Celebrating Hampshire!
Come along to 'Celebrating Hampshire', a brand new event launching Hampshire Food Festival 2023. Running over Saturday and Sunday, 1st and 2nd July, this new event is a collaboration between Festival Place and Hampshire Fare. The focus is on a chefs’ kitchen in Festival Place’s Porchester Square with artisan produce market plus sampling.
Tracy Nash, Hampshire Fare, said: “It’s so great to be having a cookery theatre in the centre of this popular shopping centre showcasing our region’s great chefs. Thanks to Festival Place supporting local, this event will be a true celebration of Hampshire. Cooking demos will feature Hampshire ingredients, while local growers, makers and producers will be selling their products. What is not to LOVE!”
SATURDAY 1ST JULY CHEFS’ LINE-UP
11.00am Martin Dawkins (aka The Rustic Chef)
Martin is a private chef having originally learned his trade working for Marcus Wareing at Petrus, returning to Hampshire as head chef for Alex Aitken at Le Poussin, where he developed his interest in sourcing local.
12.30pm Matt Whitfield, Executive Chef, Kimbridge Barn, Romsey
Matt is creating exciting new dining experiences at Kimbridge Barn after a career that’s included working for Michelin-starred establishments such as Eleven Madison Park in New York, and heading up the kitchens at The Montagu Arms, Beaulieu.
1.45pm Lucy Parr (aka The Friendly Baker)
Lucy is a Hampshire-based recipe developer who trained at Le Cordon Bleu. She has 10 years’ experience creating free-from recipes, found on her website ‘Lucy’s Friendly Foods’, and has just published her first cookbook, The Friendly Baker.
SUNDAY 2ND JULY CHEFS’ LINE UP
11.00am Simon Hartnett, Executive Chef, The Queens Hotel, Southsea
Cooking runs in Simon’s wider family. His uncle by marriage, Gary Mehigan, is a celebrity chef in Australia who worked on MasterChef Australia. Simon trained at Portsmouth’s Highbury College and has worked in some of the region’s top hotels and two rosette gastro pubs.
12.15pm Jacob Rowley, Head Chef, Oakley Hall Hotel, Oakley
Jacob has worked in kitchens since he was 15, moving up through the ranks of hotel, pub and restaurant kitchens. At Oakley Hall he is enjoying picking produce direct from the kitchen garden.
1.30pm Andrew Gault, Executive Chef, Balmer Lawn Hotel , Brockenhurst
Andrew Gault has over 30 years' experience in top kitchens at luxury establishments worldwide from Dubai to England's south coast, and France to Scotland's golf resorts; well known names include Gleneagles and Bury Al Arab.
Read more about Hampshire Food Festival HERE. Follow HantsFoodFest23 on social media and find out about the events by browsing the online programme HERE or checking out our Events page HERE.