Ludlow Food Festival – in pictures

Saturday 10th September 2011, 11:29AM BST.

Looking down on the 2011 Ludlow Food Festival

A host of tasty winners were honoured in competitions to celebrate the best food and drink from Shropshire.

Ludlow Food Festival offered awards and prizes to people of all abilities after judging took place during yesterday’s opening day. Bumper crowds watched demonstrations, including many featuring Michelin-starred chefs which were organised by the town’s celebrity cook Will Holland, a regular on BBC TV.

There were also winners in a competition to find the region’s best young chef, in a contest backed by Mr Holland, former Ludlow cook Claude Bosi and the town’s long-serving Michelin Star-holder Chris Bradley.

Jo Gadsby, spokeswoman for the festival, said a number of winners were announced in the event’s Best of the Marches Competition. A record number of entries were submitted and competition was fierce for gold and silver awards in bread, cakes, pork pies, jams, cordials, fruit tarts and sandwiches.

She said: “The Ludlow Food Centre and SC Price & Sons stole the show in terms of bread, winning gold and silver between them in every category. Reg May picked up best pork pie, with Sam Duncan, from the Village Butcher and Farm Shop, taking silver.”

Mrs Gadsby added that Towers of Baker Street, Ludlow, presented a gold standard Victoria sponge and fruit tart as well as a silver-winning strawberry jam. The gold and silver winner of the fruit cake category was The Simply Delicious Cake Company.

Best Sandwich went to The Church Inn for its homemade fish finger sandwich and the Dali Tea Rooms took silver.

Winners of the gold certificate for their cordial was Pixley Berries while Gold winning strawberry jam went to the Ludlow Food Centre which also won silver in the fruit tart category. Entrants in the home produced categories will find out if they have won at 2.30pm tomorrow.

Councillor Martin Taylor-Smith was among the many voluntary workers and said: “The festival is great for the town.”

The festival is described as being the biggest and best of its kind in the UK and was launched in 1995 to give local businesses a boost.

By Andy Richardson

View more: Ludlow Food Festival news.

1
Sophia D

September 11, 2011 at 23:25

20,000 people eh? Surely a couple of million pounds is generated over the weekend?! Yet the town has about 3 light bulbs for xmas lights. Has anyone noticed the select photos of food and drink goers? Certainly don’t see any working class fellows in the photo gallery. Food and Drink = Filling the pockets of the wealthy!

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- Lesley Mackley
  
  September 12, 2011 at 21:58
  
  The Ludlow Food and Drink Festival was set up 17 years ago to draw attention to, and support the independent food shops and small food producers of the Marches area. It still remains true to those principles today. The very reasonable rates which stallholders pay are designed to make it accessible to small businesses, and the Festival runs a bursary scheme to encourage new businesses to take a stall. The equally reasonable entrance charges make the Festival accessible to people from all areas and all walks of life – there is something there for everyone.The Festival is a non-profit making organisation and, apart from two paid members of staff, is run entirely by volunteers who give up a huge amount of time and effort to run an event for the benefit of the town and surrounding area.I suggest Sophia D might like to volunteer to help and find out exactly how the Festival operates.
  
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- Barry Sausages
  
  September 13, 2011 at 11:46
  
  I’ve looked, and I’ve looked again and I’m terribly sorry, but I’m finding it rather hard to tell whether these people in the pictures are working class or not. I can’t see a flat cap or a whippet anywhere, or for that matter a pair of Boden wellies. In my experience (17 years), the Ludlow Festival attracts a wonderfully diverse range of visitors from across the world, and the social spectrum, all there to enjoy the great local food and carnival atmosphere. Ms D must have a (rather soggy) chip on her shoulder to make such an uninformed and pithy statement.
  
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