Second day of Shrewsbury Food Festival 2022 proves a treat

Chris Burt, the event’s head chef, has been at all nine events over the 10 years of the food festival’s history.

He was expecting a record amount to be raised for Shrewsbury-based charity Self Help Africa through the event.

Chris said: “There is big interest in diversity and ethnicity in food these days, with new cuisines attracting interest at different time. We always try to fully represent that.”

With the cost of living crisis at the top of everyone’s agenda there was also a focus on waste not, want not.

“We were telling people how to save on costs and to make the most of what people have in their fridges,” said Mr Burt.

That is a really important message too for Katy Anderson, co-founder of the Shrewsbury Food Hub, who were taking the opportunity to increase awareness of how they try to make sure that food does not end up being wasted.

Ms Anderson said: “We stopped 170 tonnes of food from going into the bin last year. That is the equivalent of 400,000 meals.”

Anyone can get spare food from the food hub, which was formed in 2016 and holds food pick up events during most weeks. The also link with food businesses such as supermarkets to make sure that anything which they could throw away is instead used for meals.

The food hub also donates meals to Shrewsbury Ark, the food bank and Shropshire MIND.

“We just want the food eaten,” said Ms Anderson.

One of the businesses doing a roaring trade was Press De Cuba, who make Cuban-style sandwiches called Cubanos. They sold out 270 of their products on Saturday and were expecting to sell a similar number on the final day.

Set up in Shrewsbury six years ago by Greg and Hannah Laux they went through a period during lockdown when they had to resort to cooking in their kitchen and selling through the locally based Delivery Shark app.

Shrewsbury mum Erica Barker, 24, was there with cheese loving daughter Clemmie Davies, aged four. They were also looking for a giant brownie to eat among the scores of stalls on the site.

The event brings visitors and businesses in from far and wide, including Coton Hall Dairy from Tarporley in Cheshire, six miles from Whitchurch. They had people raving about their rice puddings, creamy custard and about to be formally launched yogurts.

“We are branching into Shropshire now and are impressed with the event,” said Isi Deller, who was there with Andrew Deller. “It is nice to talk to people and let them know about us.”

They were also doing a roaring trade with Battlefield scones, which are made in Shrewsbury and were being snapped up with their own clotted cream.