Real Food and Farming

Kilnsey Show was the showcase for some great local produce...and some great local chefs in action too!  We all love our food and at Fresh we want to shout about the great local product produced right here in the Dales.  Our friends at Real Food and Farming champion some great local food from Dales producers and they help and support our food and farming industry in the Yorkshire Dales.

A great big thumbs up to Real Food and Farming!

On Fresh Breakfast, Julian talked to various guests during the week leading up to Kinsey Show, including Chris Wildman from Paganum Produce, Craig Allan from Coniston Hall Hotel, Steven Crabtree of Bolton Abbey Foods, and Ian Smith from The Dales Kitchen.

Following this, Fresh covered the REAL event from the cookery theatre at Kilnsey Show.

Kilnsey Show

The kilnsey show is one of best loved annual shows in The Dales.  It's probably the Dales' foremost agricultural show with dry stone walling, produce, handicrafts, horticulture, equestrian events, fell races and harness racing.

The Dales Kitchen

At this year's Show, Fresh were live at the Real Food And Farming section taking part in the Cookery Theatre alongside well known local and celebrity Chefs!  Julian and James were lending a helping hand with the chefs, including Bruce Elsworth from The Angel at Hetton, Pictured here on the left. 

One of the recipes features Kilnsey Trout - caught no less than 200 yards away on the Kilnsey Trout Farm!  Now that IS local!

Celebrity TV chef Nigel Howarth was also demonstrating his skills, still jet-lagged from his flight back from appearing on Saturday Kitchen on BBC1.  Nigel's just taken over The Bull at Broughton and so far so good - in fact the latest national newspaper review by a food critic gave it a glowing thumbs up in terms of quality and value!  It's a new dawn for a Lancastrian moving into Yorkshire but Nigel has lierally taken the Bull by the horns with this venture, marrying his cullinery skills with local Yorkshire provenance...and created a winner! Nigel is a Michelin starred chef and a key player in Ribble Valley Inns, the company which owns top ten UK restaurant Northcote Manor and a string of well respected Lancashire eateries.

Nigel was joined on stage at Kilnsey by his son, now a top London Chef on vacation with his Father.  But as Nigel put it on stage, 'Well, he's here for a holiday, so why not put him to work!'

On the morning of Kilnsey Show, Julian chatted live on air with owner of Conniston Hall, Tom Bannister and his newly appointed head chef, Craig, who's been with the team at Conniston for many years and had worked his way up to become Head Chef.  Conniston pride themselves on local produce with their 'Estate on a Plate' menu, which features local game from the Conniston Estate.  Now you can't get more local than that can you?

The Fresh Recipe Challenge

Setting the challenge, Julian gave journalist James Wilson a task he'd never done before.  Thinking he'd be helping out on stage with Chinese chef Tim Lee from E-Pan in Skipton, James thought he was going to be doing a bit of wok flicking.  What he didn't know was that Tim spoke very little English, so James had to not only commentate, but had no idea what the ingredients were, nor what the final dish would be...pure guess work! 

Thankfully James carried it off admirably and showed that he knew his hoi sin from his spring onions (we think he eats rather a lot of chinese food!) and the challenge was a great success!  On the left is the finished dish - Paganam Lamb with Ginger and spring onion.  Available on the menu at E-Pan in Skipton - highly recommended too!  Click on the dish to see the recipe to try it yourself, or book to eat at E-pan (where Tim will cook it for you!)

On the right here, Chris from Paganam Producers, James and Julian from Fresh and Tim from Epan with his Wok!

There's more pictures from Kilnsey show in our Gallery.

Support your local producers - local meat, fresh fish, crunchy vegetables supplied to you and selected local restaurants who also support them and give you a taste of Yorkshire, by cooking our local produce to perfection!

Our thanks to Ian Smith for pulling Real Food and Farming together and helping producers, suppliers and restaurants across the Dales connect with each other and collectively champion some our our greatest assets!