The Good Food Show Experience.

Last Friday my husband and I went to the BBC Good Food Show at the NEC in Birmingham.  A few of my friends found it hard to believe I hadn't been to a Good Food Show before, and I'm not really sure why I hadn't, it was just one of those things I hadn't got round to doing - and hubby had got tickets as part of my birthday present, so I had been looking forward to it for a while.

We got there about half an hour after opening time and it was already fairly busy.  We seemed to have arrived at the alcolic beverages end, and apart from a venison hotdog for a second breakfast, the first half an hour was spent sampling a wide variety of drinks, including elderflower liqueur, Belgian fruit beer, premium gin, blackcurrant liqueur and best of all, ginger liqueur.  Even the cheese had whisky in!  The ginger liqueur actually turned out to be the best thing I tasted all day, and I bought a big bottle.  It was called the King's Ginger, and was created in the early 1900s for 
King Edward VII. The Royal Physician was concerned about the monarch's health, exposed as he was to the elements indulging in one of his preferred pursuits, driving his 'horseless carriage'.  In 1903 he commissioned the formulation of a liqueur which would warm and revivify His Majesty; the result, a rich, golden nectar with a pronounced spicy ginger emphasis and delightfully crisp flavour. It came with assorted cocktail and "winter cup" recipes but was gorgeous on its own, and will be drunk with cheese after Christmas dinner..

Speaking of cheese, the show was host to the 2012 World Cheese Awards.  A large area was devoted to a display of hundreds of cheeses, but sadly, even though only a tiny bit of each had been eaten, they were labelled as "no longer fit for consumption".  What a waste!  I was very unimpressed.

 
In addition to all the stands, there were quite a few "theatre" kitchens, sponsored by various programmes or manufacturers: the Masterchef Experience (with adjoining Masterchef restaurant where you could go for lunch); The Great British Bake Off Stage, where we saw John Whaite, GBBO Winner 2012 doing his stuff and explaining why it is a good idea not to put your fingers into a blender; Saturday Kitchen Live; The Magimix Theatre; the M&S Christmas theatre and the Food for Thought theatre.  My favourite of these was the Masterchef Experience, where we saw the wonderful Monica Galetti making chicken livers with onion puree and winding up Andi Peters.  She was very funny, with a wicked smile to match her wicked sense of humour; and not at all as fearsome as she seems on the television. 

We had booked tickets to the Masterchef Cook Off in the Supertheatre, which was in a separate screened off area and much larger than the other demo kitchens, with space for an audience of 2,500!  After the warm up man, Gregg Wallace and John Torode came on and introduced the Masterchef and Celebrity Masterchef winners of 2012 - Shelina Permalloo and Emma Kennedy, who had 20 minutes to cook a dish for John and Gregg to taste.  The presenters and contestants all held their own, it was as good as, if not better than watching the programme, partly because you could actually smell the cooking!  They both cooked fish, Shelina winning with red mullet and courgette flowers stuffed with crabmeat.

After the cook off we continued looking at the stands, although it was sometimes hard to keep track of where you were and what you had seen before because some companies had several stands in different places and there were often different companies selling similar products, for instance I lost track of the number of different toffee flavoured vodkas.  The husband was also keen to try all the different types of chilli sauces, but the choice was so bewilderingly large that after a while he  just couldn't face any more! We weren't really hungry for lunch, so we just shared a wild boar, prune and armagnac sausage roll.

I didn't think that every stall fitted with the "Good Food" ethos - for every artisan sausage there was a curry sauce in a jar stall - but we did come away with a good range of delicious items.  As well as the ginger liqueur, we bought the cheese with whisky; peach and rosemary chutney; lamb carpaccio; Chinese jasmine tea; strawberry bellini;  and a new whisk.  I had hoped there might be a special offer on Kitchen Aid mixers, but there wasn't, probably because the show was heavily sponsored by Magimix. I got some Christmas gifts too.  The show guide was free and had loads of good ideas and interesting recipes in, including Shelina's, so I may have to try that soon.

There also happened to be a stand with an enormous display of black cherries in kirsh!

In other news, this week's new recipe was creamy lobster soup for the husband's birthday dinner, using the shell from the last lobster and another one to further flavour some fish stock, herbs, carrot, onion and a roux based milky sauce; with the lobster meat stirred in at the last moment.  A resounding success.  We followed it with steak and chips, berry panna cotta and cheese & biscuits.  I bought the panna cotta ready made as I spent so long cooking the soup that there wasn't time to make a pud.  Just wanted you to know that I am normal and I do cut corners now and again... I have also bought a frozen turkey for Christmas, but I think with Christmas turkeys it's what you do with them that can make all the difference.

This week I will be entering a Bake Off competion in the hospital where I work, but first I'm off with the hubby in search of a Kitchen Aid artisan stand mixer in oyx black for MY Christmas present.

Thanks for reading, come back soon and find out how the Bake Off goes, will I finally win something?

Caroline x