Being on maternity leave, for the first time I have been able to fully immerse myself in the Bridport Food Festival experience. The calendar boasts an impressive array of events throughout the week to tantalise the taste buds, enhance cookery skills and promote local food businesses. This year there were bakery tours at Leakers, a food quiz at The Ropemakers, a Dorset Drinks night at The Venner Bar and a talk with renowned Italian food writer Anna del Conte to name but a few.
I headed off to The Taj Mahal for an Indian Cookery Master class with Helen Choudhury. A Bridport institution for over 30 years, there can be few residents who have not sampled the always excellent dishes and hospitality on offer here. For the incredibly reasonable price of £20, Helen led us step by step through the process of making a 3 course Indian meal; vegetable pakoras, a bhoona style chicken curry, aloo saag, tarka dhal and to finish gajar halva, a milk based carrot pudding. She described the basic store cupboard ingredients required to begin Indian cookery and the importance of correctly balancing and layering spices. Many of these recipes can be found on the website www.tajmahalbridport.com. Afterwards we were able to sit and enjoy the fruits of her labours, which were as plentiful as they were delicious.
The Taste Trail allows participants to sample dishes across the town for just £2.50 (less when purchased in advance), encouraging punters to try out new venues or revisit old favourites. We waited until Thursday to take the trail, which was unfortunate as we’d have liked to try more venues – crab bisque at The George in town, a mini seafood platter at The Trawlerman, vegetarian frittata and a mixed salad plate at The Red Brick Café, a cheddar and spinach soufflé at Washingpool and a “ploughman’s and a pud” at Leakers bakery all had our interest piqued. We did however manage to sample a seafood cocktail of lobster, crab and gamba prawn at The Riverside- fresh, light and elegantly presented; at The Quarterdeck, asparagus revuelto- scrambled eggs with asparagus and Tunisian roasted sardines with spiced cherry tomatoes at Sladers Yard, an incredibly generous plateful, bursting with flavour. We finished with a cream tea at the West Bay Tea Rooms, full to bursting and having discovered some gems.
Saturday saw the main event at Askers meadows, with producers marquee, cookery demonstrations and The Round Table Beer Festival. Yoshinori Ishii of Michelin starred Umu restaurant discussed the difficulties he encountered trying to procure truly fresh fish for his Mayfair restaurant, essential to produce the top quality sashimi he aspired to. The solution became his mission – to teach UK fishermen the traditional Japanese technique of ikijeme, a humane way of killing the fish, which by blocking the chemical reactions which occur when the fish dies, preserves the texture and quality of the flesh. Chef “Yoshi”, held us rapt as he demonstrated the technique on a live turbot and we saw how the body was “fooled” into thinking that it was still alive, the muscles and nerves still active. The flesh was then prepared with such fine skill and respect for the life given.
The main marquee was packed with gourmet delights to fill the fridge and furnish the larder, from a rather cheeky pina colada curd from Cherry Tree Preserves, to a fiery smoky chipotle sauce from The Chillees and some fine extra virgin rapeseed oil from Fussels Fine Foods, I returned home arms laden heavy with west country treats.
To finish the day, a platter of fishcakes from Devon Fish Cakes (a trio of turbot and monkfish, hake with smoked bacon and crab cakes) with a mixed leaf salad from the P.E.P.C Real Food Shop, was just the ticket to round off my Bridport Food Festival week.
Alison Smith @chefalismith
