Christmas Fair: 11 December 2011
CHRISTMAS FOOD & DRINK FAIR Sunday 11 December
- 10.00am – 5.00pm
- Tickets: £3.50
- Free entry to children under 16
- Buy online now!
Stock up your cupboards for the festive season. Firm up your menus and liven up your culinary plans. Whatever your culinary tastes we've got it covered – the rare, the exotic, the innovative, the traditional – plus inspirational masterclasses, tutored tastings and demonstrations too.
Ticket purchasing in run-up week
- No long available
Your Stroller Wristband
£3.50 stroller wristbands included access to the market venues: Market Hall, Upper Brewery Yard and Priory Centre (plus Cross Street) with 70 stalls and entertainment too. View the full Exhibitor List and Site Map. There was also a rolling programme of seven festive chef dems on the Robert Price Kitchen stage in the Market Hall featuring the region's finest. See the full Chef Dem line-up.
Run-up Events
Franco and Pav Taruschio: Festive Pop-Up Kitchens
Two one-off menus devised and cooked by the legendary founder of the Walnut Tree Inn and his daughter. Vegetarian option available on request. Tickets for these two events only are not available to purchase online. Please book by calling Ann on 01873 859026 or 07831 581040 or by e-mailing annandfranco@26thewillows.co.uk
Friday 2 December
7.30pm: Llanover House, Nr Abergavenny NP7 9EF
By kind permission of Mrs Elizabeth Murray.
Tickets: £55 (4 courses, including wine)
Saturday 10 December
7.30 for 8.15pm, The Cricket Club, Avenue Road, Abergavenny NP7 7DA.
Informal seating. Jazz provided by Lee Goodall Quartet. Limited bar available.
Tickets: £45.00 (3 courses, prosecco and canapes)
Special Individually Ticketed Masterclasses
and
Tutored Tastings
Tickets: £5.00 (with the exception of the Saturday evening Masterclass: £6.00)
Catch top talent in action and get some great new ideas for your festive celebrations! Buy tickets online now for our special seasonal Masterclasses and Tutored Tastings featuring some of our brightest culinary stars. Your e.tickets will be made available to print off at home.
Saturday 10 December
6.00 - 7.00pm. Homes of Elegance, 7 Mill Street,
Abergavenny, NP7 5HE
Tickets: £6.00
The Art of Cocktails – Dominic Jacobs
Warm up for the fair with a masterclass from the resident mixologist at Harvey Nichols' iconic Fifth Floor Bar, Knightsbridge. Dominic Jacobs demonstrates classic combinations and shares bartenders top tips. He is supported by his friends from Chase Distillery, the boutique Herefordshire spirits company which shook the world by taking the gold medal with its potato vodka at the San Francisco World Spirits Awards 2010. Suitable for over 18s only and recommended especially for those who are walking home rather than driving.
Sunday 11 December
Eight individually ticketed Masterclasses & Tutored Tastings. All tickets: £5.00
Masterclass, St Mary's Priory Centre,
11.00 – 11.45am
Tickets: £5.00
Christmas Baking – Elisabeth Luard
Whether making a beautiful tart for a centrepiece, home-made decorations for the tree, or cookies for the tin, Elisabeth Luard demonstrates why baking is an essential part of her Christmas preparations. Some of the recipes are taken from her latest book, A Cook's Year in a Welsh Farmhouse - a beautiful collection of recipes and reflections on day-to-day life inspired by the changing seasons and landscape around her West Wales home. Book signing immediately after the event.
Tutored Tasting, Angel Hotel Ballroom,
11.00 – 11.45am
Tickets: £5.00
Spice up your Christmas – Arun Kapil,
Green Saffron
Mulling wine, making decadent Christmas Puddings or dealing with left-over turkey, Arun Kapil shows you how fresh, beautiful spices can make all the difference. Arun's company Green Saffron brings small, frequent shipments of the freshest, highest quality spices direct from India to their base in East Cork, Ireland where they expertly mill them into authentic and bespoke blends. Arun is well-known on Irish television and makes proprietary spice-blends for top UK restaurants. Green Saffron won a Gold Medal for their Korma blend in this year's Irish Food Awards.
Read our blog and find out more about Arun Kapil
Masterclass, St Mary's Priory Centre,
12.30 – 1.15pm
Tickets: £5.00
Turkey not turkey – Freddy Bird and Charlie Hicks
Bring some warmth and colour into your kitchen this festive season. Freddy Bird, Head Chef at the Lido, Bristol and Charlie Hicks, the foremost supplier of fruit and vegetables from around the world, will be putting pomegranates, dates, almonds and citrus fruits to excellent use in a range of Moorish and southern Mediterranean inspired dishes; think pilafs and tagines. Let Turkey – not turkey – inspire you this Christmas.
Tutored Tasting, Angel Hotel Ballroom,
12.30 – 1.15pm
Tickets: £5.00
Fine Wines for Christmas from Concha Y Toro – Chris Horridge
Starting with Cono Sur's Sparkling Brut and finishing with a Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc, Chris Horridge takes you course by course through his selection of wines from this great Chilean winery to drink with Christmas dinner. All the wines tasted will be available for purchase at the Festival at a special show price.
Masterclass, St Mary's Priory Centre,
2.00pm – 2.45pm
Tickets: £5.00
How to create Flavour – Maria Elia
Maria Elia is that rare combination of successful working chef - she currently heads up the kitchen at the revamped JOE's on Draycott Ave, the culinary off-shoot of the Joseph fashion-house - and top-flight cookery teacher. Her first book Modern Vegetarian Cookery recast the image of vegetarian food with its bold and stylish flavour combinations. Her new book Full of Flavour aims to go a step further; showing people how to experiment with ingredients to create their own flavour combinations. In short, how to 'think like a chef'. Join Maria for a masterclass in creative cooking …with a seasonal twist. Maria demonstrates how cooking your seasonal ham can be the beginning of a culinary adventure. Book-signing immediately after the event.
Tutored Tasting, Angel Hotel Ballroom,
2.00 – 2. 45pm
Tickets: £5.00
Vive la Différence – Eric Charriaux and Amnon Paldi, La Cave à Fromage
Cheese affineurs Eric Charriaux and Amnon Paldi unveil the fruits of their latest project - maturing British cheeses in British alcohols - including Tipsy Billy, a fresh goat's cheese matured with cider, and Shropshire Blue matured with a Single Malt. Try these alongside their classic Stilton au Porto and other suggestions for your Christmas cheeseboard. Charriaux and Paldi's company Premier Cheese matures cheeses for top restaurants. They also run the Kensington cheese shop La Cave à Fromage. Their cheeses will be available for purchase at the fair.
Masterclass, St Mary's Priory Centre,
3.30 – 4.15pm
Tickets: £5.00
Boxing Day Brunch – Stephen Terry and Chris Gould
The Chef Patron and Head Chef of The Hardwick show how to turn Christmas Day leftovers into a tasty Boxing Day Brunch. Stephen Terry has represented Wales on Great British Menu. The Hardwick has won many awards - most recently voted Best Restaurant In Wales in the Observer Food Awards 2011.
Tutored Tasting, Angel Hotel Ballroom,
3.30 – 4.15pm
Tickets: £5.00
Handmade Chocolate – Jules James,
Black Mountain Gold
Meet a rising star of the Welsh food scene. Jules James was born in Crickhowell and raised in Canada where he trained as a chef and chocolatier. He travelled the world before returning to Crickhowell earlier this year, launching the artisan chocolate-making company Black Mountain Gold. Since then he has been garnering rave reviews for the quality and attention to detail of his work. Find out what all the fuss is about by joining Jules for an introduction to the art of making hand-made chocolates and a taste of the Black Mountain Gold range.
Read our blog and find out more about Jules James
View a video of the 2010 Christmas Fair
Produced by Purple Patch Video. Contact: enquiries@purplepatchvideo.co.uk
This video is supplied by an external source and is also available direct
Potential Exhibitors
Applications for this year's Festival and Christmas Fair have now closed. If you would like to be on our stallholder mailing list and receive notification of application deadlines and other exhibitor news, please sign up to our e-newsletter and, after the opening prompt for your email address, fill out the relevant boxes and tick the box marked "**I would like to be a Stallholder/Exhibitor" under the 'Your Interests' heading.
Feel free to email us about your company and your product – we do occasionally get cancellations. We will do our best to reply to any queries, but in the lead up to the Festival that can be difficult.
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