From Saturday 2nd – Sunday 3rd February, Rockliffe Hall is hosting its first Artisan Food Fair to launch its week-long Festival of Food. Taking place from 10am to 4pm each day, the Artisan Food Fair is the perfect day out for food and drink lovers and includes stalls of artisan produce, street food, spirit schools and live chef demonstrations in The Looking Glass House.
The live chef demos are an opportunity for food and drink lovers to get up close and personal with food producers and chefs. Rockliffe Hall’s chefs – Richard Allen, Paul O’Hara and Aaron Craig – will be taking to the stage on Saturday 2nd February.
The chefs will each be paired with a food producer from the region to show visitors how to use the produce at home to create delicious dishes – with the products used being available for sale at the food fair. It’s going to be an interactive and intimate experience, with visitors able to ask questions and see the chefs cooking up a storm.
Richard Allen, executive chef of The Orangery restaurant at Rockliffe Hall, said: “Not only will this be a chance for us to showcase the finest produce available across the north of England but it will also provide the chefs with an opportunity to work with some of the producers too, I can’t wait.”
COOKERY DEMO TIMES
Saturday 2nd February
The Rockliffe Chefs:
11am – Paul O’Hara (The Clubhouse) and Simon Raine, of Weardale Cheese
12.30pm – Richard Allen (The Orangery) and Lizzy Hodcroft, from The Sweet Beet
2.00pm – Aaron Craig (The Brasserie) and Nick Fairley, of Fairley’s Fine Condiments
3.00pm – Aaron Craig (The Brasserie), cooking with Durham Gin.
The Producers:
Weardale Cheese
Based in one of the old workshops at Harperley Prisoner of War Camp, Weardale Cheese occupies a truly unique location at the entrance to beautiful Weardale in County Durham and produces a range of hard and soft artisan cheeses. The milk used is sourced from local farms, and cheese varieties include Brie de Weardale, semi-soft blue cheese St. Cuthbert, and the smooth and tangy blue cheese Prince Bishop.
The Sweet Beet
Lizzy Hodcroft is the founder of The Sweet Beet and her range of condiments are based around her Texas upbringing as she wanted to capture the essence of the deep, bold, smokey flavours that she lovingly grew up with in Texas, but make them appeal to the British palate. Try the Maple Bacon Jam or the Habanero Lime Jelly
Fairley’s Fine Condiments
Fairley’s produces a range of sauces, condiments, rubs and oils that are all about flavour. The ketchup recipes had humble beginnings as they were passed down to Nick Fairley from his grandfather Albert and subsequently back through the generations from the Victorian era.
Durham Gin
Created by Durham Distillery, this gin is made with ten botanicals including juniper, celery seed, elderflower and pink peppercorn as well as a secret mix of other herbs and spices, and is distilled using spring water from a natural spring near Durham City. Produced in small batches of just a few hundred bottles, Durham Gin provides balanced notes of citrus, spice, fresh florals and earthy roots.
READ MORE: Rockliffe Hall’s first Artisan Food Fair at its inaugural Festival of Food.
