Festival of Food at Southbank Centre

The Slow Food movement is running a food festival on London’s South Bank from today until Sunday 21st. They’re running free food demos, sampling, a “busy bee” craft tent for kids and a good range of food and drink stalls.

The Slow Food movement is incredibly important for anyone who believes in quality, honest, fair global produce. I’m a member and so should you be, there’s bound to be a branch near you.

I went along to the festival today and found it small but perfectly formed. Arranged around the Royal Festival Hall, there’s oysters, bread, cheese, meats, game, a very tasty Portuguese pork roast, and much more. The cookery demonstration given by Cyrus Todiwalla of Cafe Spice Namaste was very good – it’s not often nowadays you can get an entertaining and informative lesson for free.

The talk by Peter Gott of Sillfield Farm was a good lesson in what slow food really means and the importance of supporting pig farmers in this country. And he showed us how to butcher half a pig, which is always a useful lesson. I bought a large bit of the belly for a tenner, which is a bargain when you know how much attention and care goes into producing it.

The festival runs for another three days and includes talks/demos inlude how to smoke your own food at home, how to make honecomb, great dishes for under a fiver and “Be a bee” for kids. Go along!