Foodie Heaven

I had an excited Gail on the phone this afternoon whilst I was at work. She said that whilst she was arriving back home from work, she saw a film crew down the road. With cameras and everything. I said get her camera out and start taking photos, as something special might be happening.

So a little while later, she rang again and described what was happening. I said that I would put a message on Facebook to see if anyone knew what was going on. A few messages appeared saying that they might be making an episode of the tv cooking show Come Dine With Me.

Fortunately they were still there when I got home, so I was poised with my camera too. I chatted to a couple of the crew who told me that it was a cooking show being made, but not Come Dine With Me, but a new show called The Kitchen Rules, based on the Australian show of the same name. It's where a well known chef eats a meal at different people's houses and decides who cooked the best food. In this case it is Michael Caines. Sadly not the actor from the Italian Job and Alfie. Now that would be a scoop, but a very well known chef. Sadly not with me, as I've not heard of him before.

Similarly to Come Dine With Me, the other contestants also join the chef in eating the meal. The winner gets £10,000. I popped down a bit later and chatted to the lady who was doing the catering for the production team. She said that they were filmed an episode yesterday in Chesterfield.

Apparently it's a very popular show in Australia, and so Channel Four have bought the rights to it, and are making their own version. Also involved is tv presenter and cookery writer Prue Leith. The show will be screened later in the year. So it will be interesting to see what Beeston looks like through their camera lens.

Comedy Cooks

Despite these two looking a bit like Laurel and Hardy, they are in fact local well known award winning butcher Johnny Pusztai and celebrity chef and broadcaster Richard Fox.

They were in Beeston today giving cookery demonstrations as part of Beeston's first food and drink festival.  Sadly it was really a bit of a washout as it has been raining all day. It actually started last night, and hasn't stopped since.

This didn't' stop the two foodies putting on a good show. I learnt how to make fritter using carrot, onion, cumin, double cream, coriander and flower. It was easy to make and very tasty. I will have to have a go myself. I also got to taste some flatbread, and a bit of Tandoori chicken.

There were quite a number of food stalls between the Square and Broadgate Park, selling different foods like pies, organic vegetables and halloumi wraps. Sadly due to the weather some events had to be cancelled on Broadgate Park.

It's a shame that the weather has been so poor, as a lot of work goes into organising these things, and it seems a waste of time if no one goes to support it, let alone buys anything. Still Johnny said that he had an enjoyable time conversing with passers by with their cookery questions.

Fish Fingers And Custard

Fish fingers and custard may be one of the Doctor's favourite meals; besides jelly babies of course, but I don't think too many people will try making that particular dish themselves, even if they use items from Lakeland's new range of Dalek and TARDIS cookware.

I spotted this rather eye-catching display in their window at our local branch on Wheelergate today. I bet there's many a Doctor Who fan would love to have that TARDIS display stand to keep, and I reckon quite a few people have been in enquiring whether they could put their name on it.

It's actually something that I used to do when I was younger. Sometimes they would say yes, and other times they would say no. Although sometimes when they said no, they did explain that the item was going to go to the children's ward at the local hospital. So i didn't mind.

If you are interested in seeing what the full range of cookware items looks like, then here is a LINK to the Lakeland website.

Grub's Up

Walking through the Old Market Square today, I noticed several large yellow gazebos all neatly placed in one area.

Of course I had to go and investigate and found that it was promoting exercise and healthy eating.

The Government's 'Change 4 Life' scheme is to attempt to make people fitter and healthier, as we appear to be going down the same route as Americans in being obese and unhealthy.

It could be argued that they are at the root cause of the problem with the introduction of fast food restaurants like McDonalds in the 1970s, and other companies following suit. Don't get me wrong, as the UK had fast food before then; think of fish and chip shops and Wimpy Bars. But there seems to be such a glut these days, that it's no wonder people are getting fatter. Pizza anyone?

I had a look round the various stalls, and of course stopped by the food tent. Here, a chef was cooking some pasta and chunks of lamb. He gave me some in a small bowl, sans lamb, as I don't eat red meat.  It was very nice. He said that he didn't put any salt in, but used dry seaweed instead.

I asked where I could get one of the recipe books which you can see in the middle there. The chef pointed me in the direction of one of the other tents. I ambled over and filled a form in exchange for one. So I will be studying it in the near future, to see if there are any dishes that cry out to be made.

Flaming Hell!

I know I promised you a photo from the computer games event, but I decided I'd share this shot of the Italian hot dog stall instead. I wasn't near the stall, when he lit the fire. I just saw a big plume of smoke rising into the crowd. I rushed over, as I thought one of the stands had caught fire. I don't know if he is chatting on his mobile while he is cooking.