Love your food? Then we have the event for you – combining delicious fare, a top chef and a fabulous setting. And it’s free!
Eat Your Heart Out: A Celebration of Local Food and Drink takes place in the magnificent surroundings of Selby Abbey on Friday 31 March from 10am to 4pm.
It will offer a chance to sample some of the very best local food and drink from the heart of Yorkshire.
With YorkMix as media partner, the event kick-starts the Selby District Residents’ Festival Weekend which runs on Saturday 1 and Sunday 2 April.
There’s plenty on the menu including live cooking demos, cook offs, recipe inspiration, low budget cooking tips, talks, tastings and stalls. The programme also features a smorgasbord of Yorkshire celebrities.
Internationally renowned Yorkshire chef Stephanie Moon is host for the day. She’ll be cooking up recipes featuring produce from stallholders, including Home Farmed Venison sausage ‘toad in the hole’, a Yorkshire pasta dish and Cranswick bacon frittata.
Great British Bake Off 2018 contestant Karen Wright, and Mike Cummings, head chef at the award-winning Drovers Arms at Skipwith, will also showcase their cooking talents on stage.
And there’s a greatly anticipated Ready Steady Cook-style competition between the vicar of Selby Abbey John Weetman and the Mayor of Selby, Cllr Wendy Nichols!
There’s plenty for the budget conscious in these challenging times too.
Not only is the event free, also Selby College Catering Students will showcase budget meals from their tasty dinner recipe cards.
Local historian David Lewis will talk about his chance charity shop find of fascinating guide to cookery and kitchen management written by a local farmer’s daughter Mary Eleanor Blakey in 1903.
Recipes from her book will be available for tasting and her tips for the creation of nourishing but thrifty meals could come in very handy today.
Event host Stephanie Moon said: “I’m hrilled to be asked to MC this special event. We’ll have some amazing talent on show – from fantastic producers and a chance to taste their wares, to chef demos including Bake Off star Karen Wright.
“We’ll showcase historical recipes and modern pub classics and I’ll be doing a demo using local fare.
“I’m looking forward to cooking up some Yorkshire produce in this stunning setting. Pop along for a look- we even have the mayor doing a ready steady cook and the local choir singing to open the event. I cannot wait!”
Councillor Tim Grogan, Selby District Council executive member with responsibility for health and culture, said: “This event is a fantastic opportunity for local producers to show Selby district residents just what great food is available on their doorstep and, of course, a wonderful chance for people to learn more about the great food available in this area.
“But Eat Your Heart Out: A Celebration of Local Food and Drink goes further than that, because it is going to be great fun for everyone who attends.
“We have been really fortunate to have an enthusiastic team organising this, so there will be lots of entertainment in addition to tasting opportunities and cooking demonstrations.
“Hopefully people will go home feeling inspired to delve further into adventures with locally produced food and drink.”
The food event is part funded by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.