October 2008 Archives

The year just seems to be galloping away.

Food Festival season is nearly behind us. After going to the incredibly successful launch event for the Liverpool Food and Drink Festival in Sefton Park, I headed down to Abergavenny.

First for a conference on Food Tourism where there representatives from all the UK, Jersey and even Tasmania.

It is a difficult one to pin down but the feeling was there that there are foodies who will travel to eat (and I am sure Northcote in Lancashire will be experiencing that now that Harden's has just named it the best in Britain). But otherwise food is an integral part of your tourism experience.

Have a bad experience and you can put you off coming back or recommending it to anyone else. Have good experiences and that makes the whole trip more enjoyable. People are also asking more and more for local delicacies when they go away. (www.abergavennyfoodfestival.co.uk)

Then I stayed to spend a day at the Abergavenny Food Festival (which is the one that inspired me to think we could do it in Wirral). It was strange to be at a festival where I didn't know everyone but I bumped into a few other food writers and friends and we were soon sitting in the sun munching on antipasti and feeling like we could be in the Mediterranean. I then had to come back so I could go along to the Hope Street Feast.

Work is still hectic and I am working to help promote a new Farm Shop set up north west entrepreneur Martin Ainscough, near Parbold in Lancashire.

(www.ainscoughs.co.uk)

But I am looking forward to getting my first break for two years and I am off for a long weekend in Lyons, with other food lovers, to experience as much as we can in a short time including lunch at Bocusse and a trip to a vineyard.