What's cooking? Tewkesbury Food & Drink Festival lines up James Martin as 2009 Celebrity Chef

Five years on since the start of the Tewkesbury’s Food & Drink Festival and it’s quickly putting Tewkesbury on the map as having one of the best Food Festivals in the country. Dates are announced as the early May Bank Holiday Weekend, Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd May 2009 and we have yet another weekend of fun and action packed foodie delights.

The Tewkesbury Food & Drink Festival 2009 is bound to be a show stopper this year as we announce James Martin as our Celebrity Chef. James is a frequent face on our TV’s, being rarely off screen since 1996. Currently he's gracing our screens as presenter of the hugely successful Saturday Kitchen. He was a regular team member on Ready Steady Cook and in autumn 2006 gained a whole new army of fans with his new found prowess on the dance floor in Strictly Come Dancing.

Following the success of the move to The Vineyards last year, the event will again be hosted on these playing fields close to the beautiful Abbey – a stunning location. We are planning on making the festival bigger again, with a huge Cookery Theatre that can accommodate the numbers of people that our fabulous programme is bound to attract.

One of the Festival Organisers, Anna Sanders, said “We are delighted with our 2009 festival programme so far - we have the brilliant and quite frankly very dishy James Martin, our very own Cotswold celebrity chef, Rob Rees, chocolate sculptress Prudence Emma Staite and more to be announced at a later date. If any businesses would like to get involved, please contact the festival team.”

Once again we’ll have a packed Food Hall where we bring together over 60 top producers all passionate about what they do and who will be keen to share their enthusiasm. From them, visitors can sample and buy a range of wonderful food and drink just as a treat for themselves, or as great gifts for others. The famous Tewkesbury Vegetable Olympics will again be seeking out the fastest carrot runner, the best cabbage balancer or the most skilful parsnip skittle thrower. Kids love it and some parents even have a go too!

This initiative is part of the Gloucestershire Flood Recovery Programme managed by Gloucestershire First and kindly supported by Severn Trent Water.

Press release: 13 October 2009 from the organisers of the Tewkesbury Food & Drink Festival 2009

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