Feel Good Festival: Celebrity food stage is a big hit
Date published: 30 August 2013
Crowds at Rochdale’s Feel Good Festival gathered today every hour from 10am to watch a variety of celebrity chefs demonstrate how to cook dishes and to taste their free samples.
The celebrity food stage opened the festival at 10am, with Councillor Farooq Ahmed, chef and owner of Veenas Restaurant in Heywood, opening the show. He showed audience members how to make a traditional Rogan Josh curry using fresh ingredients. Farooq said: “Once you have seen how to make this, you will never use a tin or paste again.”
Farooq will be closing the celebrity food stage tomorrow and said: “It is my pleasure to have opened the festival today and It will be an honour to close it tomorrow.”
Alison Seagrave, a local luxury cake maker and macaroon baker treated the audience to freshly made macaroons and a cake bouquet. During her demonstration, which was watched by MayorPeter Rush, Alison gave three macaroon master classes to audience members and urged people to shop local.
Andrew Nutter, who has been described as Rochdale’s culinary son, prepared a variety of dishes including blackberry marshmallows, Bakewell tart, seared seabass with polenta and black pudding, and described his dish as “the sexiest dish you will ever see.” Andrew also said: “This is all done for the love of food.”
Justine Forrest appeared at the Feel Good Festival for the first time and said: “Its great. It is a novelty to me because I haven’t done it like this before but it has been brilliant.”
Justine became a celebrity after winning the TV series Michael Winner’s Dining Stars and made a variety of healthy foods from her new book. She treated audience members to healthy paella, healthy white and wholemeal pizzas and breakfast cookies.
Justin added: “I’d definitely come back again if they asked me to.”
The celebrity food stage will be filled again tomorrow for day two of the Festival (Saturday 31 August) with celebrity chefs including Aazam Ahmad, Andrew Nutter and Farooq Ahmed. Simon Rimmer from Channel 4’s
Sunday Brunch will also be on the stage.
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