Of course, it's all about the food

When I discovered that there was a food festival on in Hull, and the lovely James Martin was appearing, I mentioned it to Cat. So it was no surprise that Saturday found us baking…in the sunshine, as we watched cookery demos. It was like Saturday Kitchen, with smell-o-vision.

Now, I’ve always been pretty disparaging about Hull, but I was very pleasantly surprised at the centre, but then it’s a long time since I’ve been anywhere other than the theatre (and the pub next door).

There are some fab cafes by the water, and we found the ‘old town’ which was quite lovely, and we discovered the Land of Green Ginger! We even found time for shopping (but then, we usually do).

Of course, we also found James. He was on stage a lot! Judging an omelette cooking comp (they all looked pretty inedible to me, and it was noticeable he didn’t taste many of them), spinning sugar. I tried to encourage Cat to get up on stage when they wanted someone from the crowd, but she didn’t think it was the best way to meet him!

Later on as we watched a competition for the top cocktail maker/bartender, we found ourselves at the railings in front of the stage. James was due back on stage shortly. I commented that it had been a while since we’d been at the front for anyone, and it was pretty clear we weren’t going anywhere despite the baking sun and, in my case, the lack of sun cream. So, we watched his final demo, and we got to nibble on his honeycomb (which was yummy!)

Luscious, and that's just the food!

It's a little late in the day, but I can’t resist the chance to say a bit more about our encounter with the lovely James Martin* at the Ryedale Food and Drink Festival at Castle Howard. We’d accepted the fact that his popularity has increased dramatically since he took over Saturday Kitchen, but it was hugely busier than last year.

It was a cold and wet Bank Holiday Monday morning and we were there for the opening so were able to secure tickets to his first demonstration. The marquee had got posher since last year, and it now had chandeliers! What you don’t get on tv is the aroma of the food, and this was in smell-o-vision – yum!

Afterwards, we headed to his stall in the exhibitors tent, where he was signing his books. We got well and truly elbowed by little old ladies (Cat: ‘chef fans are mean!’) but got to meet him. He is, indeed, very tall, and has stunning blue eyes. And yes, I bought a cook book, but I have yet to make anything out of of it. In fact I still have yet to make anything out of the one I bought last year. Ho hum!

Afterwards, we wandered round, tasting all the freebies, and buying bits (and running out of money) before wandering round the gardens – it was pretty cold though. When we eventually returned to the tent, James was there, and not so swamped with people, but neither of us felt able to just go up to him. It’s odd. When you sort of ‘know’ someone, it’s remarkably easy, but when you don’t**, this ‘non–stalking’ is actually very difficult.

*He went to my school you know! Sadly, not at the same time as me.
**which means we have to work on this

Cultural divide

‘I went to Castle Howard at the weekend’

‘Leeds Castle?’

‘No, Castle Howard’ (by way of explanation) ‘It’s in Yorkshire’ (this is going down well, these southerners clearly don’t think we have stately homes ‘up north’) ‘They filmed Brideshead Revisited there’

‘Ohhhh!’ ( a glimmer of interest)

‘I went to the Ryedale Food and Drink Festival…well, I went to see James Martin’

‘Who?’ (this is going really well)

‘James Martin,… the chef…he does Saturday Kitchen’

(suddenly, I’ve struck a chord) ‘Ohhh, is he the young one? I like him!’

Ever wish you hadn’t bothered?!