The Dartmouth Food Festival is back with a bang this year to celebrate the best food, drink and cookery skills from the South West. The Festival which started in 2004 is a true foodie heaven – an exciting mix of delicious regional produce, chef demonstrations, workshops, lively food debates, tastings and book talks.
The event runs from Friday October 21st – Sunday 23rd, but prior to that on Thursday 20th a dedicated Children’s Day organised and sponsored by Café Alf Resco takes place, which sees local primary school children learning about food and the environment in a series of fun and hands-on workshops.
As ever, the Royal Avenue Gardens is the beating heart of the Festival, providing the setting for the Chefs’ Demo Tent, Workshop Area and Food Matters Marquee. It’s also the home to a number of food stalls which then spill out down the picturesque Embankment and alongside the Boat Float, with additional stalls setting up on the Saturday and Sunday in the Old Market Square. As ever, entry to these exhibitor areas is completely free.
This year the Festival is delighted to welcome special guest, Claudia Roden, the world-renowned food writer who is credited as being responsible for introducing us all to the rich cuisine of the Middle East.
Other top chefs taking part include Matt Tebbutt, Angela Hartnett, Jane Baxter, and Richard Bertinet, not forgetting Mitch Tonks and Mark Hix together with local chefs Elly Wentworth, Holly and David Jones and Luca Berardino.
For wine lovers out there, our ever-popular Drinks Seminars will be back in a new venue at Dartmouth Yacht Club with wine experts Susy Atkins and Will Lyons amongst the guest speakers.
The increasingly popular Food Matters programme this year welcomes Dan Saladino, Tim Spector and Henry Dimbleby while authors Felicity Cloake, Romy Gill and Sam Bilton will be discussing their books in a new series of talks.
Browns Hotel will host a number of Tasting Sessions run by Shane Holland and Henrietta Green, while Charlotte Pike from the Field to Fork School will be running our hand-on workshops.
As many of our events are free, the generosity of Sponsors, Friends and visitors is vital to enable us to keep it this way. For this reason we do ask for a small donation for our official programme and you will also find donation points at certain events.
More details, information and tickets can be found on our Festival website (where you can also subscribe to our newsletter) and social media channels.
