By Neil Sowerby
THE final weekend in March marks the clocks going forward and what better way to welcome Spring than to treat yourself to the Alt. Festival of Food, which describes itself as ‘celebration of the food, the culture, the producers and the raw talent from England's north west’.
The family-friendly artisan-led festival is the culmination of one of the great success stories of 2014 – the transformation of Altrincham’s market into a foodie destination bar none in the region. The iconic Market House has surged back swiftly from the pre-Christmas blaze and is the centrepiece of the weekend’s events.
It is there that superchef Aiden Byrne (pictured below), of Manchester House, has devised the Sunday Supper – a single service six course seasonal tasting menu being cooked by the Market House crew. Food hall regulars Reserve Wines and Jack-in-the-Box will be pairing drinks with the food – and there may even be a special festival beer from the latter.
Tickets for the Sunday Supper cost £60 a head and are selling fast. There’s free entry to the rest of the festival, spread over three days from Friday March 27 to Sunday, March 29, which features over 80 stallholders, from farmers to growers to makers.
Family-friendly fun
There are lots of fun food-related activities for kids on the Saturday and Sunday mornings.
At 11am Winter Tarn Farm’s Jeremy Jackson (main picture), cheese producer and former organic dairyman, will be running a butter making workshop where kids and kidults can find out how to make their own version of the butter that graces the tables of Simon Rogan’s Michelin starred L'Enclume and the farm’s regular stall at Alty Market.
At 11.30am Altrincham's own Claire Burt, owner of multi award winning Burt's Cheese, winner of Observer Food Monthly's Producer of the Year in 2013 will be showing families about curds and whey and what goes in to making her very special Burt's Blue, Drunken Burt and her new vine wrapped cheese.
At 12am Market House's own Richard Carver from Honest Crust will run a pizza-making demo giving kids not only a chance to throw their own pizza but see it cooked on amobile pizza oven.
In addition members of the Halle and Manchester Camerata will be rehearsing in advance of serenading diners at the Sunday Supper. They will be in Altrincham Forward's office on Shaws Road from 3pm Sunday, rehearsing and 'busking' in aid of Oxfam.
A series of weekend workshops will showcase regional talent from UK coffee barista stars from Atkinsons in Lancaster, Kate Goodman the BBC's wine critic tasting wines from the north west of each wine producing country and Aiden Byrne's flavour thesaurus workshop.
For full line-up visit this link.
https://www.facebook.com/altrinchammkt
