Lured by the offer to eat as much as humanly possible, while soaking up the expertise of Britain’s favourite celebrity chefs, we braced ourselves for the long six-hour journey from London to the Lake District for the Taste Cumbria food festival.
We stayed at the Trout Hotel, which overlooks the bank of the River Derwent, and is smack bang in the middle of the pretty town of Cockermouth, most famous for the famous floods of 2009.
We started day one as we meant to go on by sampling the full English at our hotel (excellent local black pudding!) and silently stalking chef Paul Rankin, who was staying there too.
We had just enough time to check out the farmer’s market on Main Street and buy some deliciously moist and chewy salted caramel brownies, before hotfooting it over to the beer festival to try some of the many ales and ciders on offer at Jennings Brewery.
Staffed by friendly Cumbrian CAMRA volunteers who enthusiastically explained the history behind each drink producer, we were encouraged to sample as many types of beer or cider as we wanted before settling on a half pint (or three!) in our special souvenir glasses.
Needless to say by the time we walked back to the local church to watch Paul Rankin’s masterclass that afternoon, we were feeling relaxed and ready to be entertained.
And Paul – the first chef in Northern Ireland to gain a Michelin star – didn’t disappoint.
The cheeky chef, who is also well known for his stint on TV cooking show Ready, Steady, Cook, was full of funny anecdotes as he confidently whizzed through an impressive but easy-to-follow menu of fillet steak and roasted vegetables, a mouthwatering salsa verde, pear tarte tatin, homemade custard and a chef-y looking brill dish.
But the best part of the masterclass was the stories Paul told with reckless abandon about his career as a chef, especially his time working for legendary chef Albert Roux at La Gavroche.
Paul joked that his former boss and mentor only hired him because he fancied his now ex wife Jeanne, who also worked at the London restaurant as a waitress.
It was well worth the long journey to enjoy the fabulous food on offer at this fast developing festival > >
With food on the brain we headed back to the beer festival where we sampled a barbecued pulled pork bun with homemade stuffing and cranberry sauce (deliciously sweet and rich) before following suit with the rest of the town by taking a time-out to lie on the grass by the river to enjoy the rare sunshine.
Later, we danced off some of the calories we’d packed on earlier in the day at the soul night at the Trout Marquee, conveniently just a stone’s throw from our hotel room, before calling it a night.
A whistle-stop tour it may have been, but it was well worth the long journey to enjoy the fabulous food on offer at this fast developing festival.
For tickets to next year’s Taste Cumbria, visit www.tastecumbria.com. With thanks to the Trout Hotel www.trouthotel.co.uk and www.western-lakedistrict.co.uk.