CHRISTCHURCH FOOD AND WINE FESTIVAL

The eighth Christchurch Food and Wine Festival kicked off yesterday and the High Street was packed with the smells of England, France, Spain, Italy, Hong Kong, Thailand among others as vendors offered a variety of produce from paella to real ale, french cheeses to saucisson.

The patron of the festival is T.V chef Lesley Walters and a marquee has been erected in Saxon Square so that she can demonstrate various cooking techniques for those who want to learn from a celebrity in person, rather than a ghosted cookery book. The International Food Market has cookery demonstrations with TV chefs including top chefs Paul Rankin, Jean Christophe Novelli and Lesley Walters in the marquee and this year they have set up TV monitors so that everyone can see the demonstrations more clearly. The advantage of the marquee is also to keep people dry if it rains, last year day two of the two day international market was a wash out!

The street market only lasts two days, the festival itself lasts eight with demonstrations, tastings, concerts, a jazz band (playing non-stop for two hours - nice!) and appeareances by the great and the good of local, national and international food and wine.

As with the turning-on of the Christmas lights, which I posted on last year, the High Street gets packed to the point of oxygen startvation. When all the stands that are selling cooked food light-up their cookers it is like walking through an Anthony Gormley inspired art installation, you can't see a thing you are just guided by your nose as the smoke and smells drift up or down the street depending on wind direction.

There is a wonderful sense of adventure as punters queue up to buy boar sausages, venison burgers, foot long hot dogs and men with beards in knitted sweaters walk about with plastic pint glasses of cider or real ale discussing trends in folk music - okay I lied about the sweaters. In typical continental style you can try before you buy and the stallholders try to catch your eye and tastebuds as you pass.

We are lucky in this area to have a French market several times a year, it's not surprising really given that we are closer to Cherbourg than we are to Brighton, where you can buy genuine French produce, Bournemouth hosts a German Christmas market, although I believe they are dropping that this year.

*The photographs are from last year, I forgot my camera yesterday!