On the 17th and 18th September, the Kitchen by Liquid team visited Abergavenny Food Festival – an annual, not-for-profit event which fuses a wide range of food and drink brands, producers, well-known chefs and journalists. 

With over 35,000 visitors each year, the event was listed as one of the 50 Best Summer Festivals to attend by The Independent newspaper. 

Over the weekend, we visited a range of food and drinks stalls and watched a variety of first-class chef demonstrations. So, we’ve rounded up our highlights from the weekend below. 

Maple from Canada UK

One of our favourite stalls from the festival was the Maple from Canada UK stall, where there were plenty of maple syrup samples on offer, as well as cookbooks which offered recipe inspiration.  

We were also able to try ‘Maple Cones’, popular in Canada and potentially launching in the UK, and learn lots about pure Canadian maple syrup while we were at it – what more could you want? 

Hang Fire – Sam Evans and Shauna Guinn

Sam and Shauna celebrated their eighth year at Abergavenny Food Festival with two chef demonstrations, one in the Market Hall and the other in the Castle Grounds. 

Hosting a ‘Cooking Over Fire’ demonstration at the Castle, the award-winning, dynamic duo encompassed their American-style barbequing to a large audience of Abergavenny festival-goers. 

Red Sauce, Brown Sauce – Felicity Cloake

Author of The Guardian’s ‘How to Make the Perfect…’ columns, Felicity Cloake, shared some top tips around breakfast, and discussed and signed her new book ‘Red Sauce Brown Sauce: A British Breakfast Odyssey’. 

Felicity detailed her ongoing mission to discover the ideal British breakfast, by cycling across the British regions to taste plenty of local fry-up favourites.  

The breakfast fanatic discussed how it all boils down to personal preference and how breakfast trends have developed over time, but regional favourites, such as the debate of scrambled versus fried, remain on the menu. 

The Seasonal Baker – Michelle Evans-Fecci

Michelle is a baking enthusiast, who was featured as one of the stars of the Great British Bake Off in 2019.  

Growing up on a farm in her younger years meant that Michelle is hot on cooking and baking with seasonal produce. Michelle’s zero-waste and farm-to-fork approaches were demonstrated during her Market Hall session at the Abergavenny Food Festival. 

After a weekend of eating, drinking, learning (and even a team Cèilidh…), the Kitchen by Liquid team are already planning ideas and looking forward to Abergavenny 2023 – see you there!