Summer Food Festival

A lovely afternoon at Leicester’s summer food festival. Good to catch up with with people such as cider maker Rob Norton (right) of the Bottle Kicking Cider Company.  The company is going so well he’s gone full-time and has  just launched a second brew  – Rambler is a lighter, 4.9 per cent version of his Scrambler, which will shortly be appearing in local Tesco’s as well as Waitrose.

Also enjoyed watching Tom Cockerill of Entropy  doing some live cooking (below). In a profession not short of its egoitistical prima donnas, Tom is an extremely laid back character (I should say I’ve never worked a service with him, so his staff may have a different view, but I doubt it).  His unusally casual manner disguises a  very skilled and precise approach to his food. His dish was a loin of Leicestershire lamb (a gorgeous looking cut from Archers on Queen”s Roaad) that was given a wild garlic crust and a stuffing of locally foraged wild mushrooms. I held back from the unseemly scrum to taste it  but I’m sure it was fantastic.

The wild garlic had been picked that morning from Castle Gardens – where as luck would have it i was haded for a picinic after the festival. There’s plenty still there, so I picked a discreet handful which is going to enliven a risotto tonight.