Dales Chefs Showcase Local Produce at Kilnsey Show

This year’s cookery theatre at Kilnsey show featured some of the Dale’s best chefs using local produce to create some fantastic dishes.

The Cookery Theatre was organised by the Yorkshire Dales Food Network as part of the REAL Food and Farming Village at the show and proved to be a very popular attraction with upwards of 200 people attending some of the demonstrations. The entertainment in the theatre was intended to highlight the very real talent that exists locally and to demonstrate that wonderfully creative dishes can be produced using the finest ingredients available on our doorstep, here in North Yorkshire.

Kicking off proceedings was young chef, Chris Oakden from The Coniston Hotel, who used game and fish from the Coniston Estate to great effect. His dishes included Pan Fried Pheasant Breast, a Pheasant Burger and Trout from the Coniston Lake. These dishes and ingredients are part of the popular “Estate on a Plate” philosophy used by the hotel and restaurant, where the food is sourced directly from the Coniston Estate…. it’s hard to imagine fewer food miles than that!

Chris’ Pheasant Burger was created out of a need to use up the surplus birds from the Estate’s shooting parties and provides a very accessible way to eat game and introduce customers to something which is often an aquired taste. We’re told that the burgers are available on the Coniston’s wedding menu already and will be introduced to the main menu at some point.

Chris Wildman of Paganum Produce gave us a great demonstration of the many uses of his now famous Yorkshire Chorizo, an ingredient that is now being widely used by some of the regions best chefs. Chris, who farms near Malham and is from a long line of butchers, loves to cook at home and brought some of his passion for local food to the cookery theatre audience.

On the menu for Chris was Chorizo infused Yorkshire Rapeseed Oil, a tomato and Yorkshire Chorizo salad and a risotto of Yorkshire Chorizo. Both the chorizo and rapeseed oil are both popular ingredients being used by local chefs and are both available to buy from Paganum Produce. Yorkshire Chrorizo also has it’s own store within the Yorkshire Dales Food Network.

Chris has been taking part in filming for the latest series of “The Dales” with Ade Edmundson and both presenter and crew spent the day at the show.

Kilnsey Show wouldn’t be the same without Bruce Elsworth from the Angel Inn at Hetton and true to from he entertained us in the cookery theatre and then went on to come a very respectable 14th in the Fell Race. Bruce, who’s a great champion of local food cooked up some superb dishes including Gaspacho Soup, Bolton Abbey Lamb and a very creative Strawberry Kebab.

A leg cut of the lamb was used to demonstrate that it’s possible, with good quality produce, to use some of the less expensive cuts. Not only does this produce a fine lean and tasty dish, but also helps the farmer by using more of the animal than just the most popular restaurant cuts. Bolton Abbey Foods have a shop within the Yorkshire Dales Food Network and is also available from Paganum Produce and the Dales Deli.

Next up, in a now very crowded cookery theatre was John Rudden from the Grassington House Hotel, following his very popular demonstration last year of pan fried Salmon Whitebait, John came up with a new way to serve up tapioca. Despite the reservations of much of the audience, who obviously had long lasting memories of school meals, the dish was delicious as a base to pan fried Hake fillet.

Other dishes on John’s menu included Pork Fillet from his own home reared pigs and a fantastic lamb rump. John demonstrated that Grassington House is a great place to go and eat good portions of un pretentious local food cooked with passion and care. Well worth a trip and great value for money.

Last on the menu for the day was local girl Stephanie Moon, fresh from her appearance on this year’s Great British Menu, where she charmed the judges with her innovative “Yorkshire Mess”. Stephanie is no stranger to demonstrations and a real champion of Yorkshire produce and she charmed the audience from the start.

Her dishes include her love of foraging with ingredients found in the Yorkshire Dales countryside including nettles and blackberries. She cooked for us a Forager’s Relish, Kilnsey Trout with a Yorkshire Chorizo Mousse and Eton Mess using local blackberries and Yorkshire Granola.

Stephanie has been working as a consultant to some of the regions finest kitchens and producers and has been helping fellow Yorkshire chef, Rosemary Shrager with recipe testing for her latest book. Let’s hope Steph’s back again on the Great British Menu this year.

So all in all a superb day of celebrating local food in the dramatic setting of the Kilnsey Show field under the shadow of the Crag. We’ll bring you some of the recipes from the chefs over the next few weeks and to get more news and some fantastic offers and discounts from local restaurants, hotels and shops, why not become a member of the Yorkshire Dales Food Network and support local food businesses… it’s completely FREE and you’ll get some great discount offers.

We’d like to thank all the chef’s for taking part at Kilnsey and Dales Dairies for their support along with the Wharfedale Agricultural Society and The Coniston Hotel. Also a big thanks goes out to the team at Blue Sky Events for rescuing the day and repairing an electrical fault with the kitchen… without them there would have been no cookery theatre!!