Wait almost over for 15th East Midlands Food Festival held in Melton

Food tasting at the East Midlands Food Festival in Melton PHOTO: Tim Williams

Foodies can look forward to an exciting weekend of food and theatre in Melton - Rural Capital of Food.

The theatre line up has been changed for this year’s festival with new additions to the usual line up. TV celebrity chefs Marcus Bean (raised in Oakham) and Jo Pratt (raised in Melton - Flexible Vegetarian/Midday Meals) will be joined by Lincolnshire food celebrity Rachel Green (Partridge and Pork) and Stapleford Park’s Tony Fitt. The Cooking Maharaja will be talking about samosas, Stephen Hallam will speak about the Melton Mowbray pork pie and Teresa Bovey will introduce the proceedings with her family recipes with a twist.

New entrants in the street food area will be Greek Food, Indian Fish and Chips, Big Melt Cheese Sandwiches, Mussles and Sea Food, savoury and sweet crepes. These are in addition to the now traditional Indian offerings, stone cooked pizza, paella, massive polish sausage baps, burgers, hog roast, Caribbean - in effect around the world in 80 dishes.

A number of new exhibitors will also provide additional variety; for those who can’t wait till November’s ChocFest, there will be a wall of chocolate, German Chocolate Kisses and hot waffles draped with chocolate sauce. On the savoury side new charcuterie offerings and adjacent smoked and barbeque products make use of Melton’s pork offerings besides our world famous pies.

Taking advantage of the current fashion for spirits there will be new offerings for locally produced gin, vodka and English Rum. The monks of Leicestershire’s Mount St Bernard’s Abbey will be showcasing their new Trappist Beer.

Leicester’s award-winning DMU Gospel Choir and the Melstrum Melstrum Ukulele Orchestrawill be providing the entertainment this year. For kids under 16 (who get in free), there’s a Kids Zone with plenty of activities to entertain and educate them about food.

Tickets are priced at £6 (£5 in advance). Children under 16 enter free. Advance tickets are on sale from the Visit Leicester Centre in Leicester, Ye Olde Pork Pie Shoppe in Melton, or online from www.meltonmowbrayfoodfestival.co.uk

There is coach parking available on site for up to 50 coaches and group offers are available on request. Email [email protected] or call 07894 229499 for more details.

Organiser of the festival, Matthew O’Callaghan, said: “This will be our largest event for years with new producers, new offerings in the street food area and an updated theatre programme with of course the old favourites that make our festival one of the leading regional food festivals in the UK.”

The festival is organised by the Melton Mowbray Food Partnership with main sponsorship from Samworth Brothers and the support of the Melton Mowbray Market.