Countdown to the South Downs Food Festival
- Johnny Grey
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
On 7 and 8 June we’ll be building on the success of last year with the second South Downs Food Festival. Coming up is a cornucopia of food and drink, plus top-notch talks to nourish the mind and cookery demonstrations to help reboot your own cooking. We have all sorts of fun on offer for children too. The schedule is here. For tickets visit Eventbrite.
Le Creuset Stage
Elizabeth David brought Le Creuset to England in the 1960s when there was a dearth of quality batterie de cuisine in this country. Le Creuset went on to fill a great gap and became a cult brand for cooks. The company is now 100 years old. It is sponsoring the food festival as part of its birthday celebrations.
Dan Saladino and Alexandra Harris
Dan Saladino, writer and co-presenter of Radio 4’s Food Programme, will open the festival from the Le Creuset Stage. He is also one of our main speakers, on the theme of diversity in world food and the need to celebrate and nurture regional species of plant and animal. His latest book is Eating to Extinction, which he draws on for his presentation.
The first talk of the day though will be Alexandra Harris introducing us to some extraordinary South Downs innovators in food and drink, based on research for her most recent book The Rising Down.
A highlight of the day’s talks will be the chance to catch renowned landscape architect Kim Wilkie. He is giving his uniquely scholarly and hands-on perspective on ‘a very English relationship with the land’, in particular the way food growing has shaped our landscape. We are incredibly lucky to have speakers of Kim’s, Dan’s and Alexandra’s calibre at the festival.
Kim Wilkie on his South Downs farm
These three guests will be joining Johnny for Saturday’s panel discussion, 'Regional Food: Past or Future?'. The panel and chair will explore, among other things, the possibility of reshaping our landscape with smaller scale production, offsetting agribusinesses and protecting the poetry of the South Downs region.
Sunday talks and events
Angela Clutton is opening the morning with her talk on both the impact of and impetus for Elizabeth David’s first decade as a food writer, with the proposal that she was more of a pioneering voice for women’s empowerment than she has been given credit for. Angela is an award-winning cook and presenter with a background in theatre. She jointly runs the British Library’s Food Season; her latest book is Seasoning (2024).
Festival favourite from last year Thomasina Miers is back at lunchtime on Sunday. With her the audience is guaranteed fast-moving entertainment, fabulous tastes and smells and new ways into the world of Mexican food at home.
Finally, in a culmination of the outstanding programme of events on the Le Creuset Stage, we have assembled a team of educators, cooks and thinkers to discuss how to reverse the decline in cooking skills and reliance on ultra processed foods by turning young people into proper cooks. This panel discussion, The Next Generation of Cooks, is chaired by Will Goldsmith, head of Bedales School. Panellists are the Chefs in Schools director Nicole Pisani, Alex Moody of Park Community College, Thomasina Miers and Angela Clutton. Anyone with an interest in the state of our food scene and future generations’ health should not miss this timely discussion.
Festival food, drink and fun
The festival has expanded since last year. Hampshire Fare, a Winchester based collective of artisan food makers and growers, are bringing over 50 stalls to the main food avenue. There will something for everyone to take home: Sussex cheeses, sourdough bread, fresh fruit and seasonal produce straight from the growers.
On the Fire and Forest Stage, resident chef Jacqueline Wise will be showing off the spectacular Vulcanus Grill system, which does everything from smoking to barbecuing. Join the demonstration for tips that will raise your outdoor cooking game. Jacqueline will be creating mouthwatering dishes from local lamb, asparagus and plank smoked chalk stream trout.
For some high-level indulgence, Greys Bars are bringing along a mobile cocktail bar. This is the business of my three Cambridge-based nephews, Tagore, Tao and Raphael. The trio work seamlessly together as travelling mixologists who bring a bit of theatre to their craft of the perfect pour. One of their special festival mixes would surely hit the spot? More traditionally perhaps, Hambledon Vineyard, the birthplace of British wine, will be offering sparkling wines and local delicacies in their own marquee.
Thermomix will be offering cookery sessions from their huge range of recipes. All ages of cooks can explore how their culinary technology makes cooking fun and healthier. You will discover that Thermomix is about a whole lot more than creating the perfect sauce!
For the kids, The Circus Zone are bringing 100 pieces of circus equipment to try out, practice and play with.
Unfitted Kitchen in action
A highlight for me at least will be the cookery demonstrations and talks taking place around my Unfitted furniture pieces, in particular the central island. In the sink cabinet we will be showcasing the Blanco Water System which produces sparkling, boiled and fully filtered water using a pared down system of tap and lever. It is also childproofed. Another kitchen star is the plate rack. This is the twenty-second design in my quest for the perfect plate rack. It’s an effective way of storing your crockery, whether fine white china or hand-crafted plates.
I believe plate racks are a must-have in any kitchen. Easy to access and able to accommodate plates of various thicknesses, this new design is more compact than others on the market. Its stainless steel small-diameter rods show off your plates beautifully with three tiers including top storage for bowls. For one month we are offering a limited number of these plate racks at a 20% discount. The special price is £1025 for the standard model (600mm wide) and £1175 for the wider version (750mm).
The Kitchen of the Future at InstallerSHOW 2025
I have a great respect for the makers and doers of our homes in the construction industry, and a lifelong interest in ideas of how to make our kitchens and homes enjoyable and flexible places to live. With smaller homes now being built it is more important than ever to make kitchens more efficient and friendly.
The show welcomes 30,000 professionals including installers, specifiers, developers, housebuilders, and decision-makers from across the heat, water, air, energy, and built environment sectors. It’s an event full of talks, ideas and discussion panels. I’m giving two talks: How to Make A Kitchen and How to prevent an installation going wrong. My talks are aimed at a wide audience of consumers, craftworkers and other professionals. The Kitchen of the future at the The InstallerShow will show my recent ideas. It takes place from 24 to 26 June at the NEC, Birmingham. Please save the date!