and drink festival has been overwhelmingly supportive. There has been a great deal of effort from all involved, from participants in all the competitions and events to producers, retailers and restauranteurs who have put on their own events during the five day festival. We wanted to recognise the role of food and drink producers in our district and the wonderful job they do in providing us all with quality food”.
Special menus at participating restaurants were also available.
The festival was managed by the council and sponsored by Anglian Water, Waitrose, The Hunts Post, The Old Bridge, The Huntingdon Marriott, Munns, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Inspiro, and supported by the Town Centre Partnerships in Huntingdon, St Neots, St Ives and Ramsey and Wood Green Animal Shelters.