Good, clean fair at London’s Real Food Festival

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 aim of the Real Food Festival, which is based on the principles of Slow Food, is to bring producers and consumers together to celebrate good, clean, fair food.

Hundreds of small producers from the UK and abroad will offer visitors the opportunity to explore, taste and buy their fantastic products. Through a range of interactive features the event will educate and stimulate debate on food choices. And here is the difference: producers will only be able to exhibit by invitation and they will be heavily subsidised creating a unique opportunity to interact directly with the trade and public.

The visitor experience will include a food market showcasing hundreds of small, artisan producers from the UK and overseas, a wine fair consisting of over 100 small producers of quality wines and a cookery school where visitors will have hands-on tuition from Barny Haughton, Head Chef at the acclaimed Bordeaux Quay in Bristol. A chefs’ theatre will feature some of the UK’s most renowned and respected chefs with a passion for real food and a small selection of the UK’s most exciting restaurants who will be serving signature dishes.

Many concerned foodies including Zac Goldsmith support the Real Food Festival. Zac comments, “The way we eat, what we eat, where our food comes from, these are central issues. The Real Food Festival will change the way we think about food and give producers and consumers an opportunity to meet and share their passion for authentic quality produce”. The Real Food Festival will be working with regional Slow Food Convivia from around the country.

Lyndon Gee, Chairman of the producer Selection Committee for Real Food and Director of Slow Food UK adds, “The Real Food Festival promises to celebrate the diversity of modern artisan food, from producer to plate. I’m delighted the Festival is embracing the Slow Food principles of Good, Clean & Fair.”

The Real Food Festival - Earls Court 1, London 24 – 27 April 2008.