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Kallo Foods, Dorset Cereals, Windmill Organics, The Food Doctor, Tree of Life, Green & Blacks, Infinity Foods and Clipper Teas are just some of the big names that will be exhibiting in this years Natural Food Show at Olympia on the 1st and 2nd of April 2012. This is the only event in the UK dedicated to organic and natural products and is a trade event run by Natural and Organic Products Europe.

The Natural Food Show will be showcasing thousands of speciality brands of food and drink from well over 300 exhibitors, as well as providing products for thousands of professional buyers from the likes of caterers, specialist retailers, restaurants, cafes, delis and farm shops.

These establishments get the opportunity to purchase a vast array of organic, natural, Fairtrade, biodynamic, and free from and special diet item from suppliers across the globe who all converge to give the trade a real treat as a far as natural and organic produce goes.

Although there has been a dedicated food section at Natural & Organic Products Europe throughout its 16-year history, the launch of the rebranded Natural Food Show last year, in 2011, reflected the ongoing shift in consumer awareness and demand for natural, more sustainably and ethically produced, food and drink. Having worked on the show for nine years, event director Simon Barry has personally witnessed many former niche exhibitors become internationally-recognised brands with mass-market appeal. Commenting on recent research carried out by IGD ShopperTrack (source: ‘Jamie Oliver generation’ emerges from the UK foodie revolution, 28 November 2011), which found that shoppers under 35 were twice as likely to want organic food as those over 35, Barry said:

“There has been a huge increase in the understanding of the benefits of natural and organic food. Companies like Amy’s Kitchen, nakd, innocent smoothies, Green & Black’s and Nairn’s Oatcakes, were virtually unknown outside of the industry before they exhibited at Natural & Organic Products Europe and now they have a huge consumer following. And, based on the evidence, it’s a trend that’s going to continue.
As each new generation becomes more and more health conscious, stores and eateries will need to ensure that they expand their natural, organic, free-from and special diet selections to cater for the growing number of customers who care about provenance and sustainability, and how their food and drink is processed. ”
With just under three months still to go, visitor pre-registration, which opened just last week, is already up over 50% on the same time in 2011, and exhibition space is now 90% sold out.

While this is largely due to the enthusiastic return of many big name brands – including The Health Store, Essential Trading, Suma Wholefoods, Community Foods, Clearspring, Marigold Health Foods, Alara Wholefoods, Amy’s Kitchen, Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods, Pukka Herbs, James White Drinks, Queenswood Natural Foods, and Redwood Wholefood Company – a wealth of first time exhibitors will also be in attendance. These include Morgiel Fine & Organic Foods, importers of high quality Polish produce; Devon-based Rookbeare Farm, with its uniquely-flavoured ice-creams and sorbets; award-winning organic seasonal soups producer Rod & Ben’s;
The Botanical Drinks Co, creators of Lull – a sparkling fruit and botanical relaxation drink; Bravura Foods, exclusive distributor for award winning Panda Confectionery products in the UK and Ireland; The Tomato Stall, who’ll be showcasing 100% natural tomato products from the Isle-of-Wight; and Dr Lucy’s, with its gluten, nut, egg and milk free cookies.

New features include the Natural Food Show’s first ever dedicated Vegan Society pavilion. Plus, there’ll also be plenty of opportunity for buyers to refresh their international ranges, with an all new French pavilion joining Austria, Brazil, USA, France, Italy, and Latvia.

While the show’s mainstays – The Fairtrade Trail, Vegetarian Trail, Free-from Trail, New Product Showcase, FoodLovers Approved pavilion, The West Country Food & Drink pavilion, Organic Trade Board pavilion, and the popular Soil Association Organic Marketplace promoting local delicacies from innovative new start-ups, all return with an eclectic mix of real food with sustainable provenance.

It’s not just the exhibitors at The Natural Food Show that promises to draw in the crowds however. This year’s live Natural Food Kitchen sessions will see a host of top chefs and nutritional experts demonstrating how a renewed focus on raw, vegan, vegetarian, organic, allergy-free and medicinal cookery can increase healthy menu options and boost business in the process.

The Natural Food Show at Natural & Organic Products Europe on 1-2 April 2012 is free to attend for pre-registered trade visitors and relevant press representatives only. To register, and be kept fully up-to-date with all the latest news and exhibitor information, please visit http://www.naturalproducts.co.uk quoting priority code NPE12050.

Shakespeare food lectures open to the public

A series of academic lectures about Shakespeare that are being held throughout the year are to be open to the general public. Leading academics will be talking about a wide range of topics, and for those who are historians, theatre scholars or practitioners, the programme of seminars will include the  Shakespeare and performance, the Globe Postgraduate Research and the Theatre History seminars.

These are intended to provide a forum for historical findings, papers and current research. The lectures will take on an exploration into the relationship between the senses and art, poetry and culture, through a banquet’ theme.

The first one to be held on Thurs 10^th November is entitled ‘Food and Eating in Shakespeare’. It starts at 7pm and is being taken by Dr Joan Fitzpatrick from Loughborough University. It looks as what people ate in Shakespearian time and what drove them to make the choices they did. How would they have prepared and cooked these foods, and what can we discover about attitudes to food through Shakespeare’s plays.

By taking a range of basic and common foodstuffs such as dairy products, white meats, ale and fruit, this talk is aimed at tracing the pattern of consumption that existed in early England. Apart from highlighting the plays it also looks a food to explore the social hierarchies, gender stereotypes and religious controversies that so dominated the lives of the people at this time, including the Bard himself.

SHAKESPEARE’S BANQUET OF SENSE

Professor Stanley Wells CBE and Rev Dr Paul Edmondson (The Shakespeare Centre, Stratford Upon Avon)

Tuesday 15 November, 7pm

The earliest mention of Shakespeare’s Sonnets describes them as ‘sugared,’ something to be tasted. As a collection of poems they are concerned with all five senses and invite us to consider the effects of love on sight, touch, sound, and smell, as well as taste. Join the Reverend Dr Paul Edmondson and Professor Stanley Wells as they explore how the five senses are evoked in the Sonnets as well as some creative ways in which the Sonnets themselves entice us to experience our world of the senses

RENAISSANCE AND BAROQUE BANQUETING AND THE SENSES

Dr François Quiviger (The Warburg Institute)

Tuesday 22 November, 7pm

The Renaissance and Baroque Princely Banquets are multimedia stages displaying the magnificence of the host through the aesthetic criteria and symbolic language of the time. This lecture examines the ways in which these events addressed the senses of their audience.

After a brief recapitulation of the ideals of imitation, variety and abundance Dr François Quiviger proceeds to examine the main components of princely banquet in terms of the multiple clusters of sensation they convoke. These include:  the display and use of goldsmith work (the so-called dresser service), table decoration and its comestible iconography, the use of wine, scented matter, music and the art of conversation.

VENUE

Nancy W. Knowles Lecture Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe

TICKETS

£10 (£8 FoSG/concs/students)

Telephone: 020 7401 9919

Online: Globe Online Ticket Office – opens in a new window

In person: Opening hours 10:00-17:00

Shakespeare’s Globe,

21 New Globe Walk,

Bankside,

London SE1 9DT

Jean-Christophe Novelli has lived in the UK for nearly thirty years, but even after all that time he still has a very strong accent from his mother country, France. It is easily possible to forgive him for his lack of English accent though because his cooking skills are exceptional – he is also known for his legendary charm.

The celebrity chef was once on the verge of bankruptcy during the late 1990′s about which he has commented, “I am a chef and I do not know much about running a business, I put all of my emotions into cooking and to put any into business would distract from what I do best.

“I started my first restaurant by myself in 1996 and I did this with only £500. It was great at first as the restaurant quickly became known as one of the best in the country. I was able to open more and more restaurants, but I made some really big mistakes and eventually the bank had had enough. Fortunately my friend Marco Pierre White was able to help me, if he hadn’t I don’t know where I would be today.”

Marco Peirre White is known for his loyalty to his friends and really helped Novelli get back on his feet after his financial crisis. Now he has made a great comeback, he was back in the public eye when he became the head chef of Hells Kitchen. Now he is running his own cookery school and has even developed his own range of gadgets for the kitchen

Novelli has said of White, “We first met in 1986. Both of us had recently won awards for our cooking, me for best restaurant outside London and he for best newcomer. When we met I did not speak that much English but now we are good friends. He is a great man, and a loyal one, we will remain friends until the end.”

Novelli, much like White has had several failed marriages, but he seems to have found happiness with his current wife Michelle, with whom he runs the cookery school with and has a small child. Novelli has said of his son, “I know I am quite old to be a father but it is fantastic as he really keeps me young, I want to be out there exercising with him, not just sitting indoors playing dominoes.”

He will be in Halifax this weekend for the food and drink festival and has commented, “I love to be able to pass on my knowledge to fans and food festivals are such a fantastic way to do this.” Novelli left school when he was fourteen to become a chef and he came to England when he was 21. In his impressive career he has won many Michelin stars, has provided food to some of the worlds most famous people and been voted chef of the year by his peers.

The Halifax food and drink festival is happening from Friday to Sunday and will have a great many culinary delights from all over the country. It will be happening at Piece Hall. Antony Worrall Thompson will be joining Novelli as another celebrity chef at the event. 17,000 people attended the event in 2010 and numbers are expected to be higher this year.

The popular ‘feastival’ which is held in Nantwich town centre every year is going to be even more popular this year as the organisers are planning a great number of tasty attractions to lure visitors. The event will be free of charge and there will be around four hundred different attractions spread across the centre of the town. Some will be in shops and others located in several giant marquees.

The event is a celebration of foods from Cheshire and will have several top chefs as well as seasoned wine professionals taking part. It will be a great event where people who are into food will be able to come together to enjoy the best foods from the region.

This year will see even more people take part than any previous year. Many shops will be offering free tasters of their products from September 23^rd to the 25^th. There are also activities for children, including the chance to make pizzas and cakes. For families there are some great activities that can involve everyone. There is a pancake tossing competition as well as a stand showing viewers how to make European crepes.

There are activities specifically for adults as well, as there are a great many alcohols to samples, from beer to champagne. There is also a class that will teach attendees how to make excellent cocktails. Chairman of the event is Graham Fenton, and he has said, “The range of people involved in this year’s event is fantastic.”

A Northern Ireland family butcher has wowed the judges and beaten more than 7000 contestants for the UK’s Great Taste Award this year.  At London’s Royal Garden Hotel, the UK Guild of Fine Foods hosted the gala dinner and presentation last week where McCartney’s of Moira won the top honour for their handmade corned beef.  As the Irish Food Guide blog pointed out, this will change the perceptions of a lot of people about the place of corned beef in the fine food hierarchy.

The Great Taste Awards scheme is now in its 18^th year, and it’s the first time a Northern Ireland entrant has won the prestigious award.  George McCartney said, “I am stunned”, and he went on to praise the Guild of Fine Food for their efforts and remark that the recognition would be a great thing for Ireland, especially in view of the ongoing recession.

The McCartney family has been in the butchery business in County Down for 140 years, but they only started making the award-winning corned beef about four years ago. They used an old family recipe with the finest dry-aged beef and needless to say, this corned beef bears little resemblance to the canned version found on supermarket shelves.  This one is deli-sliced and will be featured at fine food establishments such as Fortnum & Mason and Selfridges.

McCartney’s corned beef was also awarded the prize for Best Specialty Food in their region, and beat four other local companies that had also won three-star status in the July semi-finals.  Overall, the region made a great showing in the Great Taste competition, with three companies winning ‘Golden Fork’ or runner-up awards.

Two other meat companies in Northern Ireland also won the Golden Fork:  Alfie Murray Family Butchers in Killyleagh and Hannan Meats, also in Moira.  Over the whole of Ireland, more than 300 companies won the Great Taste Gold Star, in categories from tea to truffles.

The Great Taste Awards judges are tasked with choosing the best-tasting food and drink to be found in the UK, with entries from farm shops, delis, up-scale food markets and more recently supermarkets.  Products that win in their various taste tests can be labelled with one, two or three gold stars that boost the company’s prestige and sales.

In this year’s competition, 7,481 products from 1600 different companies were judged in blind taste tests by a panel of 350 experts.  Chairman for the Great Taste Awards Bob Farrand said that winning the Golden Fork is a huge “pat on the back” for the company and its products.  It is a recognition and certification of the excellence of the product, and often just what a company needs to jump-start its growth.

This year, the Wokingham Food and Drink festival was the largest it has ever been with all sorts of foods and drinks delighting attendants taste buds. The event was held inside two giant marquees that were assembled on Elms Field. Kate Lole was responsible for organising the festival and has said, “The feedback we have got about the festival this year from those hosting stalls has been wonderful. They have said this festival is now their favourite of them all.”

There have been many notable stalls at the event including, Loch Fyne, Simon’s Pies and Wokingham Gourmet Kitchen. Loch Fyne representative John Davis said of the event, “It was a truly fantastic opportunity. We had a great time providing fish and chips to the guests and people also found our oysters very enjoyable. All our food is sustainable and the oysters are home grown and this is something that really appeals to today’s customer. This kind of festival really does wonders for local businesses and people really get to know what we are selling.”

As well as numerous stands serving up all manner of foods, the event also hosts some top chefs who run hourly demonstrations of some of their food preparations. Audrey French is a local pig farmer and was giving demonstrations on how to she makes sausages, she commented, “What’s really great here is that people get to see what goes into the sausages. When you go to the supermarket, you don’t really know what goes into them. Here potential customers can see that the only ingredients are salt, spices, water, rusk and pork meat.”

This year, the festival saw a huge success with the launch of a sampling area. This was a place where visitors could come and sample a huge array of foods. There was also wine and beer tasting as well as guides on how to match different types of food together.

For the first year ever, the beer festival ran side by side with the food festival and the combination of the two proved to be a huge success. Wokingham Lions Club ensured that as well as excellent food, there were many local beers to enjoy and live music to entertain guests. The three festivals, food, beer and music, being joined together has made the event an even bigger success than in previous years.

An Ascot Ales representative has said, “The beer festival has been great this year, we have seen such an interest in locally brewed beer which is fantastic for all the producers here. We have sold a really good amount of ale this weekend.

Visitors to the festival commented, “The combination of the music with the beer and the food really adds something to the whole event. Even though the event seems to have grown substantially this year it seems even more relaxed than before with the music playing.”

Mint Hotel in the city centre has decided to show off the cooking expertise of their junior chefs by hosting a Star Chef Competition within the hotel restaurant, City Café.

Chief Executive Chef for the hotel, Scott MacDonald, stated that the prize will be a five day stage at the Hibiscus, which is a two star Michelin restaurant.  He added that in addition the winner will also see their winning dish on the City Café menu this autumn and take home a commemorative Villeroy and Boch plate.  The top three finalists will not walk away empty handed either, as they will receive a personalized and branded chef jacket.

All Commis Chefs or Demi Chef de Partie Chefs are invited to apply from any of the eight different Mint hotel restaurants or kitchens.  Each of the hotels is required to send three of their chefs to compete in the regional heats which will take place at the end of August.  At this point the individual City Cafes will host a dinner event for partners, top clients, suppliers, and local residents catered by the three chefs who will each provide a different course.

After the dinner, the courses will be voted on by those in attendance to determine who will move on to a further regional cook-off against the other hotel chains.

The three overall highest point scorers from the cook-off heats will enter a final dinner heat on Thursday 8 September at Mint Hotel Tower of London, when a winner will be announced. Mint Hotel’s Group Executive Chef, Scott Macdonald will judge all heats in the competition, alongside a local food hero and each hotel’s General Manager.

“The competition is a great opportunity to showcase the uncompromising, memorable service of the talented young chefs. Locally-sourced ingredients and seasonal produce will also be on offer to sample at each event,” says Macdonald.

Media invitation

Mint Hotel would be delighted for local media to attend one of the City Café Star Chef Competition dinner heats, which will be held on the following dates:

- Mint Hotel Bristol – 3 August 2011
- Mint Hotel Glasgow – 4 August 2011
- Mint Hotel Manchester – 10 August 2011
- Mint Hotel Westminster – 11 August 2011
- Mint Hotel Birmingham – 12 August 2011
- Mint Hotel Tower of London – 17 August 2011
- Mint Hotel Amsterdam – 18 August 2011
- Mint Hotel Leeds – 19 August 2011

The Star Chef Competition is the ideal opportunity to explore a Mint hotel, and enjoy a locally-sourced three-course meal.

Alternatively, the semi-finals will be held at Mint Hotel Westminster on 30 August 2011 and at Mint Hotel Leeds on 31 August 2011. The final is scheduled to be hosted at Mint Hotel Tower of London on Thursday 8 September 2011.

If you would like to attend any of the above events please get in touch with Teammint@resultspr.co.uk