Food & Drink Events

Tesco Enjoy the Taste of Scotland Food Festival has been crowned Scotland’s largest food and drink festival after figures showed more than 21,000 people attended the event last weekend at George Square, Glasgow.

This year will mark the 10th anniversary of World Cocktail Day, a yearly celebration held every May 13th, at the Alcron Hotel’s Be Bop Bar and at Bugsy’s Bar in Prague. This international event was launched in 1999 through the initiative of the Radisson SAS Alcron’s Be Bop Bar and its Bar Manager, Alexander Miksovic, to commemorate the date the term “Cocktail” was first coined in 1806.

British Food Fortnight runs from 20th September to 5th October, and now in its seventh year, the event is the biggest national celebration of the diverse and delicious range of food that Britain produces. To mark the launch of the seventh British Food Fortnight, the organisers have produced a short film explaining why it is best to buy British food. Seen through the eyes of children, the film can be viewed from the home page of the event’s website Britishfoodfortnight.co.uk.

Aspiring chefs Ciaran Cush and Samantha Freeney are to compete at Northern Ireland’s influential IFEX ChefSkill competition on behalf of Barnardo’s Northern Ireland.

It’s early spring but the team at the York Festival of Food and Drink are already working on the programme for the city’s annual food spectacular to take place in September.

Expect Taste Festivals to be the hottest tickets in town when they go on sale on 5th March. Thousands of passionate foodies will be booking for the fabulous events at London, Bath, Birmingham, Leeds and Edinburgh that will showcase the country’s best restaurants, chefs and fine food and drink companies.

On Friday January 25th Chef & Brewer will be celebrating the life and work of Scottish poet Robbie Burns with a ritual of traditional food drink and poetry. Highlights of this special five course supper include Chicken Livers with a creamy Whisky sauce, Haggis, Neeps & Tatties, Wild Scottish Venison Steak with Rumbeldethumps and Chocolate & Whisky Tart.

Australia’s fastest growing smoothie and juice bar chain, Boost Juice Bars, is set to open its 6th UK store this Saturday 8 December, at Lakeside Shopping Centre – following the successful launch of the brand in April.

The 5th February is the ultimate freedom pass for all kids to pancake heaven and is the only time when parents can legitimately give into their children’s pleas for pudding. After all pancake day only comes around once a year!

The simple message behind Purple Love Week, 9th – 16th February 2008, is to encourage people to go out and find great food and enjoy it with great company.

Forget Hatton vs Mayweather, the big fight this month is between the turkey and the goose. If you're caught in the middle then look no further than the BBC Food website's exclusive Christmas videos to help you decide which bird will win in your kitchen.

The BBC has just rolled out its most impressive Christmas Food website to date at bbc.co.uk/food. You'll find inspiring ideas for the great festive feast from some of the BBC's best-known chefs, including Nigella, Rick Stein and Antonio Carluccio, who'll provide plenty of advice for your Christmas entertaining this year.

Chef, entrepreneur and culinary genius, Marco Pierre White has kindly agreed to be a celebrity judge for the KNORR National Chef of the Year 2008 competition and is calling for entries from eager chefs.

Twenty-eight internationally renowned chefs have come together to create the Crisis Cook Book, a collection of 84 of their favourite recipes in aid of the national homelessness charity Crisis. The recipes are then followed by 10 short wine essays on how to maximise your enjoyment of wine written by acclaimed wine writer Jancis Robinson.

Birmingham Bites, the campaign which celebrates the city’s diverse food and drink offering, invites you to meet celebrity chef James Martin. James, star of Saturday Kitchen, will be doing a demo on the Birmingham Bites stand (T50) at the BBC Good Food Show on Wednesday 28th November.

Pudding pandemonium is about to break out in Covent Garden with the Cancer Research UK Great Christmas Pudding Race. Teams in fancy dress are polishing up their pudding-balancing skills to negotiate an Its-A-Knockout-style course of inflatables while balancing a Christmas pud on a tray and being pelted with flour, foam and water.

Shoppers looking to stock up for Christmas will be in for a treat as a host of Welsh food takes to the small screen next week (November 19) in a special show on UK TV shopping channel QVC, marking the first anniversary of its True Taste of Wales Show.

The start of the new Renaissance Mutton season has been boosted with news that the meat is being launched into Selfridges. Selfridges is presenting new season Renaissance Mutton at its Oxford Street food hall this week. For the first time the butchery counter will offer customers a selection of cuts including leg, diced shoulder and chops.

Thirteen might be unlucky for some, but visitors to All Bar Ones will have the chance to celebrate its thirteenth year with free samples of the world’s most exciting beers and ciders courtesy of its ‘Favourites Festival’.

Celebrate National Chilli Week with Edible Ornamentals, passionate, dedicated and slightly obsessive growers of gorgeous, lip smacking chillies located in the Bedfordshire countryside.

Not to be outdone by NY or L.A., where cupcake shops are sprouting up on every corner, London now counts with its own cupcakery. Buttercup cake shop recently opened its doors on a quiet road off Kensington High Street. “Hard to find but worth the hunt” is the shop’s motto. And if you love cake, you will indeed find it worth the hunt!

To celebrate the Diamond Wedding anniversary of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh on 20th November 2007, London’s Little Venice Cake Company has designed an exclusive 3 tier wedding cake.

Mich Turner, founder and director of London’s Little Venice Cake Company has launched her latest book – Fantastic Party Cakes - with a swish party at London’s Dorchester Hotel.

Britain’s curry kings and queens were crowned in magnificent style on 21 October as the Lloyds TSB Cardnet-sponsored 2007 British Curry Awards reached their spectacular climax. More than 3,000 restaurants had started out as award hopefuls, having been put forward by a staggering 22,000 public nominations.

Spring 2008 will see the launch of a brand new and unique four day food festival, the first of its kind in the UK: Real Food Festival. Real Food’s ground breaking format reflects the focus given to food standards and particularly provenance and sustainability in the UK and around the world.

The diversity of food and farming in Hampshire will be celebrated with a weekend of free activities and displays hosted by Winchester Cathedral on Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th October in conjunction with the Year of Food and Farming.

Scandinavian Kitchen, London's first Scandinavian deli and grocery store, has opened its doors on Great Titchfield Street, just north of Oxford Circus. Promising to bring good food with love from Scandinavia, it combines a stylish and relaxing environment with a unique lunch offering and great coffee.

Celebrity chef Ken Hom, widely regarded as one the world’s greatest authorities on oriental cooking, is to receive an honorary doctorate from Oxford Brookes University on 12 September 2007 at 2pm in recognition of his ‘outstanding success within the international food world’.

With British Food Fortnight on the way, don’t forget the veggies. Veggie food is truly British – The Vegetarian Society of the United Kingdom is the oldest vegetarian organisation in the world and is celebrating 160 years this year.

A sparkling black-tie dinner, to be held in York’s 15th century Guildhall, will herald the start of York’s 11th Festival of Food and Drink and a ten-day celebration of good food.

Children will find plenty of fun on the menu at the Glynde Food & Drink Festival. Following the success of the Kids’ Kitchen at last year’s festival, author and television presenter Amanda Grant will be staging even more foodie events for budding young chefs.

To celebrate over 30 years working for the Royal Garden Hotel, legendary bar manager, Luis Cobas, invites guests plus friends old and new, to enjoy a glass of fizz at an attractive price. From Monday through to Saturday from 5.00pm until 8.00pm, Kensington’s favourite five star hotel will offer a bottle of Canard Duchêne Champagne for half-price at only £23.75, or a glass for £4.75 in Bertie’s Bar.

Divine Chocolate, the leading Fairtrade chocolate brand, is one of the sponsors of this year’s Chocolate Week (15th-21st October 2007), the annual national chocolate celebration launched in collaboration with the Academy of Chocolate four years ago. Some of the UK’s top chocolatiers will be taking part – offering tantalising tasters of a range of excellent chocolates.

The successful Wirral Food and Drink Festival returns this year even bigger and better. Following the incredible success of this volunteer-led event last year, which attracted more than 14,000 people, the event will again be held in the picturesque surroundings of Claremont Farm.

Wednesday August 15th is National Lemon Meringue Pie Day. Or at least it is in America. But why should we let those folks over in the States have all the fun? Afterall, pies were introduced to America by the first English settlers and Lemon Meringue is a fragrant, famous English classic.

PG tips has launched a national search for the best places to enjoy an al fresco cuppa. Picnics at the seaside or at an idyllic country spot are a great way to spend time with family and friends but with the unpredictable British climate, particularly this summer, packing a flask of tea is a must!

This year’s Mendip Food and Drink Festival has been launched with plans for a colourful calendar of events. Organisers and sponsors of the week-long celebration of food and drink gathered on the Mendips to officially launch the 2007 event and invite businesses to take part.

Imagine being able to relax with friends in the courtyards of some of London’s most exclusive and historic residences this Summer. The makers of Tanqueray gin, together with Toptable.co.uk, are opening up the courtyards of some of London’s most exclusive private residences for a unique series of one-off evenings entitled “Tanqueray Tables”.

Seafood Week 2007 is off to a great start, with a host of well known chefs, hotels and restaurants signing up for the campaign which runs from the 5-12 October. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Tom Parker Bowles, Nick Nairn and Brian Turner are just some of the top names who have pledged their support for the annual seafood celebration.

Is that £180 bowl of shark fin soup really worth its eco-cost? Did you know that last Saturday, July 14th, was official Shark Awareness Day? Much as we love to hate this fearsome predator of the seas, the shark has a key role to play, keeping marine ecosystems in balance. Worldwide, over 100 million sharks are killed each year and the main attraction for most hunters is their fins, which fetch a good price.

From her base in Knightsbridge, Sally Hudson has designed and created bespoke celebration and wedding cakes for a trio of world famous stores; Harrods, Fortnum & Mason and Selfridges.

The UK’s most popular Thai event, the biannual festival in Surrey, is fast approaching and this year’s extravaganza promises to be better than ever with over 50,000 visitors expected.

Do you know when to hold em’ or when to fold em’? Do you know a Royal Flush from a Straight? Or maybe you’d like to perfect your poker face. Well here’s your chance. Chivas Regal Whisky brings you the opportunity to learn the fastest growing game in the country without losing your week’s wages, at a series of London based events.

Visit the Feast of Wiltshire on 1 September 2007 at Crockerton Meadow to experience a fantastic and flavoursome festival of food. Expect to discover an eclectic mouth watering choice of food alongside real ales, wines and ciders from local producers – a true gastronomic celebration of the South West.

To celebrate the tenth year of Harvey Nichols Leeds and the heritage of Yorkshire, Foodmarkets across the UK & Ireland will be honouring a delicious range of sweet and savoury treats from the Yorkshire region, perfect for afternoon tea.

If you’re looking for a London hotspot to soak up Wimbledon fever this year, look no further than the Häagen-Dazs shop in Leicester Square. The luxury ice-cream brand is the official ice-cream of the Wimbledon Championships, and to celebrate this perfect match they will be transforming their flagship shop into the ultimate ‘tennis retreat’ for the duration of the Wimbledon tournament.

Tickets for Ben & Jerry’s Sundae on Saturday 28th July are on now! With another great musical line-up, fairground attractions and, as ever, all the ice cream you can eat, Clapham Common is preparing to host the summer’s coolest festival. Guests on Saturday 28th July can look forward to an array of summer anthems and mellow tunes from a stellar line-up comprising The Feeling, The bees, Rumble Strips, Brakes, Kate Nash, Lucky Jim and The Lea Shore.

Home House Edinburgh, the prestigious private members club, has teamed the renowned culinary expertise of their consultant chef Martin Wishart and the artistic talents of popular contemporary artist Julie Franchetti for their forthcoming launch event – ‘art on a plate’ which debuts at the club on 19 July 2007.

Anna Farrell became Filippo Berio's Rotary Young Chef 2007 by producing an immaculate meal at the recent final held at Lutterworth Grammar School. Anna, from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, and a 14-year-old student at John Colet School, produced a delicious meal to convince judge Walter Zanré (of Filippo Berio Olive Oil) and his fellow judges from Fifteen Restaurant, Peter Begg and Alberto Conti, that she was the deserved winner.

With the Bank Holiday weekend being a washout, why not visit the Harrods Food Halls for some Mediterranean inspiration? Small enough to be classified as an island but big enough to be desirable to colonise through the ages, Sardinia lies about 120 miles west of the Italian peninsula.

Are you looking for the next new adventure in food? Why not try a bit of good old Jewish Cookery. Chicken soup has been called penicillin for the mind & body, but there is also plenty more to explore with recipes that have been adapted to the particular rules and lifestyles of the Jewish people as they have travelled the world.

Leading events organiser DEW Events will be launching its first consumer exhibition this year, the London Food Festival, a three day event which will take place from 7th – 9th September, showcasing over 100 regional food and drink producers.

Taste of Bath, the summers al fresco food festival, is less than a month away and details of the mouth-watering features are now being announced. One of the highlights taking place in the stunning Royal Victoria Park June 28 - July 1, will be The Bertinet Kitchen cookery school outpost. With a fantastic line-up of internationally renowned chefs the event is set to be the ultimate treat for serious foodies.

Challenge your taste buds to a showdown of local & organic Cornish food! Sumptuous strawberries and delicious Cornish and organic breakfast ingredients will be compared in a blind taste test to standard supermarket brands at the 2007 Royal Cornwall Show, Wadebridge, Cornwall, 7 - 9 June, at the Taste of the West in Cornwall and Organic South West stand, in The Food and Farming Pavilion organised by the Women’s Food and Farming Union.

After a highly successful 1st year the Welsh Food Festival’s confirmed activities for 2007 are set to offer visitors a real taste sensation. Held at the stunning private Glansevern Hall Gardens midway between Welshpool and Newtown, the festival not only offers 20 acres of sumptuous gardens to enjoy but an amazing array of food and related activities.

The June-July schedule of classes at Cooking With Monisha is more exciting than ever! They have a Kids cookery class in the forthcoming half term, a couple of food walks combined with special dinners, summer classes that include barbeques, Indian picnics, easy curries, vegetarian cooking and much more.

Divine will be at Eden Project in Cornwall from half-term onwards, inviting visitors to find out all about the journey from bean to bar, and get actively involved in Fairtrade.

This year, for the first time, Divine Chocolate Ltd, the leading Fairtrade chocolate company, will be exhibiting at Caffe Culture at Olympia from 23rd – 24th May 2007. As well as the wide range of delicious chocolate products, Divine will be introducing a very special high quality range of bakery products at the show. To discover a truly Divine experience and a very distinctive range, visit Divine on stand D30.

Alpaca walking is just one of the unusual treats on offer as vineyards across Wales throw open their doors to visitors to celebrate Welsh Wine Week (May 26-June 3).

This year top bartenders from the UK & Ireland’s leading style bars & restaurants will battle it out in a live event at Taste of London in Regent’s Park 22 June for a place in the world’s most coveted cocktail competition in New Zealand this September.

If you struggle to recreate fabulous dishes from the multitude of recipe books currently available, why not take the hands on approach and have a cooking lesson with one of the leading experts in Thai food?

Tesco’s ‘Enjoy the Taste of Scotland, Get to Know Your Locals’ event once again brings together a selection of the very best of Scotland’s larder on the 4th – 6th* May at the Assembly Rooms, George Street, Edinburgh.

Food Lovers are in for a treat from September 14th to 16th. The Emsworth Food Festival celebrates its sixth birthday with a celebration of local produced food and drink. Expect to discover an eclectic mouth watering choice of champagne and oysters alongside real ale and Moroccan delicacies.

Chile’s pure environment and natural barriers help to produce great-tasting seafood, meat, vegetables, fruit – and of course wines. Now ProChile London, the office of the Chilean Government which promotes Chilean exports and inward investment from the UK, is hosting Chilean Gastronomic Week, giving British gourmets the opportunity to experience Chile’s exciting repertoire of dishes.

With over 100 different events held at dozens of locations across Hampshire, the fortnight long Hampshire Food Festival (23rd June to 8th July) celebrates all that is great about food and drink from Hampshire.

Whether you fancy cooling down with a Light White Port & tonic over ice or relaxing with a chilled Tawny, what could be more pleasurable than spending a lazy summer’s afternoon in the company of close friends and a glass of Cockburn’s Port? So why not drop into the Cockburn’s Port Hole Lounge Bar to try their range of Ports, accompanied with mini bites prepared by top chefs at this year’s Taste Festivals, in Edinburgh (7-10 June), London (21-24 June) and Birmingham (5-8 July).

As part of Chester’s Food & Drink Festival, the Festival celebrated its region’s food and drink on Tuesday April 10 by holding the city’s sixth annual glittering Gala Awards dinner. The event held at the Taste Sensation Marquee in the Castle Square, marked the climax of the main Festival, whose fringe Festival continues until Sunday April 15 with special offers and meal deals at restaurants across the city.

Get ready for all your ice cream dreams to come true. On Tuesday 17th April 2007 Ben & Jerry’s will celebrate their 29th annual Free Cone Day. Yes, for a full five hours Scoop Shops across the country – and around the world - will serve up any cone or cup of your choice, absolutely free!

Careys Manor and the Zen Garden are offering a unique opportunity to discover more about the exotic culture of Thailand on April 18th when they celebrate Thai New Year in style. The evening of festivities will include an authentic Thai massage & Thai cooking demonstration and a delicious three course Thai meal.

Cauldron Foods is headline sponsor of this year’s National Vegetarian Week, which runs from 21 May – 27 May 2007. Vegetarians are well known for eating their greens but this year The Vegetarian Society and Cauldron Foods are setting out to prove that vegetarians also live a greener lifestyle than their meat eating peers.

Tickets for a major new event ‘Taste of Bath’ went on sale this week as participating restaurants and celebrity chefs were announced. Just below the Royal Crescent, the stunning gardens in Royal Victoria Park are to be transformed into a summertime ‘feast for the senses’, from Thursday 28th June to Sunday 1st July, 2007. The event will celebrate gourmet restaurant cuisine and locally produced food and drink from Bath and the South West.

NewcastleGateshead will stage its first food and drink festival next month showcasing the best of the region’s food produce and culinary delights from its restaurants and hotels. EAT! NewcastleGateshead will run from the 6-15 April and will form part of NewcastleGateshead Initiative’s programme of world-class festivals and events for 2007.

In the spirit of Easter, the British chocolate phenomenon Hotel Chocolat is running an Online Easter Egg Hunt; open to anyone and everyone with Internet access. Rather than having to hunt through thorny thickets, Hotel Chocolat is instead inviting you to put your feet up and join in from the comfort of your home or office. Much more convenient we’re sure you’ll agree – and far fewer grass stains too!

If your taste for tea is more sophisticated than your average cuppa, then only the rarest of handpicked teas will do. For infusions best described as the Pétrus and La Táche of the tea world, head to the Harrods Fine Tea Auction and revive an annual tradition stretching back to 1679. This unique event takes place in the store’s stunning Georgian Restaurant on 25th April, with all proceeds going to humanitarian charity Action Against Hunger.

Do you know anyone aged between 8 and 14? Do they love to bake? Then they can enter this year’s national cooking competition! To enter the Guild of Food Writers CookIt! competition, come up with a two course menu of main course and dessert.

Now in its seventh year, Warburtons National Bread Week will be running from 7th – 13th May 2007, celebrating the ‘roll’ that bread plays in our daily diet. Throughout National Bread Week, Warburtons, the UK’s favourite family baker, will be launching picnic themed initiatives across the country to raise awareness of bread as a vital part of a healthy balanced diet.

Harvey Nichols Foodmarkets in the UK and Ireland are set to play host to one of the most flavoursome spring events of 2007. Taking place on weekday evenings from 21 March, visitors to the gourmet Fetes can taste and discover a vibrant selection of luxurious, fashionable food and drink, meet specialist producers, challenge their taste buds, enjoy the entertainment and take a gamble on the Harvey Nichols lucky dip.

Farms across the country will be open to the public on Sunday 10 June, which has been declared Open Farm Sunday. Organised by LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming) the day promises something for everyone, from nature trails to tractor rides, but most importantly the day will help to remind us all that farms do matter!

An exciting new catering and hospitality publication, Yes Chef! Magazine is set to launch exclusively at Harvey Nichols Fifth Floor Restaurant & Foodmarket on Wednesday 14 March.

Show your mum how much you care by treating her to a sumptuous four-course lunch, on the 18th March 2007, onboard the R.S. Hispaniola, a ship permanently moored on Victoria Embankment, in London.

Talented chefs are jetting in from all around the world to take part in the premier culinary competition in Wales. The Welsh National Culinary Team will put their skills to the test against Canada and Cyprus in the second Battle for the Dragon contest at the Welsh International Culinary Championships at Coleg Llandrillo Cymru, Rhos-on-Sea, Colwyn Bay from February 20-22.

Taste East is a free two day food festival that celebrates Spitalfields and the East End by telling its history through food, to take place on Friday 2nd March and Saturday 3rd March in the covered Crispin Place. Taste East is part of ‘East’ a festival championing the best of East London.

A week-long festival of food and wine will be held at Jesmond Dene House Hotel and Restaurant in Newcastle this spring. This unique event will champion the region’ s produce, celebrate local food heroes and showcase the skills of acclaimed British and European chefs.

The simple things in life are hard to improve upon. You really can’t beat a golden pancake, freshly flipped and served with a squeeze of lemon juice and a sprinkle of caster sugar. Delicious. And if you fancy something more substantial there are thousands of fantastic savoury and sweet recipes out there to help you get creative with your crepes.

The 2007 ‘Taste of Bath’ festival promises to be a four day gourmet restaurant, food and drink extravaganza, taking place in the stunning outdoor setting of Bath’s Royal Victoria Park, just below the Royal Crescent, from Thursday 28th June to Sunday 1st July, 2007.

This year’s Chester Food & Drink Festival promises an even more impressive line up of celebrity chefs for visitors to the Festival Taste Marquee over Easter. Organisers have listened to the public who voted for more chefs at this year’s event and three celebrity chefs have been announced with three more to follow, doubling the number last year.

Chocolate has long been considered an aphrodisiac but, as any cupid will tell you, it’s not what you eat, it’s the way you eat it!

Feeling the stress of winter days as the end of January is nearing? In need of some rest & relaxation? Firefly Tonics and Harvey Nichols Foodmarkets have joined together to support the Samaritans’ first ever Stress Down Day by offering customers the perfect de-stressing package.