An Indian summer. Suddenly the sun notices a little place called England and unleashes its full force on the green and pleasant land. The heat to the Englishman who goes out in the midday sun, as do mad dogs, is something to be lived with and sweated through.
Last year’s Ludlow Food Festival will be remembered as being the one where the castle flag flew at half mast to mark and mourn the passing of a much loved and remarkable monarch. This year’s - the twenty ninth - will be remembered as the one where chefs didn’t an oven to cook things in.
It was all too hot for me to take Lucy The Labrador along with me but she relaxed in the cool of Fishmore Hall while I pounded the streets of Ludlow and perspired my way around the castle grounds looking around the stalls as the crowds built up and the demonstration theatres prepared to get underway.
An impressive young chef who cooks for private functions, Harry Bullock, whose business is called Evatt & Bullock Co led off the series of demonstrations on the outer Bailey stage and delivered an impressive talk full of enthusiasm. He was followed by the more grizzled-looking fish expert, Mike Warner, whose demonstration of preparing a gurnard dish and a John Dory dish was fascinating and then I ambled around the stands again trying to keep out of the direct sunlight.
Lunch was pleasingly in the cool indoors with a talk by, and opportunity to taste the pies made by, Andy Thomas of Mr T’s Pies based at Clun. Andy was indeed a great pie enthusiast and revealed that he longed for the day when Clun would become a special travel destination for those seeking out quality pies to enrich their lives. He revealed that his fantasy special pie would be a high quality chicken Balti pie but felt that it was difficult for him to obtain locally chickens of sufficient quality to use in his pies.
We sample pieces of four pies - all of which were excellent - Shropshire’s very own fidget pie which contained Long Mynd pork and ham slow cooked in cider with mustard, local apples, dauphinoise potatoes and sage; Hare Hill mutton, pea and mint, Caramelised onion, potato, Cheddar cheese and mustard and Stilton and leek. My favourite was the mutton, pea and mint where the mint perfectly complemented the delicious mutton. Thomas’s pastry on all the pies was excellent.
In the afternoon I attended a demonstration by Thom Bateman of The Flintlock at Cheddleton in Staffordshire. Bateman, we will recall, was beaten by Tom Shepherd in the Great British Menu Central Region final. His enthusiasm for his work and his degree of application to it shone through and reinforced the feeling that Lucy and myself must find our way to The Flintlock.
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