Anniversary Aylsham Food Festival

10th Anniversary Aylsham Food Festival programme announced

The programme for this year’s 10th Anniversary Aylsham Food Festival, 1st to 4th October, has been announced. A fantastic range of activities, from Kids Cooking Workshops to cookery demonstrations from some of the County’s top chefs promises something to keep everyone happy – there’s even a juggling chef! And new for this year is a drop-in Senior Citizens’ Lunch in the Parish Church.

Slotting in just before the 4-day Festival, the Senior Citizens’ Lunch will be on Wednesday 30th September, hosted by the Parish Church. Festival organisers, Slow Food Aylsham, thought the lunch would make a great introduction to the Festival which sees many of its other events aimed at youngsters. Indeed, on Thursday 1st October and Friday 2nd the Church will be alive to the sound of primary school children from the Aylsham Cluster taking a dip into the art of cooking in a series of one-hour workshops.

Anniversary Aylsham Food Festival

On Friday evening at Aylsham High School, students will present the ever popular Gala Dinner, a 5-course feast sourced, cooked and served by the students themselves.

Slow Food Aylsham is calling 3rd October its ‘Showcase Saturday’ and backing this up, there will be some fantastic events taking place, up to 2pm. There is, of course, the monthly FARMA-accredited Farmers Market with stalls selling produce grown within a 30-mile radius of the town while drop-in Family Cooking Workshops will be held in the Parish Church all morning.

Sure to please the crowds, the Town Hall will play host to six top Norfolk Chefs who will be demonstrating their skills in a professional demonstration kitchen. Starting at 9am and in one-hour slots, the scheduled chefs are Aylsham favourite Derrol Waller; Mark Sayers, head chef at The Saracen’s Head in Wolterton; Daniel Smith, Chef patron at The Swan in Ingham and 2014 EDP Chef of the Year; Vanessa Scott, owner of Strattons Hotel in Swaffham together with food writer and broadcaster Mary Kemp; Charlie Hodson, Executive Chef at The Great Hospital, Norwich. Compering this great line-up will be Steve Thorpe, Vice Principal at City College Norwich.

Complementing the cooking theatre will be demonstrations of apple pressing, sugar craft and chocolate making while to keep everyone entertained further, Gordon Blur the Juggling Chef will be performing in the Market Place and Sheila Ann Taylor will be offering face painting in the Parish Church.

Aylsham Food Festival will come to a close on Sunday 4th October with its traditional Big Slow Breakfast where up to 120 guests will be able to enjoy a ‘Full English’, cooked and served by members of Slow Food Aylsham and of course, using locally sourced ingredients.

Ten years ago, Aylsham Food Festival had just one event, the Big Slow Breakfast. It has now grown to go be spread over four days which this year spills over into a fifth. It has seen several other similar Norfolk events emerge during those years but it continues to stand by its essentially non-commercial principles of promoting local food and providing an enjoyable experience for the local community and beyond.

Click on image for full programme

Aylsham-Food-Festival-programme

You can keep up to date with Aylsham Food Festival, supported by Broadland District Council and Norfolk Food & Drink Ltd, at www.slowfoodaylsham.org.uk, via Facebook and Twitter: @aylshamfoodfest

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