CELEBRATING HAMPSHIRE Celebrating Hampshire is a brand new event launching Hampshire Food Festival 2023!

Running over Saturday and Sunday, 1st and 2nd July, this new event is a collaboration between Festival Place and Hampshire Fare. The focus is on a chefs’ kitchen in Festival Place’s Porchester Square with artisan produce market plus sampling.

Tracy Nash, Hampshire Fare, said: “It’s so great to be having a cookery theatre in the centre of this popular shopping centre showcasing our region’s great chefs. Thanks to Festival Place supporting local, this event will be a true celebration of Hampshire. Cooking demos will feature Hampshire ingredients, while local growers, makers and producers will be selling their products. What is not to LOVE!”

SATURDAY 1ST JULY CHEFS’ LINE-UP SUNDAY 2ND JULY CHEFS’ LINE UP

11.00am – Martin Dawkins

(aka The Rustic Chef)

Martin is a private chef having originally learned his trade working for Marcus Wareing at Petrus, returning to Hampshire as head chef for Alex Aitken at Le Poussin, where he developed his interest in sourcing local.

12.30pm – Matt Whitfield, Executive Chef, Kimbridge Barn, Romsey

Matt is creating exciting new dining experiences at Kimbridge Barn after a career that’s included working for Michelin-starred establishments such as Eleven Madison Park in New York, and heading up the kitchens at The Montagu Arms, Beaulieu.

1.45pm – Lucy Parr

(aka The Friendly Baker)

Lucy is a Hampshire-based recipe developer who trained at Le Cordon Bleu. She has 10 years’ experience creating free-from recipes, found on her website ‘Lucy’s Friendly Foods’, and has just published her first cookbook, The Friendly Baker.

11.00am – Simon Hartnett, Executive Chef, The Queens Hotel, Southsea

Cooking runs in Simon’s wider family. His uncle by marriage, Gary Mehigan, is a celebrity chef in Australia who worked on MasterChef Australia. Simon trained at Portsmouth’s Highbury College and has worked in some of the region’s top hotels and two rosette gastro pubs.

12.15pm – Jacob Rowley, Head

Chef, Oakley Hall Hotel, Oakley

Jacob is passionate about cooking having worked in kitchens since he was 15, moving up through the ranks of hotel, pub and restaurant kitchens. At Oakley Hall he is enjoying picking produce direct from the kitchen garden.

1.30pm – Andrew Gault, Executive Chef, Balmer Lawn Hotel, Brockenhurst

Andrew Gault has over 30 years’ experience in top kitchens at luxury establishments worldwide from Dubai to England’s south coast, and France to Scotland’s golf resorts; well-known names include Gleneagles and Burj Al Arab.