The organisers of Burnham-On-Sea’s Food Festival have unveiled the line-up of chefs who will be demonstrating their cooking expertise during the event.
More than 70 exhibitors and chefs will take part in the Burnham-On-Sea Food & Drink Festival on Saturday, September 28th – including a great range of top chefs.
Times cookery columnist Joanna Weinberg, right, will be among the five chefs appearing on the ‘KDS Fresh Ideas Stage’ at Burnham Baptist Church on the hour from 11am.
“We have sourced some of the finest chefs in the West Country and persuaded them to share their secrets, tips, techniques and talents with you,” said Festival Director Sarah Milner Simonds.
First up at 11am will be Madeline Francis, the winner of the Rotary Club Young Chef Competition and a pupil at King Alfred School, who is returning to the demo stage after her debut in May. This time Madeline will be baking perfect lemon drizzle cake. She will also be a judge of the Great Burnham Bake Off later in the day.
Madeline, pictured below, said: “Since I was a young child I have always had an interest in cooking, learning from my nan and my mum and the passion has grown. A major step for me in cooking was winning the Rotary Young Chef of the Year competition and I represented the school at the regional finals. My dream is now to own my own specialist cake shop in the future.”
At 12 mid-day, Deborah Durrant will be preparing delicious raw food dishes. She is an international raw food expert and a specialist in health and nutrition. She will be teaching how to make raw food that tastes so good that you really won’t know that it’s raw.
From 1pm, Somerset Curry Club pop-up restaurant and cooking school tutors Chandeep and Manveena will be cooking Indian Street Food, simple snacks you will crave! You will learn how to prepare ‘Aloo Bonda’ with ‘Coriander & Mint Chutney’. It is a crowd pleaser and a family-pleasing snack. Aloo Bonda is a Potato spicy ball covered in a gram flour batter and then fried. This snack is crunchy, less greasy and ideal for vegetarians. The hallmark of this dish is it is gluten free and delicious.
Then at 2pm, Joanna Weinberg published author, top chef and Times cookery columnist, will appear on stage. She confesses to being a “cheese/chocolate/red wine kind of a girl” who will be showing the audience how and why to use chilli every day.
She said: “In a perfectly cooked world, our kitchens would be filled to the brim with seasonal vegetables, fragrant spices and growing herbs. Without a second glance, we’d be able to conjure up an original feast to sit down to at the family table every night. But this is real life – and there’s nothing so familiar as the dilemma over what to cook today or tomorrow, or at the weekend, for that matter. What unites all my recipes is that they are about food that fits in with life. Because cooking should be – as much as possible – one of the simplest of daily pleasures.”
At 3pm, Stefano Silvati will be preparing quick, authentic Italian food. Stefano specialises in home-cooked Italian food that anyone can recreate at home using local ingredients. He also has a stall at the festival in Victoria Street so visitors can take home some of his prepared dishes.
And at 4pm, Dr Nevin Stewart will be on stage demonstrating his simple cider making method ‘Juice and Strain’, guaranteed to take the labour out of making Somerset’s favourite tipple.
