Nantwich Food Festival says ‘Have we got some great Chefs for you!’

Locals will already have the dates of Nantwich Food Festival 2025 in their diaries - August 29th, 30th and 31st. One of the key attractions is always the high quality celebrity and local chefs whose demonstrations are completely free to visitors.

Festival chef organiser, Karen Young tells us "The chef demonstrations will all take place in our state of the art, all-weather Food Theatre, sponsored by Reaseheath College, and located in the Love Lane Festival zone, so I am delighted to announce the line-up of wonderful chefs who will be demonstrating this year in the Reaseheath Food Theatre.

“We announced earlier in the year that Phil Vickery will be demonstrating at this year’s Festival and know that foodies from near and far will be keen to catch his relaxed demo style on Festival Saturday. Phil has 19 books to his name, with his most recent one, published in 2022, being The Canny Cook.

Phil's Ultimate Diabetes Cookbook has been widely praised and has sold extensively worldwide, plus for anyone with gluten intolerance or Coeliac Disease, Phil is the leading authority on gluten free products and recipes and is the National Food Ambassador for Coeliac UK. ”

Karen is keen to welcome the return of talented Nigel Brown, saying “In addition to being a celebrity chef in his own right, Nigel will again be the Demonstration Kitchen Compere on Festival Saturday and Sunday, providing the ‘glue’ to ensure we all hear what is truly happening in the kitchen.

Having spent a lifetime in the hotel and catering industry, Nigel has worked at some of the UK’s biggest hotels. He also spent time at the highly acclaimed French cookery school Ecole Le Notre where he picked up a wealth of experience in specialist patisserie work“

Festival Friday in the Food Theatre will kick off with returning renowned chef Bhupinder Virdee Lace, who will showcase her approach to simple to make, mouth-watering curries.

Festival Friday is definitely a great one for demos, as Adam Purnell – aka Shropshire Lad - of Embers Cafe, Coalbrookdate will demo at Nantwich for the first time; Adam has established a solid national reputation as a live fire chef. You may have seen him on TV, winning Heston Blumenthal’s ‘Crazy Delicious’ on Netflix and Channel 4, in a guest slot on Nadia Hussein’s ‘Fast Flavour’ or as a critic on Masterchef the Professionals.

Spyros Vrakas, Head Chef of multi-award winning St Martha’s Greek restaurant, Nantwich follows Adam; regular Festival visitors know that they are in for a treat as Spyros makes such great tasting food; his other talent is making it all look so very simple.

Festival Saturday is always a highlight in the Food Theatre; in addition to  welcoming the return of Darren Snell, head chef of The Black Lion, Nantwich there are plenty more chefs to wow the visitors; Darren previously worked as a chef at the famous Dorchester Hotel, so has a great chef pedigree.

In addition to celebrity chefs Nigel Brown and Phil Vickery demonstrating on Saturday, one of the chefs from Reaseheath will be demonstrating – almost certainly showcasing some of the wonderful food produced on the college site.

Finally Karen tells us that she is delighted to welcome Sam Widnall, semi-finalist on Bake Off: the Professionals and talented bake house owner. Sam will delight us with his baked goods; whether he demonstrates his renowned tasty cruffins we’re still waiting to see. Festival Saturday is not to be missed!

More Festival fabulousness follows on Sunday with a return by Nigel Brown, a cake baking competition – details to follow, a demo by Cleo, one of the talented Snugbury sisters and one by regular NFF chef Jill Weatherburn. Martin Taylor of The Sandbar Seafood Shack in Chester Market completes the cheffie line-up for Festival Sunday; Martin bought the shack in 2020, which is now renowned and highly rated for its quality food. He is passionate about seafood and says simply “My focus is always on freshness and top quality ingredients.”

Finally, The Festival Team is keen to advise us that Volunteers will host a stall at the Farmers Market in Nantwich Town Square on both Saturday 28th June and 26th July, so will be on hand to answer any queries and to welcome any locals who may wish to join them as volunteers for the 2025 Nantwich Food Festival.