ANDY Link, award-winning chef/patron at The Riverside Inn, Aymestrey, and Slow Food Marches chef, will be celebrating forgotten foods at this year’s Ludlow Food Festival.

Using delicious and unusual ingredients, Mr Link will be cooking up a feast of small plates to delight his guests at the festival’s Beacon Rooms in the Castle Gardens.

The Slow Food movement’s Ark of Taste/Forgotten Foods seeks to bring long-since overlooked ingredients back into the mainstream by reminding people of how fabulous such foods taste.

“Over the years taste has often been sacrificed for productivity,” he said. “For example, many apples are grown for their unfirmity and their ability to crop heavily. But as we well know in Herefordshire, with our myriad types of apple, big croppers are not the big hitters when it comes to flavour. The same is true with many other foods.”

As the Slow Food Movement comments:

‘Fast life, industrial production methods and excessive legislation are among the reasons that we are losing so many of our traditional foods and drinks. With their demise we also lose centuries of expert knowledge and cultural traditions. We lose choice, flavour and the varied landscapes and wildlife associated with traditional farming. In short, we lose biodiversity, putting our future food security at risk.’

As well as conjuring up a feast, the chef will be talking to his guests about food sustainability, reducing waste and creating a community of food and farming members, to help keep the spirit of individuality alive.

His feast will run from 6.30pm-9.30pm, Saturday, September 10, and costs £32 per person.

He can also be seen on Sunday, September 11, at 1pm on the Wardington’s Original Stage, Outer Bailey talking about the Riverside Inn’s sustainability work, and the environmental projects they are supporting, including helping to support the long-haired fallow deer in the Mortimer Forest, a species not found anywhere else in the world.

Other highlights of this year’s festival include Lucy Hutchings, former celebrity jewellery designer, and doyenne of She Grows Veg, champion of heritage and heirloom varieties and Cyrus Todiwala OBE, TV chef and founder of the renowned Café Spice.