Any excuse for bunting and I'm first in the queue so watch out Jubilee, we have designs on you! This should probably be a warning to anyone over 5ft tall that you may need to duck next time you come into the deli. Just to add to the chaos it's the big Food Festival Weekend in Malton, on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday. So Flags, bunting, and obscene amounts of food it is then!
I hope many of you get to attend street parties, or even go to London to see the main celebrations. There's so many good reasons to reach out and catch up with friends and family that we have been separated from for far too long of late, and to join in with community events. During the lockdowns on a sunny evening many of my neighbours would get out the camping chairs and we would all sit at the end of our gardens and have a drink together, I think for the first time ever I knew all my neighbours names.
May and the Food Festival always focuses my mind on the deli shop shelves, on show casing the best of Yorkshire produce and in trying to write new and exciting menus that reflect this time of year. I love to read the Nigel Slater diaries, he has such an amazing way with words. I hope he really does eat all those amazing things, boiling up crab shells to add a base note to the eggy mayonnaise sauce that he loves to pour over al dente asparagus. Its the way that he cherishes every single item of food in his kitchen that inspires me, I think it does us all good to stop and look around us. Take stock and appreciate all the amazing stuff that we already have rather than just rushing head long into the next "thing" we need to do. Especially living in this most glorious part of the country where we have an abundance of tasty foods. My to do list seems to be never ending, the pile of books beside my bed never lessens so you can imagine the moments of peace and calm in a prep kitchen two weeks before a food festival are few and far apart. I'm about to start making a vast amount of jubilee themed food, I've sourced fabulous vintage style union jack aprons for the staff to wear. And scratching my head on how we can smash our record from last year, of serving 1,500 coffees.
I hope you really enjoy this four day weekend and the chance to create some wonderful food to share with friends, family or neighbours. And most importantly I hope you get to take a m moment, read a line or two of a good book and eat some seriously good food!
