The Royal Marines are bringing their ‘Field Kitchen’ to Powderham Food Festival. Watch them demonstrate their superb cooking skills.
Saturday 4th October 10am-5pm
At Powderham Castle, Kenton, Exeter Devon EX6 8JQ http://www.powderhamfoodfestival.com/
Admission £6 Adults, £2 for children 4-16, family tickets available too.
This year Powderham Food Festival presents the “Theatre of Fire and Smoke” – everyone will be cooking over traditional fire – fire pits, BBQs, wood fired ovens . . . . searin’ and smokin’.
Bring out your inner caveman or woman! Feast your eyes on our theatre of Fire ‘n Smoke and then literally feast on chunks of beautifully char-grilled Devon meat washed down with fabulous West Country ales and cider. The sparks will fly as our pit-masters cook up a storm. Expect delicious outdoor kitchen fireworks and some amazing BBQ food to guzzle.
It’s Autumn: think fire, succulent barbecued meat, hot chestnuts, slow-cooked pulled pork, roasted pumpkins, fish baked in corn husks, clams scattered onto hot coals, sizzling mussels, ravishing ribs. Outdoor cooking over traditional fire all served up in the beautiful surroundings of Powderham Castle.
With four exciting cooking demo areas:
The Main marquee, our “Theatre of Fire and Smoke” – with fire pits, smokers, wood fired oven, Kamado BBQ – and even a smoking wheelbarrow!
Amazing line up of open fire experts performing great culinary acts transforming simple ingredients into searingly, succulent meaty masterpieces, vibrant vegetables and flaming fish.
Area 2 – The Royal Marines from Lympstone Training Camp (subject of TV series right now) are also coming, bringing their Cooks Field Tent and Cook Van. They cook at any time anywhere in the world from the heat in Afghanistan to the cold of Norway, constantly raising their skills and team bonding while using limited rations and equipment. They have to think creatively while ensuring that they provide the nutritional content necessary to keep the guys going in the field. Watch our boys demonstrate their superior skills and drink a bottle of special chilli brewed Hunters Ale “Fire King” while raising money for the Marines C Group Charity with a donation from each bottle going to their fund inspiring business to support marines in need.
Area 3 is the sweet ’n pretty Garton King, AGA “Baking Perfection” marquee. Are your loaves leaden? Do you despair at your sagging sponges? Are your rock hard scones even rejected by the ducks? Help is at hand, here we’ll be serving up superb demos on how to faultlessly bake everything from the perfect meringue to the perfect pasty by a varied line up of expert cooks including AGA supremo chef, David Pengelly, who will be creating wonderful bread and cakes baked in the Dual control AGA, James Strawbridge cooking the Perfect Cornish Pasty and Saira Hamilton revealing Bengali baking secrets. Come along to see David and friends, ask lots of questions and get baking! And a new exciting news – ‘The Vanilla Queen’ is coming too. 
Area 4 – ‘Fun Kitchen” at Powderham Food Festival. Learn the art of cooking with a series of short, free, hands-on children’s sessions, run all day at Powderham Castle. Fun Kitchen will show children how to have fun creating fresh traditional dishes from scratch. And not only will children be able to taste the fresh food difference in the finished product they take home, they’ll also know just what’s required to make fun wholesome dishes when they get home. Fun Kitchen quick workshops at the Powderham Food Festival are a great way to encourage children to learn more about food in a fun way!
BBQ cooking is taking Britain by storm – chefs all over UK are installing fire pits in their kitchens, giving customers a simple but delicious alternative to more complicated offerings. At Powderham Festival 2014 we are reflecting this in our dazzling line up of guest cooks. From fire-pits to charcoal filled wheel barrows, via flaming tandoori ovens, the festival provides a bonanza of barbecued and char-grilled meats including venison from Powderham parkland, fish and shellfish from Exe Estuary, superb grass fed Devon beef and pork from Pipers Farm.
We will be reveling in all things fiery and smoky with over 100 producers exhibiting in the castle and grounds, fascinating demonstrations, talks and tastings.
Heading the lineup –
Jane Baxter – ex head chef Riverford Field Kitchen Jane Baxter is a chef and food writer. She trained at the Carved Angel under Joyce Molyneux before moving to the River Café. After a stint travelling and cooking around the world, in 2005 she set up the acclaimed Riverford Field Kitchen in Devon. She is co-author of the Riverford Farm Cookbook and Recipes for Everyday and Sunday. Currently based in south Devon, her latest book, co-written with Henry Dimbleby, is Leon: Fast Vegetarian.
Magdalen Chapter Hotel – The core ethos of the Magdalen Chapter Hotel is to create simple, seasonal and classic dishes, with a focus on local produce. Ben Bulger, head chef at the hotel will be demonstrating dishes that have helped to gain the hotel a reputation for excellent food.
Peter Greig co-owner with wife Henrietta, of Pipers Farm, produces award winning grass fed free range meat. Peter began by working in his father’s industrial chicken unit but was keen to change direction to traditional, slow growing farming methods. Heading down to Devon and establishing Pipers Farm, Peter then travelled continental Europe to witness very different butchery methods, teaching himself to butcher. The prime focus is producing contented animals, slowly, on the land in small groups to minimise stress – and to produce fantastic tasting meat. Today Pipers a Farm embraces 25 family farms who use traditional, sustainable values to produce healthy food. Peter is a master at the fire pits, famous for his smoked BBQ beef brisket.
Zimbabwean-born chef, Kumbirai (Kumbi) Gundidza, has just launched a range of truly delicious sauces, Kumbites, largely influenced by his African childhood. Growing up in Harare, Kumbi spent holidays with his grandmother on her smallholding outside the city where she grew many different varieties of fruit and vegetables. His aunt too was a caterer and he remembers being in Victoria Falls and eating crocodile tail cooked over an open fire pit. Now living in Dawlish, Kumbi delights in sea air and the glorious Devon countryside. He will be working with Peter Greig of Pipers Farm, prepping some of that superb meat with his African flavoured sauces spiked with different chillis and fragrant with warming spices.
Patrick Fogarty, Bronx Bar and ‘Cue in Teignmouth – London restaurant entrepreneur, Patrick Fogarty is a Devon lad returning to his roots to open Bronx BBQ restaurant and bar to add to the emerging and exciting Teignmouth restaurant scene. Committed to using best local meat, serving killer cocktails and Devon craft ales, Patrick will be serving up a fiery storm with his Head Pitmaster, at Powderham Castle Food Fest this October.
Saira Hamilton is known for her gifts of packing flavour into every dish of delicious Bengali-inspired food. Saira has an intuitive ability to take everyday ingredients and create an extraordinarily good meal. She uses the best of British produce combined with the spices and cooking techniques of her Bengali heritage to create delicious fresh-tasting dishes which are achievable without specialist or hard-to-find ingredients. Her food philosophy is all about keeping it simple and is rooted in her love of good, home-cooked food which is made to be enjoyed and shared with friends and family.
James Strawbridge, proprietor “Posh Pasty Company”, grower, poet, environmentalist, eco-technologist, TV presenter and cook, brings along his “BBQ Smokehouse” serving home-produced pastrami sandwiches. A “Hungry Sailor”, together with his Dad, Dick Strawbridge, he has sailed the coast of South West Britain making landfalls to find the best locally produced food and appeared on his own show. They also appeared together on “It’s not easy being green” and “Saturday Farm”.
Masterchef winner chef, Mat Follas regularly runs courses on foraging and wild plants which he turns into delicious recipes- think elderflower tempura and wild garlic arancini. He is a regular judge for BBC Masterchef and Mat’s recipes are published in a variety of magazines including Good Food, Olive and Delicious magazines.
Patricia Rain, The Vanilla Queen, will be demonstrating with Little Pod in the Perfection Tent. Patricia is an author, educator, culinary historian, and owner of The Vanilla Company (www.vanillaqueen.com), a socially conscious, product-driven information and education site dedicated to the promotion of pure, natural vanilla, and the support of vanilla farmers worldwide. The Vanilla Cookbook established her as an authority on this exotic rainforest product. Ms. Rain is the voice for small vanilla farmers worldwide, providing information on growing, curing, packaging and shipping vanilla to the world market, providing a forum for networking and representing their needs and concerns through writing and speaking engagements. Additionally, The Vanilla Company is actively working with individuals and groups in vanilla-growing countries to establish projects and to get medical and other needed supplies into rural areas.
And that’s not all. Powderham Forge will be adding fire and sparks ringing out into the Autumn air and woodland crafts people, Running Deer, will be making charcoal and cooking over campfires.
Helen Hayes, PR manager of Helpful Holidays, the key sponsor, is looking forward to the festival “We can’t wait to celebrate a third year sponsoring this event. Fabulous West Country food is very much a part of our guests’ self-catering holiday experience and we are happy to be involved again.”
Family fun, live music and an abundance of fabulous food & drink – don’t miss it.
Powderham Castle, Kenton, Exeter Devon EX6 8JQ http://www.powderhamfoodfestival.com/
Admission £6 Adults Kids £2 aged 4-16 Family tickets available.
All photographs by Matt Austin.
Devonium & Kitchenalia 