Forest Showcase Food Festival

From the nutritional and healthy, to the indulgent naughty but nice, The Forest of Dean comes alive on 1st October with its Annual Food Festival.

The Forest Showcase is an event with a lot more going on than most food festivals…featuring the best fresh regional produce from over 100 top local & artisan producers, from gourmet burgers and handmade scotch eggs, to award winning preserves & chutneys, fine cheeses, farmhouse ciders and speciality wines, ales & plenty of flavoured gins!.

It’s a great opportunity to get a real taste of the best of the area.

Ian Barnes from Infamous catering will be exploring some Creepy Crawly Cookery in our Cookery Theatre this year! Edible insects, a crispy crunchy ingredient….come & taste & discover why this is becoming an important sustainable food source.
There will also be cookery demonstrations from the regions top chefs including Rob Cox, head chef from The Tudor Farmhouse Hotel, Yvette Farrell, owner & principal of Harts Barn Cookery School, and Stuart Spicer from The Speech House Hotel. The cookery theatre is sponsored by Hales of Drybrook, Esse stoves and Gloucestershire College.

Returning this year will be our very popular free Parent & Child cookery classes with healthy eating advisor & cookery teacher Glyn Owen from ‘Kids & Food’.
This year he will be teaching how to make a middle-eastern inspired mezze of salads with 2 or 3 different salads using seasonal ingredients , and how to make a beetroot leaf pesto, labenah cheese and flat breads  all using simple cooking skills which can then be replicated at home and can involve the children as much as possible.
The families would then take home all the salads, some pesto, some labenah and some flatbreads. You can book your place on these classes on the Forest Showcase website.

After you’ve done your foodie shopping, you can sit out enjoying tasty hot food & a refreshing drink (or two), with great live music including The Paris Jazz Café Swing Band bringing you acoustic music from the Parisian café era and the French jazz of Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt, with a taste of classics from the roaring 20’s and swinging 30’s and 40’s to the finest Hot Club Jazz. We also have music from Microjazz & The Ukes Uv Azzard will be performing.

The event will feature children’s activities with entertainment throughout the day from Jitterbug Circus. There are also plenty of free food related arts workshops. With a selection of arts & crafts on display along with green ideas on composting, an animal or two!, a vintage cider press crushing apples, tips on vegetable growing & keeping bees this really is an event worth visiting, so come with empty tummies & we promise you will be full to bursting when you leave.

The Forest Showcase will be held in the Speech House Hotel grounds, in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire,on Sunday 1st October from 10am, tickets can be purchased in advance to avoid the queues from the website http://www.forestshowcase.org

We will be hosting a new festival this year,  it will be held at Beechenhurst Lodge on Sunday 26th November & will be The Forest Xmas Showcase, full of lots of local produce as well as Xmas ideas & recipes, cookery demo’s,  arts & crafts & live music. …more details soon.

We’re excited to say that The Forest Showcase Food & Drink Festival has been chosen as one of the top Food Festivals in a recent blog article 15 Delicious Food Festivals That Will Give You Serious Lunch-Envy .

The blog article from Holidaylettings.co.uk – UK’s leading holiday rentals website and a TripAdvisor company.

You can find the full article here:

From tossing turnips to vegetable creatures and chickens, the Forest Showcase Food & Drink festival is an event with a lot more going on than most food & drink festivals. The recipe for the day? ……..well take over 80 top local and artisan producers, a big serving of stunning hot food, add a dash of real ale and wine, interesting talks, parent & child cookery sessions and lots of children’s activities, top chef demos, stir in a few competition, the launch of the new Wye Valley and Forest of Dean sweet with lashings of excellent live music, and arts & crafts. Mix all this together to make a lovely foodie family day out.
The festival will be held in the Speech House Hotel grounds, in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire,on Sunday 2nd October from 10am and will be opened by TV chef , baker, author & cookery school owner, Peter Sidwell.
Peter has been a chef for 20 years, cooking his way around the continent, the bright lights of the big city were tempting for a while, but having furthered his training on the London restaurant scene, he decided that he’d like to get back to his roots to work on a passion of his; baking. Peter will be demonstrating in the cookery theatre along with other local top chefs including Rob Cox, head chef from The Tudor Farmhouse Hotel & Yvette Farrell, owner & principal of Harts Barn Cookery School.
The cookery theatre which is provided by Hales of Drybrook & Esse stoves will also be the place to be if you want to see the final of the ‘Battle of the Boar’ fun cookery competition where finalists will the battling it out to find a healthy boar dish with a taste of the Forest!

The Festival has attracted producers showcasing the best in local, seasonal and speciality food and drink. It’s a great opportunity to get a real taste of the best of the area. With tasty treats ranging from handmade scotch eggs, freshly baked artisan breads, locally brewed beers, award winning preserves, farmhouse ciders, cheeses, homemade cakes and much more.

Returning this year will be our very popular free Parent & Child cookery classes with healthy eating advisor & cookery teacher Glyn Owen from ‘Kids & Food’, this year he will be teachig how to make a ham and cheese calzone (just cheese for the vegetarians) with a carro, lemon and poppy seed salad, all using simple cooking skills which can then be replicated at home and can involve the children as much as possible.

After you’ve done your foodie shopping, sit out enjoying tasty hot food, a refreshing drink (or two), with great live music including Lydbrook training band & The Paris Jazz Café Swing Band bringing you acoustic music from the Parisian café era and the French jazz of Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt, with a taste of classics from the roaring 20’s and swinging 30’s and 40’s to the finest Hot Club Jazz.

The event will feature children’s activities with entertainment throughout the day, there are also plenty of free food related arts workshops and a cookery book swap. With a selection of arts & crafts on display along with green ideas on composting, a vintage cider press crushing apples, tips on vegetable growing & keeping bees this really is an event worth visiting, so come with empty tummies & we promise you will be full to bursting when you leave.

Bought a cookery book and finished with it?
Don’t know what to do with it?
If you’ve Read It, Swap It!

This year we will be holding a cookery book swap to recycle all of  those unused & forgotten cookery books.

Just  bring them along to the festival swap zone & donate them, see if there is anything there that you would like instead?

We are very pleased to announce that Peter Sidwell will be joining us at this year’s Forest Showcase.

Peter Sidwell has been a chef all his working life, he has developed over the years a simple, fresh and inovative way of cooking that focuses on the importance of ingredients and making sure it is cooked the right way to make sure it is at its best.

Peter is a popular speaker for live events and regularly hosts demonstrations at events such as BBC Good Food Show, Ideal Home Show, and The Cake and Bake Show.
Peter’s first TV series, Lakes on a Plate, was shown on Channel 4, and more recently he has appeared as co-judge and presenter alongside Mich Turner in Britain’s Best Bakery, on ITV1. . It was among ITV’s top 5 best performing daytime shows and nominated for a ‘Best Daytime’ National TV Award.

Pete has travelled the world cooking, talking and demonstating his approach and we look forward to seeing him in the Cookery theatre at the Forest Showcase on Sunday 2nd October 2016.

Wild Boar – A taste of the Forest!
The Battle of the Boar Challenge Competition!
A fun ‘Have a Go’ competition with prizes!

The Forest Showcase Food & Drink Festival are launching a new competition this year. ‘The Battle of the Boar Challenge’ is a cookery competition to find a healthy boar dish with a taste of the Forest!

Each dish will be made from wild boar meat, all ingredients will be supplied by the event & it is up to those taking part to add their own flavours, herbs & spices & secret ingredients?!.

4 Finalists will be chosen from all of the entries received & they will be invited to the Forest Showcase Food & Drink Festival which will be held in The Speech House Hotel grounds on Sunday 2nd October 2016, where they will prepare & cook their recipes in the Cookery Theatre. The wild boar dishes will be tasted & judged by Lawrence Jeffries & Yvette Farrell from Harts Barn Cookery School in Longhope.

The entry fee is free but please feel free to make a donation to the Cystic Fibrosis Trust.The entry forms are available to download from the website http://www.forestshowcase.org or contact us for further details 07980 357 747

Prizes include vouchers for Harts Barn Cookery School, a meal for two in the Speech House Hotel, Forest Showcase aprons, & of course the accolade of winning the cookery competition to be held at the Forest Showcase 2016. There will also be free entry to the food festival for all competition entrants.

Some of the areas best chefs will also be providing cookery demonstrations in the cookery theatre which this year is sponsored by Hales of Drybrook & Esse so there will be plenty of wild boar dishes available for those curious to find out what wild boar meat tastes like and to pick up some top foodie tips!

Previous Finalists in The Extraordinary Burger Challenge

Burgers made with Squirrel meat.

Following successful funding from the Forest of Dean District Council Economic Development Fund the organisers of the popular Forest Showcase event held each October at Speech House are in search of budding young entrepreneurs who have a desire to launch a new business this year.

Project leader Nick Penny told us “There are no boundaries to the type of business idea we will consider for this scheme, the essential ingredient is a sound concept and a young person (or group) with the drive and enthusiasm to take that idea forward and turn it into a product or service that is ready to be launched at the event in October. We have a number of local business mentors ready and waiting to work with the group of youngsters and support them through the following months to in order to be ready for the event which will be held on the 2nd October at Speech House.”

The funding from the District Council will allow the Forest Showcase team to deliver some training sessions focusing on key business skills, as well as the necessary infrastructure to create a ‘teen marketplace’ with its own identify at this year’s Showcase event. Young start-up businesses will be given free pitches within the teen market this year. “If successful, The Forest Showcase will commit to providing this space at the event annually & will create a bursary scheme where new young businesses can have a stand at the event at a reduced cost to encourage them to participate on an annual basis.” said Festival Director Amanda Smith.
Initially, individuals or groups of youngsters are invited to get in touch with Nick with details of their product or service and their plans for the next 12 months. Nick can be contacted by emailing office@nickpennyeventservices.co.uk

The Forest Showcase Food & Drink Festival have been succesful in securing funding from Forest of Dean District Council to provide a new area at thie years event.

The new creative space will be a “Teenage Market Tent’ that will offer free pitches to young people who have start up businesses & who would like to try out their ideas, sell & promote themselves at the event.

“If successful, The Forest Showcase will commit to providing this space at the event annually & will create a bursary scheme where new young businesses can have a stand at the event at a reduced cost to encourage them to participate on an annual basis.” said Festival Director Amanda Smith.
“There will also be opportunities for these new businesses to sell at other festivals & hold pop up markets in empty shops in Coleford Town Centre.”

Any young people that would be interested in taking part will need to contact us via email at contactus@forestshowcase.org.

The deadline for this years Western Daily Press Food & Farming awards has been extended.

To all of our fabulous Forest of Dean producers, please take a look at the categories & get your application form in!

Enter at westerndailypress.co.uk/foodandfarming

List of categories here