Cambridge Food and Drink Festival

The Aim of the Cambridge Food and Drink Festival is to encourage greater appreciation, understanding and enjoyment of good food and drink.

Background

The Festival, which is a non-profit making organisation, was originally inspired by festivals such as the nationwide Semaine du goût in France and Ludlow, where the emphasis is on learning, sharing and enjoying. Unlike many other festivals we don’t have food hall events but instead lectures with tastings, food and drink matching events, behind the scenes tours to local producers and countryside trails. We believe this approach leads to greater appreciation and enjoyment and we are very keen on enjoyment.

The Festival has a great belief and interest in the quality of local food and drink and local specialities. We are eager to help people to meet local producers, ask questions, taste things, understand and enjoy. Obviously this chimes in with concerns about freshness, food miles, traceability, supporting the local economy but above all this is about finding the highest quality and greatest enjoyment in the pleasures of the table

Previous events and comments…

In the early years the Festival had more emphasis on restaurants and chefs and themed menus, but feedback from people attending events showed a greater interest – beyond just consuming the food – in learning more about food and drink. As a result there have been, for instance, talks about Slow Food, the history of “health foods” and quick fix diets, and the extraordinary history of the role of tea in public health.

Cookery demonstrations have been popular, (especially bread making sessions led by Alan Ackroyd of COBS Bakery) but tutored tastings have been a particular success. The tutored chocolate talk, which ended with tasting samples from single estate harvests, was highly instructive as well as lip smacking. To be told about the sort of chocolate the Aztecs used to drink is one thing – to actually have a glass of the thick, spicy, deeply flavoured drink the historians have managed to reconstruct is another.

“bliss”, “really interesting”, “please do more of this sort of event”

While the potato talk and meal (preceded by a comparative tasting of crisps from different varieties of potato) was fascinating, Belgian beers and matching them to food was a revelation, with a Belgian Beer Master introducing a mere 8 beers (out of a total of 1400) and matching them to food – just perfectly.

“I didn’t realise how very different beers could be”, “The cherry beer served with duck was just great”, “what matches – cheese and ham and pizza weren’t a surprise, but the chocolate was”

Then there were the tutored cheese tastings,

“we learned so much more about what to look for”, “yummy, yummy” and a talk about Wild Food and foraging, accompanied by a three course, wild food lunch.

“unusual, interesting and very filling”, “we all wanted that wild soup recipe”

A more specific sort of foraging was catered for with a mushroom foray, on a beautiful autumn day in Thetford forest.

“brilliant – thank you”, “the kids loved it too”, “seeing what the professionals had managed to find was a revelation”

Dinners based on wine and food matching, accompanied by a talk from a wine producer have been very popular and most entertaining.

“great food and wines with a really laid back atmosphere – a truly enjoyable experience”, “an excellent venture – congratulations”, “please do more of the same”

The Festival is very keen on local produce and highlighting the quality and variety available. For this purpose we produced a map of the 15 mile radius round Cambridge, marked up with all the farmshops, gate sales, farmers’ markets and so on, to encourage people to go to the producers. Many of the farms and shops taking part laid on special tastings, and it was also possible to make visits to organic farms not normally open to the public. This information and these maps are something which the Festival is very keen to build on, not just as a Festival event, but rather as a permanent feature and resource, encouraging people to go past the supermarkets, out into the country, to meet and talk to producers, and to buy food direct. The festival also hopes, in the future, to organise behind the scenes visits to farms and farmers’ markets…

We hope this doesn’t all sound too serious minded, because we believe that good food and drink are an occasion for pleasure. The Food Quiz, held in candle-lit splendour in Emmanuel College set out to be good fun, with questions ranging from ingredients to poetry, East Anglia and famous faces – though there were some impressive prizes, including a master class from a Michelin starred chef…

“I’m looking forward to the next quiz already”, “all my team really enjoyed it”, “most successful – we had great fun”

Another chance to enjoy food, fun and good company has been provided by the Awards Dinners. these have been opportunities for the Festival to toast local food heroes such as Eric Wallis and his heritage orchard, or Roz Scott the organiser of two excellent (certified) Farmers’ Markets.

“it’s really great to see people like this get some recognition”. “The poem about the pig had me in stitches”

A charity evening of wine tasting (including some blind tasting) followed by a wine auction was also great fun, and made a good contribution to the East Anglian Children’s Hospices

Please see the events page for details of forthcoming events.