Talks and tastings galore at food festival

This year’s Stone Food and Drink Festival will feature a new ‘Talks and Tastings’ tent featuring top tips and masterclasses on a huge range of culinary topics.

Talks will take place throughout the day on Friday 5th, Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th October. Exhibitors and local businesses are signing up all the time to take part and the full programme will be finalised on each day. But signed up so far are:

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• Tittensor’s Old School Wines, which will present no less than five topics in different sessions, including how to make the perfect Mojito, how to make the perfect Martini, interesting non-alcoholic cocktails, how wine and chocolate can be perfectly matched, and why Scotland isn’t the be-all and end-all when it comes to single malt whiskies
• James Gillespie of Touchstone Wines will give three talks: an introduction to red, white and rose wines
• Brad from Stone’s Lymestone Brewery on what bees mean to brewing
• Martin from Cowley’s Fine Foods will take the audience back in time with three demonstrations on the historic preparation of meat
• Stone Country Butchers will give a masterclass on the basics of butchery
• Stone’s London 2o12 Olympic canoeist Lizzie Neave will take centre stage on Friday at 3.30pm as she holds a Q&A session on nutrition and the athlete. 

Festival chairman Richard Stevens said: “Our goal is to make the festival bigger and better each year, and to keep adding new events and attractions so that there’s always something new for our visitors to enjoy. Our demonstration kitchen is always packed to capacity so we decided this year to add to the programme with a series of talks, tastings and demos in a new theatre to give people even more choice.

“The programme is already looking really exciting and there are new presenters signing up all the time, but so far you can expect everything from an introduction to the basics of butchery through to historical food preparation demos and masterclasses in cocktail making – plus a bit of everything in between!”

The new ‘Talks and Tastings’ tent is sponsored by Mercedes Benz Stafford. General manager Bill Bennett said: “We’re keen to support local events and for Mercedes Benz of Stafford the Stone Food & Drink Festival is the perfect fit – it attracts those who enjoy the finer things in life, which is precisely our customer base. When I was discussing how we could get involved I really liked the sound of the Talks and Tastings tent – it’s a fresh new attraction for the festival and pretty much sums up exactly what the whole event is all about.”

Stone Food & Drink Festival takes place on Friday 5th, Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th October at the town’s Westbridge Park (park & ride from Aston Marina on the A51 strongly recommended). Admission is £6pp per day with accompanied under-16s getting in free. For more information visit www.stonefooddrink.org.uk

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