Stone Food and Drink Festival will, for the second year running, be offering visitors the chance to get ‘hands on’ with food in their adult cookery masterclasses at Westbridge Park.
The festival is a non-profit organisation that was founded in 2004 to bring the community together to celebrate the very best of the local produce. The festival has gone from strength to strength, attracting not only more visitors but more businesses, pubs and producers from across the country who see it as a platform to showcase their produce and skills.
Also like last year, Amarpal Harrar of Stafford-based cookery school iCookIndian will be running classes alongside award-winning food blogger, Helen Jessup.
Helen is a local girl who currently lives with her husband and three children in Hixon. She is known not only for sharing her ideas regarding ‘everyday food for the everyday family’ but also for developing recipes for leading food brands. Britmums, a popular parenting blogger network, noticed Helen’s work earlier this year which helped her boost her online presence and ultimately get her name and ideas out there. This later saw her become named Food Blogger of the Year, which was accompanied by an illustrious BiB award.
During her masterclass, Helen will be guiding visitors through her Bailey’s Chocolate Lasagne recipe, an individually layered chocolate dessert that would be simple to make yet result in show-stopping quality, good enough for any dinner party. Those who fancy something more savoury are also in for a treat with not one, but two, authentic Indian recipes provided by iCookIndian. The first recipe has Tarka Daal and Pilaff rice, combined with lentils and carefully balanced spices for a wholesome meal to really get the taste buds going. The second recipe, Channa Masala and Jeera rice, blends chickpeas with a host of fragrant spices.
Possibly the best part about the masterclasses is that after the lessons have finished, regardless of which ones you have chosen, the ‘students’ get the chance to try their own creations.
This year’s Cookery Masterclasses will take place at Westbridge Park during the festival opening times from Friday 2nd to Sunday 4th of October. Helen Jessups classes are priced at £5 per person, iCookIndian classes are £8 per person and festival admission is an additional £7 per person (with under-16s free).
For the full class schedule and/or to reserve a place on one or more of the classes and to purchase advance discounted entry tickets, visit www.stonefoodanddrink.org.uk
