It was just a few weeks back that something caught my attention about celebrity chefs at a Food Festival in Nantwich. It is something I might enjoy so I decided to go along. The weather is very warm and after a week of being boiling hot I am worn down, lethargic. I am not a morning person and have to leave the house at 8.30am on the Saturday as I have not been to Bridgemere Garden Centre before and need to allow myself plenty of time so I can find the venue, see what is happening and try to stay cool.
The Garden Centre alone is worth the visit
It takes me an hour to drive there with the air con on. The car park is huge. This looks like a nice place. I ask the cashier where to go and walk through the garden centre to the show area. Wow there are so many different garden structures for sale. Pods, pergolas, green houses of all different shapes and sizes, many different sections with trees big and small, flowers with colours of the rainbow, grasses waving in the very light breeze. I could spend all day just lazing around here.
Why did I not know about this place? At the far end there is a cafe and shops, Lakeland, Pavers and others. There is an outdoor organic vegetable market – everything looks so fresh and delicious. I can’t stop as I need to get in the show ground.
Staff and vendors are rushing round getting stalls set up. It all looks so pretty. Bales of hay scattered around the area. A big blue tractor at the entrance after you have stepped through the flower arch entrance. Singers getting ready to entertain from their stage. Jars of preserves, delicious jams, an ice cream parlour, hot food – what a delight.
I ask where the celebrity chefs will be doing the cooking demos and a lady takes me through the garden to an area further back with a stage and chairs set up. The stage is quite high, so it is no good me being near the front. I don’t want to miss what they are doing.
Candice Brown makes some of her specialties
10.30am and the seats are getting full. 11am Candice Brown enters the stage.
Do you remember her from ‘Great British Bake Off’? Candice co-owns The Green man Pub in Eversholt and the bistro Marggo’s in Woburn.
Candice is very tactile, using her arms and face to express how she feels. She chatters non stop. This morning she shows us how to make a goats cheese, smoked salmon and courgette filo tart – it looks delicious. Then she makes two Baileys and banana chocolate milkshakes , adding chocolate ice cream, double cream and lots of Baileys – pouring them into glasses she has drizzled chocolate sauce inside – oh how I could drink one of those.
Candice talks about her involvement with CoppaFeel. She is a dedicated ambassador, trekker and fundraiser for the breast cancer charity.
After 45 minutes her live demo ends.
Meet and greet with Simon Rimmer and the Candice Brown
Next there is a meet and greet with Simon Rimmer, celebrity chef and presenter of Sunday Brunch. People are in line to have a chat with him and get a selfie. He makes each and everyone feel at ease. Several he knows from meeting them at events previously.
Simon has previously had several vegetarian restaurants: Greens in West Didsbury and Sale and Earle in Hale. He currently owns The Scene, a gastropub in Dubai Marina. If you are going to the Co-Op Live arena in Manchester why not try something off his mediterranean-inspired menu for the Hideaway members restaurant?
This is followed by Candice Brown doing a meet and greet.
People are getting hot and looking for shade to rest in.
Simon Rimmer on stage
Simon Rimmer is getting his ingredients together on the stage. The seats are all filled up. I can’t get in the shade and am feeling so hot. At 2pm he starts his demonstration. The crowd is quiet. He tells jokes and anecdotes. He wonders why we are so silent – because most of us are older and worn out with the heat, we feel lethargic, sapped of all energy.
Simon makes pulled lamb shawarma – oh no I don’t like that!. He is lifting and pulling at the lamb meat – I am a vegetarian. I have to get you the pictures. My stomach is churning. He tells us how he heckles anyone who leaves when he is on stage. Oh no what am I going to do?
He shows us how to make a tasty homemade flatbread – that will do for me. He will end with a tiramasu.
When he turns to get more ingredients I make a dash for it. I am roasting and need to get in the shade.
More celebrity chefs the next day – but not for me
This food festival is also taking place on the Sunday, with Rusty Lee and Aldo Zilli, but I don’t have any energy to get through another day, which is a shame.
What a lovely big garden centre – I will be back!
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