Exeter Festival of South Food West Food & Drink 2012

I have been going to the Exeter Festival of South West Food & Drink since 2004, the year it started. My first visit was by pure chance, I was in Exeter and happened upon the festival and so decided to take a look.
I didn't have long this first time, as I was working in Exeter that day, however I remember it well and being excited by the variety of things going on.


Each year since I have planned to attend and in more recent years I have been going for two of the three days that the festival takes place on. One day on my own, the other day with Geoff (who can only manage one day!).


The Festival this year has been amazing, my two favourite demonstrations were firstly by Duncan Glendinning and Patrick Ryan from The Thoughful Bread Company. 

The Thoughtful Bread Company Book

These guys were demonstrating some recipes from their book, of which was for sale on the day at an amazing reduction from £17.99 to £10.00. I was keen to buy a book, but the queue was long and the supply of books on the day low.
By the time my turn came, sadly they had all gone. After a quick chat with the PR & Marketing person from The Thoughful Bread Company, she kindly agreed to post me a signed copy for the same cost, so I am really looking forward to that one arriving, so that I can test out some recipes. Obviously I will add these to Culinary Revelations too! This book is available on Amazon too, at a great price.


The second of my favourites was of course the guys from Ashburton Cookery School, who should really be on TV with their own series, as they are fun to watch and such enthusiasm and knowledge to share. As always it was Chef Director Darrin Hosegrove and Chef Manager Rob Dawe, who capitalise on their good friendship and sense of humour. They cooked 3 dishes, all looked and smelt delicious (I was in the front row!).
Each year the Ashburton Cookery School always bring along 2 or 3 goody bags for fun, they ask a question of audience and choose someone to respond, if you get the question right, you win a goody bag. This year one of the questions was, who was Carpaccio named after? So Geoff and I raised our hands, and Rob said 'Right I'm going to choose someone good looking in the audience to answer this one, Geoff piped up - 'well I'm good looking!' and Rob said 'Yes you are!' and asked Geoff to answer the question, 'Vittore Carpaccio' Geoff said correctly and Rob handed him the goody bag and shook his hand. In the bag was a leaflet on the School, an apron, a notebook and an Ashburton Cookery School mug. After the show, Geoff gave me the bag and contents - yippee, thanks Geoff! 


Every year at the Festival the amount of stalls selling food produce, drink and cooking equipment grows, this year was no exception to that! As usual I bought one or two things, including two beautiful chopping boards, a small one and a large one.
This year I also bought a new meat product for me, some Tenderloin of Goat, pictured here on my new chopping boards:

I shall be cooking this for todays dinner, marinated in Orange Blossom Honey with Rosemary and Mint, serving it with New Potatoes and Oat Bread.


I also signed up to the Well Hung Meat Company Foodies Favourite Box, to be delivered monthly too. They were doing an offer where if sign up at the Festival, you were given a free steak to try. We opted for Rump Steak and shared this for dinner last night, pan fried with mushrooms and served with crusty bread. I have to say that it was fantastic steak and I am very excited about receiving my first box in 4 weeks time.


Other highlights of the day definitely included Tim Bouget from Ode's in Shaldon, who did a very tasty Pork Fillet dish, of which I was invited for the first taste of, for correctly answering his question on where he had picked the wild garlic for his dish from earlier that day - Gappah was the answer! I had used my phone to log on to his FaceBook page to find out the answer to this.


So, as with every year, the Festival never disappoints, and this year was no exception to that rule. I enjoyed both days very much. You can just see Geoff and I to right of this photo, in the front row.
Tim was competing in a Masterchef style cook off with Ollie Harry from St Olaves restaurant in Exeter.


So another year at the Festival has passed and I am already looking forward to the Exeter Festival of South West Food & Drink 2013!