Bristol Food Connections is about bringing good food to everyone, so we’ve made sure there are plenty of free, as well as ticketed, events. All celebrity chef cooking demos are free, which means that learning to cook good food from the experts won’t cost you a thing. And over the bank holiday weekend, all children’s activities and daytime events in the Travelling Barn are free. We also have a number of free community and fringe events designed to connect communities with their food and where it comes from.
Free events during the city-centre takeover (April 29th-May 2nd)
BBC Radio 4 Food Programme: A Life in Food with Diana Henry. Multi award winning and best selling food writer Diana Henry, joins Radio 4’s Sheila Dillon to reveal the food writers, cookbooks and journalism that have influenced her career. We will hear from some of her food heroes and extracts from the books that inspired her to write.
At Coming for Dinner?, Elly Curshen of Bristol’s The Pear Café, and Rosie Birkett of food blog ‘A lot on her plate’ will show you how collaborative cooking for a potluck dinner party can take the stress out of cooking and make for a more enjoyable experience with friends.
Financial Times food writer and author Tim Hayward comes to Bristol Food Connections with this unique cooking demonstration: Knife. Based on his new book of the same name, Tim will be exploring their history and culture, the spirit of knives, our fascination with them, and how best to put them to use in the kitchen.
Olia Hercules, author of the cookbook Mamushka: Recipes from Ukraine and Beyond and one of the hottest new chefs of 2015, is brings her Georgian Khinkali dumplings to Bristol Food Connections for a free cooking demonstration. She will also be talking about her time in Georgia and Azerbaijan, exploring the countries’ food cultures and beyond.
Hot on the heels of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Hugh’s War on Waste, River Cottage Canteen chefs Charlie James and Phil James will be cooking up a leftover extravaganza (and showing you how) with inspiration taken from Hugh’s Love Your Leftovers book.
Get set for The Fresh-Range School Cook-Off with children from local Bath & North East Somerset schools cooking up their own recipes within the meal budget. The Fresh-range School Cook-Off They will be helped by local chefs and school cooks Jo Ingleby and Glyn Owen. You will be asked to help taste the dishes and vote for your favourites.
Matthew Pennington of The Ethicurean and Gill Meller from River Cottage join forces to bring you the ultimate chefs demo in foraging, fermenting and cooking from the landscape around you - Gather, Ferment, Flame! From brining to dry-aging and fermenting, this demo of 6 different dishes promises to be a highlight of Food Connections 2016.
BBC Radio 4’s Costing the Earth presents four menus to save the planet. If we’re serious about dealing with climate change then we have to eat low carbon food. Four experts offer us their competing visions for a globally sustainable menu. Hosted by Tom Heap, the debate will be transmitted on Radio 4 as part of the Costing the Earth series on Tuesday 3rd of May at 3.30pm and Wednesday 4th of May at 9pm.
Community Cookery Schools in Bristol: Changing the City’s Food Habits and Health will explores how some of over 100 food education initiatives in Bristol. Following a live cookery lesson, you can look forward to a panel of cookery teachers and experts along with volunteers and students to lead a lively debate on these topical and far-reaching issues.
Free Fringe Festival Events
Food Stories is a chance to eat delicious food, enjoy a convivial atmosphere, and hear some amazing tales. Tell It Like bring you true stories told by the people whose lives have been changed by food. Expect a warm atmosphere, natural wines, beers, delicious food and life changing stories.
Who grows and produces the food you eat? The Hand That Feeds is a photography exhibition in two locations (Source Food Hall and Cafe, and Poco) that serve and sell locally sourced food. It features a series of portrait photographs of the farmers and makers who grow, raise and produce this food, to connect you with the people and stories behind the food you eat.
Feed Bristol is Avon Wildlife Trusts’ six-acre community food growing and wildlife gardening education hub in Broomhill. Their Growing with Nature day in Broomhill will celebrate how how land based growing projects can support health and wellbeing. With a range of interactive workshops to inspire you, kids activities, fresh food from the plots, cafe and live music to entertain.