Tastes from all over the world at festival’s food stalls

Breckland Orchard
www.brecklandorchard.co.uk
Celtic Vale Natural Mineral Water
www.celticvale.co.uk
The Fresh Lemonade Co
Fresh lemonade and cocktails!

Hollow Ash Orchard
www.hollow-ash.co.uk

The Lemonade Lady
Freshly squeezed lemonade

Llanllyr Source
www.llanllyrsource.com
Shocka’s Coconut Hub
Freshly-chopped coconut water alongside alcoholic Shocktails mix

Welsh Farmhouse Apple Juice
www.welshfarmhouseapplejuice.co.uk

Yarty Cordials
www.yartycordials.com

SPIRITS & LIQUERS

Bramley and Gage Ltd
Chase Distillery Ltd
www.chasedistillery.co.uk
Da Mhile Distillery
www.damhile.co.uk
Moorland Spirit Company
www.hepplegin.com
Pinkster Gin
www.pinkstergin.com

Sam Sake
www.samsake.com
The Shack Revolution
www.theshackrevolution.co.uk
Sibling Distillery
www.siblingdistillery.com
Tipsy Fruit Gins
www.tipsyfruitgins.co.uk
Warner Edwards Distillery
www.warneredwards.com
TEA & COFFEE

Chantler Teas
www.chantlerteas.co.uk
The Coffee Camper
www.thecoffeecamper.com
The Coffee Gondola
www.thecoffeegondola.com
Delicia Cakes & Teas
Cakes and loose leaf teas.

Handlebar Barista
www.handlebarbarista.com
Moo & Two
Passionate tea lovers, fanatic even; delicious coffee too.

Sherston Tea Company
www.sherstontea.com
Tea People
www.teapeople.co.uk
Welsh Coffee Company
www.welshcoffee.com

WINE

Bordeaux Undiscovered
www.bordeaux-undiscovered.co.uk
Cwm Deri Vineyard
www.cwm-deri.co.uk
Frome Valley Vineyard
www.fromevalleyvineyard.co.uk
Gilbies
www.gilbies.co.uk
Serravinci Ltd
www.serravinci.co.uk
Viader Vintners
www.viader.co.uk

BEER & CIDER

Apple County Cider Co
www.applecountycider.co.uk
Blaengawney Farm (Hallet’s Cider)
www.halletsrealcider.co.uk
Bland’s Cider
www.blandscider.com
Brecon Brewing
www.breconbrewing.co.uk
Butford Organics
www.butfordorganics.co.uk
Gwatkin Cider Company
www.gwatkincider.co.uk
Gwynt Y Ddraig Cider
www.gwyntcider.com
Llangollen Brewery
www.llangollenbrewery.com
Skyborry Cider and Perry
www.skyborrycider.co.uk
Tiny Rebel Brewing Co.
http://www.tinyrebel.co.uk
Tudor Brewery
www.tudorbrewery.co.uk
Ty Gwyn Cider
www.tygwyncider.co.uk
Untapped Brewing Company
www.untappedbrew.com
Welsh Mountain Cider
www.welshmountaincider.com
Williams Brothers Cider
www.cider.wales
Wye Valley Brewery
www.wyevalleybrewery.co.uk
CEREALS

Casa del Cymru
www.casadelcymru.co.uk

Simplyseedz Ltd
www.simplyseedz.co.uk

DAIRY

Calon Wen Organic Dairy
www.calonwen-cymru.com
Llaeth Y Llan / Village Dairy
www.villagedairy.co.uk
READY MEALS

Coconut Chilli
www.coconutchilli.com
SEEDS, NUTS & DRIED FRUIT

Franchi Seeds 1783
www.seedsofitaly.com
Hodmedod
www.hodmedods.co.uk
Hotroastednuts
Cinammon roasted nuts and Italian licquorice sticks

Wild Trail
www.wildtrail.co.uk
Willy Chase’s Popcorn
www.willychases.co.uk
Wils Smokehouse
Smoked organic gluten free foods with attitude.

Abergavenny Food Festival is a feast for visitors

hj-foodfest-cyrustodiwala-6581 — Cyrus Todiwala PICTURE: Huw John Photography

From top chefs and food writers to TV presenters and a former star of the Great British Bake Off – this year’s Abergavenny Food Festival will be a feast for its tens of thousands of visitors.

Last year’s event attracted 30,000 people, and this year’s festival will run from Friday night (September 16) to Sunday.

This year’s line-up has a taste of cooking from India, Italy, France, Spain, Malaysia, Poland, Japan, Korea, and the UK.

MasterChef: The Professionals presenter and former Le Gavroche senior sous chef Monica Galetti talks about her new book, The Skills, and stages a masterclass at the Borough Theatre on Friday evening.

On Saturday, Abergavenny Food Festival favourite Cyrus Todiwala will be at the Borough Theatre showing visitors how to get 120 dishes out of 10 spices with recipes from his new book, Mr Todiwala’s Spice Box. The chef, restaurateur, and author has been called the UK’s best Indian chef.

Acclaimed chef and restaurateur Jose Pizzaro will share culinary secrets from his new book, Basque, during a session at the Borough Theatre on Saturday.

Founder of the Riverford Field Kitchen, Jane Baxter, will give a taste of her new book, Leon Happy Salads, at the Masonic Hall on Sunday.

What To Eat Now star Valentine Warner returns to the festival with new fish recipes at the Priory Centre on Sunday, and Llansantffraed Court chef Tim McDougall will be demonstrating recipes with Usk Valley beef, Monmouthshire lamb, and Bristol Channel sea bass at the Priory Centre on Sunday.

If you’ve been diagnosed as a coeliac, Naomi Devlin will be holding a masterclass at the Priory Centre on Saturday called River Cottage Gluten Free. She will be preparing some of the 120 recipes in her book – which don’t compromise on taste.

Miss Foodwise blog editor Regina Ysewijn will prepare 17^th Century puddings from her book, Pride and Pudding, at the Masonic Hall on Saturday.

You could learn Japanese cooking with food writer and chef Kimiko Barber at the Borough Theatre on Saturday.

Or you could pick up expert barbecue tips from the dynamic funders of the Hang Fire Smokehouse at the Priory Centre on Saturday. Sam Evans and Shauna Guinn will also be sharing tales of their cooking misadventure from their book, Recipes and Adventures in American BBQ.

Builder-turned-baker Richard Burr, a finalist in last year’s Great British Bake Off, will tell you how to be a star baker during a session at the Masonic Hall on Saturday. He will demonstrate recipes from his first cookbook, Bake It Yourself.

Norman Musa will demonstrate recipes from his book Amazing Malaysian at the Priory Centre on Saturday, Marie Cheong-Thong and Jon Old will be talking about sake and wasabi at the Masonic Hall on Saturday, and Eleonara Galasso will talk about modern Roman cuisine at the Priory Centre on Saturday.

Vegetarians will find a feast of ideas from Alice Hart when she talks about her new book The Modern Vegetarian at the Masonic Hall on Saturday.

Also on the bill: pop-up restaurateurs Terry and George; food writer William Sitwell; writer and recipe developer Eleanor Ford; Zuza Zak; Brad McDonald; Martha Collison.

The festival features a packed programme of forages and tours, tutored tastings, and sessions at the Artisan Kitchen School.

See the full list of exhibitors here.

Find out more about the festival here.

Olives, cheese matured in a mine, and Welsh pancakes – get a flavour of this year’s Abergavenny Food Festival

MARIA WILLIAMS gets a flavour of the first full day of this year’s Abergavenny Food Festival:

Olive seller Zenon Poyiadjo comes to Abergavenny from the wild country of Epirus, Greece, via his base in Ludlow.

He is one of just three stallholders at this year’s Abergavenny Food Festival who were at the original event.

“When I first arrived here, there were stalls for animals behind the Market Hall here,” The Olive Press owner says.

Now, of course, the festival has grown into one of Britain’s biggest food events and has expanded into the Brewery Yard behind the hall, to the castle, Priory, the artisan kitchen school on Baker Street, Chadwick’s Place, Nevill Street and St John’s Square. It is hoped more than 30,000 people will attend this year.

“The thing which has remained the same is the welcome. There was always a great welcome in Abergavenny, and I always felt it was a cultured place,” Mr Poyiadjo says.

As visitors start to stream into the Market Hall, Duffy Sheardown of Duffy’s Chocolates is gearing up for his first Abergavenny Food Festival underneath this year’s art project, the giant goats dangling from the roof.

He and his team have come from Cleethorpes, “We were attracted by the festival’s great reputation,” he says.

The mixture of produce and styles has something for everyone, a great part of the festival’s attraction.

Market Hall Abergavenny — Visitors in the Market Hall – under the goats

In the Market Hall, just one of the festival’s sites, you can find Welsh ice cream, Turkish delight and other Middle Eastern sweets from London-based Arabica Food and Spice, spirits from Herefordshire’s Chase Distillery, Coedcanlas honeys and marmalades from Pembrokeshire, and meats from the Black Mountains Smokery.

Chef Simon King, of Restaurant 1861 near Abergavenny, is demonstrating how to cook with wasabi. Once he’s finished his slot, it’s back off to his restaurant for his lunchtime service.

He does, however, have time to show us how to create a side salad for his fish dish with produce from his father-in-law’s garden.

There’s oak leaf lettuce, beetroot leaves, chickweed shoots, marigolds and nasturtiums. A worker lets us smell black vinegar infused with seaweed as the chef completes his dish.

Outside in the Brewery Yard, there’s biltong, cakes, pulled pork, and pancakes with a Welsh flavour at Crempog.

Breton Loic Moinon, of Llantwit Major’s Crempog, has been coming to the festival for seven years. “It has just got bigger and better,” he says.

“Now, of course, we also have the night market, which means we are busier than ever.”

At Abergavenny Castle, there is entertainment from acts like Abergavenny Borough Band, and somewhere to relax with a real ale in the shadow of the Blorenge mountain.

For local food businesses, food festival weekend in Abergavenny is an important part of the calendar.

At Chadwick’s Place, where stallholders selling cheese, wine and spirits gather, Blaenafon Cheddar’s Susan Fiander-Woodhouse is dressed as a pirate – to celebrate Pirate’s Day. She has been coming to the festival for eight years.

“It’s just got better and better,” she says.

“It’s very important to us.”

The firm matures some of its cheddar underground in Big Pit – something which in the past surprised visitors to the festival.

“We had some very posh people who tasted it and said there was no way that could have been matured in a mine,” she says.

“One of the Big Pit guides happened to be in the crowd. He told them: ‘Yes it is, and I take it underground.’ They bought a lot of it!”

Cwm Deri Vineyard from Martletwy, Pembrokeshire, is nearby – visitors are tasting its sloe gin, and buying its liqueurs and wines.

At the Angel Hotel, festival chairwoman Melanie Doel introduces Cyrus Todiwala of Cafe Spice Namaste – which has a stall at Abergavenny Castle. The chef who has been coming to the Monmouthshire event for the past 13 years helped to officially open the festival’s Friday night events.

He says: “Britain is all about great produce, and there is a concentration of that here.

“Abergavenny is all about its welcome and its people. Everyone says hello to you in the street, and all the producers and stallholders have become friends. Abergavenny is just the most amazing place to be.”

The festival continues today and tomorrow.