Good Food Show embraces Slow Food
13 Nov 2008 | English
The BBC Good Food Show – which takes place between 14th -16th November at the Kensington Olympia in London and between 26th – 30th November at the NEC in Birmingham – has embraced the Slow Food Movement, with a special area dedicated to growing, preparing and eating food the right way.
The pavilion is hosted by Slow Food United Kingdom, which is a catalyst for positive and lasting change in the challenge for good, clean and fair food. It protects traditional British food, preserves biodiversity, promotes food and taste education and raises awareness around the principles of high quality and taste, environmental sustainability and social justice in the food we eat.
BBC Good Food Show London Show Director Rebecca Reeves, said:“We’re delighted to be hosting this special Slow Food Pavilion at the show because it’s an issue that is so close to the heart of so many people with an appreciation of good food. It encapsulates a lot of huge issues, such as reducing food miles, cooking healthier and eating together in a decent environment.
“But most importantly, this Slow Food movement results in some of the tastiest food you could ever taste – I would recommend everyone comes down to the Kensington Olympia to check it out.”
The Slow Food Movement has an Italian heritage and was founded by Carlo Petrini to combat fast food and preserve cultural cuisine. It has now expanded globally to cover more than 120 countries and the special area at BBC Good Food London is evidence that it has now moved into the mainstream.
There will be an extensive schedule of Slow Food Taste Workshops at the Show where visitors will be able to taste produce and learn more from Slow Food’s rich and diverse knowledge pool and taste education programmes. Tasting workshops will include Tastes of Cumbria, featuring a Cumbrian feast of air dried meats from Farmer Sharp & Martin Gott’s Ewe’s milk cheese, showcasing traditional breeds and traditional production. Colchester Pearls, which will show food lovers how the native Colchester Oyster was preserved along with savouring the culinary delights of Essex and the Real Pork session which will teach visitors about traditional and rare breeds of pigs with guidance on what breed makes the best bacon or sausage.
Two exciting new companies have also been added to the outstanding range of exhibitors: Manor Farm Game, offering traditional game products, and Frankins of Thorntcote, free range poultry and game from Bedfordshire.
The Slow Bread Pavilion is also expected to be a leading feature at the event, with visitors being offered the chance to taste, buy and discuss some of the UK’s finest loaves.
Catherine Gazzoli From Slow Food UK, said: “Slow Food activities seek to improve food understanding and purchasing choices in local communities, thereby creating long-term sustainable changes to the quality of food consumed and, in the process, ultimately bringing about a profound effect on the community itself. Communities that have witnessed a marked improvement in well-being and an improved comprehension of obesity and its causes and effects. Our voluntary model is actively targeting those who would benefit from this movement the most, including children, youth and families.”
“And where better to raise the profile of this than at the UK’s biggest good food event? I’m sure both exhibitors and visitors will enjoy finding out that there is nothing elitist about Slow Food, and it results in a better way of life in so many ways. This is a global challenge for us and getting the UK involved is hugely important to us, but the success people like Jamie Oliver is having with his food campaigns suggest this is eminently possible.”
The following companies are being presented with awards at the show:
Farmer Sharp – naturally-reared Herdwick lamb and mutton from the Lake District (Slow Food Ark of Taste product)
Pedigree Pork Producers – bacon & faggots from native breed pigs
Holker Farm Dairy – raw milk ewe’s milk cheese from Cumbria
England Preserves – artisan & heritage fruit preserves, chutneys and quince from London & Kent (Terra Madre food community)
Richard Haward Oysters – native oysters from Colchester (Slow Food Ark of Taste product)
Slow Bread – artisan bakers from London and the South East, representing Slow Food UK’s Slow Bread project]
***INTERVIEWEES AVAILABLE***
• Director of BBC Good Food Show London, Rebecca Reeves, on the
importance of Slow Food to exhibitors, chefs and vistitors to the Good
Food Show
• Development Manager of Slow Food UK, Catherine Gazzoli, on the
global challenge of Slow Food and its impact on the UK
For interview requests, show details and further information please contact Paul Drury on 0207 749 6855 or email [email protected].
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