Cowbridge Food and Drink Festival is delighted to have recently received a Sharing Heritage grant of £9,900 from the Heritage Lottery Fund, just in time to launch an exciting new project for this year’s festival – ‘Forgotten Foods’.
The project will take visitors on a journey back in time through the kitchens of the past to explore and remember the culinary traditions, heritage and history of Welsh food and drink, at the annual foodie favourite festival, taking place over the Whitsun May Bank Holiday weekend (28th and 29th May). The 2017 Festival is all about finding out what the visitors want to see more of in the Forgotten Foods project – specific eras, particular dishes or ingredients for example. Guests will be encouraged to think about the story behind the recipes the nation follows today, some of which have been handed down from generation to generation, from Welsh cakes and bara brith to rarebit and cawl. Cowbridge Food and Drink Festival visitors will have the opportunity to learn about traditional Welsh preparation methods and the history of the country’s famous dishes in a series of professional demonstrations over the weekend.
At the Old Hall Gardens site over the weekend, guests will be invited on a taste tour of two secret eras of the past in a series of historical food sampling sessions, courtesy of local chef duo and academic specialists in Ancient History, The History Chefs.
In their popular interactive and educational sessions, the chefs will explore less mechanised means of production and harvesting, and will create delicious food and drink with foraged and home grown ingredients from exhibitors such as Tast Natur and Herbs in Wales.
Taster sessions this year also include bee keeping, and Tast Natur, and to add a modern twist, Cardiff-based Science Cream. The first and only Welsh liquid nitrogen ice cream and desserts parlour will also be at the festival and, as always, using natural and traditional flavours.
Polly Wilson, Festival Manager, said:
“We are thrilled to receive this grant to help support our Forgotten Foods project for this year’s festival. We are really excited to give visitors an interactive and delicious insight into the history of Welsh food and drink. We hope that it will inspire this generation to help preserve our cultural history and identity by learning more about its delectable past. And this is just the start – 2018 is going to be even bigger and better!”
Looking ahead to the 2018 festival, the History Chefs will return to explore the origin of more of Wales’ most famous traditional dishes and will also be involved in projects in the run-up to the festival with children’s workshops.
This is the third year the Cowbridge Food and Drink Festival has been held in the Spring and the second year with its well-received open-plan festival layout.
The festival weekend offers an ideal backdrop for families and visitors of all ages to come together to share food, stories and traditions from the past, as well as sampling some of the very best local produce from the present day.
Single day and weekend tickets are available via www.cowbridgefoodanddrink.org and children under 12 can enjoy the festival for free with a free Park and Ride service running from both sides of town. Ticket holders receive discounts and access to additional activities and town traders also offer promotions to ticket holders.
