BBC Good Food Show Winter 2015

Last Sunday Mother and I made our way to the BBC Good Food Show Winter. I’d been to many of their smaller shows (BBC Good Food Eat Well Show etc) but never one of their main shows. I was really looking forward to this one. We left bright and early, around 7:45am so we could get to the show when it opened at 9:30am. I’m glad we did as it was such a rush to get round every stall. You couldn’t do it in half a day. Once we arrived at the NEC we made our way to the press office to collect our tickets and have a cup of tea (one thing I love about having press tickets*).

After we’d had some time to relax after the journey and look through the program to plan our day we made our way to the main show. We were immediately amazed and overwhelmed by the amount of stalls there and couldn’t wait for all the samples. We started with Gin, obviously a great thing to do at 10:30am on a Sunday morning.  I’m not too keen on Gin but Masons Yorkshire Gin did a Lavender Gin which was strangely enjoyable. Then it was time for chutney, then chocolate, then cheese and then a little marzipan, we just ate anything available and definitely didn’t regret missing breakfast.

We had a cheese tour and tasting at the World Cheese Awards booked for 11.30am. I have never seen so much cheese in one place. I thought their was a lot of cheese at the British Cheese Awards at the Bath and West Show but this was something else. We joined some other cheese enthusiasts and Charlie took us all around the tables telling us a little about each section. Whilst letting us try some of the winning cheeses. Sheep’s Milk Cheese was a popular one this year which I didn’t know existed until this tour. It was interesting to learn that it would take around 90 sheep to produce the same amount of milk as 25 cows would. A lot more effort goes into making Sheep’s Milk Cheese. Causing it to be much more expensive than a ‘standard’ cheese.

After the tour Charlie asked us if we wanted to try the ‘worst’ cheese at the show and described the texture as being ‘like a pumice stone that you file your feet with’ which didn’t sound nice at all. I didn’t taste good either, it was like eating sand and didn’t had any taste to it whatsoever. Just a mouldy after-taste. Charlie explained that all the fat had been drawn out of this cheese leaving it with less than 0.5%, he told us that the fat is where all the flavour is with cheese which is why this one tasted awful. Interesting to know. Lastly we tried a chilli cheddar filled with Scottish Bonnet Chillies which was my absolute favourite. I went back for more, and more and probably more after that.

We had the rest of the day to ourselves to look around the BBC Good Food Show Winter and eat, eat, eat. We didn’t rush round the show and made time to speak to everyone about their products. I also spoke to a few brands about featuring in a Christmas Foodie Gift Guide which will be live at the beginning of December. Everyone was so lovely and so passionate about their products which was really nice to hear. There were so many small, new and independent companies at the show too. I enjoyed learning about their products and loved their enthusiastic responses to questions.

I can’t wait to try all of the goodies I picked up at the show, I may do a ‘BBC Good Food Show Winter Recent Purchases’ if I get a chance (and if I photograph everything before I eat/drink it). Thank you Barbers for the tickets (and cheese), we had a fabulous day out.

Did you go to the BBC Good Food Show Winter? What was your ‘best buy’?

Until next time,