Harrogate food and drink festival Archives

Harrogate Food and Drink Festival announces ‘fresh look’ for 2026Harrogate Food and Drink Festival returns to Ripley CastleRobbie Williams and The Killers tributes among line-up for Harrogate food festival

The Harrogate Food and Drink Festival has announced the music line-up for this year’s event.

The festival, which takes place on the Stray, is set to offer a range of world foods stalls, including Japanese, Italian and British cuisine, as well as independent bars and an ale house.

But food and drink are not all people have to look forward to, as the festival has just revealed the entertainment for the weekend.

Among those set to perform are The Killaz UK, a tribute act for The Killers, saxophonist Will Forrester and Liam Gray as Robbie Williams.

The event will feature a range of musical genres, including acoustic singers, punk-rock bands and blues groups.

People can also expect live cooking demonstrations, children’s entertainment, comedians and a funfair at the festival.

The Harrogate Food and Drink Festival will take place on June 29 and 30.

Yemi’s Food Stories: My highlights of the Harrogate Food and Drink Festival

Yemi Adelekan is a food writer and blogger who was a semi-finalist in last year’s BBC TV’s Masterchef competition. Every Saturday Yemi will be writing on the Stray Ferret about her love of the district’s food and sharing cooking tips– please get in touch with her if you want her to review a restaurant, visit your farm, taste the produce you sell or even share a recipe.

Summer is always agog with loads of food festivals and I was looking forward to the Harrogate Food and Drink Festival this year. It’s always exciting to see the range of local artisan products from charcuteries, honeys, chilli jams, chutneys, balsamic vinegars to different bakes and cakes.

I got to sample salt from Yorkshire Sea Salt company and was privileged to get my hands on one of their upcoming products. The salt was quite intense in flavour and a little goes a long way; the texture is perfect for crumbling between fingers, adding to salt grinders or used as a finishing salt. Richard explained their process and how it differs from other companies’ processes. I found someone who was as passionate about salt as I am.

I tasted some incredible balsamic vinegars – original flavour, white balsamic, pomegranate balsamic and apple balsamic – and I could immediately see how they could elevate marinades, salad dressings or be used to finish roasted vegetables.

Highlights from the two day event included the food demonstrations by various chefs including Scott Masey from Leeds Cookery School, Stephanie Moon from All Things Food, Owen Diaram from MasterChef UK 2023, Whaheed Rojan from Round Table Dining, Babna from Babna’s Patisserie, Norman Musa who is a chef, author and TV host, award winning Bobby Geetha from Fleur in Leeds and I get to throw myself into that mix as I did a demo on the Saturday.

What I love most about the demonstrations is the diverse and eclectic range of dishes from summer spring rolls celebrating the produces from Rudding Park Hotel Gardens by Stephanie, surprising Asian prawn noodle dish from Bobby, spicy Malaysian curry from Norman, cooking with whole chicken and chicken curry from Scott, Turmeric rice, Massaman Curry and Salmon rolled in seaweed dish from Whaheed, Mongolian sweet chilli chicken with sticky Jasmine rice from Owen and my Nigerian Jollof rice, fried plantain and Salmon with a red sauce.

The dishes were a celebration of flavours and cultures with surprising twists.

Desserts included Brioche soaked in berries from Steph and show stopping Paris-Brest, a French dessert made from choux pastry and praline flavoured cream from Babna. She created two flavours including the traditional hazel nut and almond version and a more modern one with pistachios and rose petals.

Taking part in the demo gave me an opportunity to talk about some incredible spices that aren’t commonly used such as Grains of Selim and Grains of Paradise.

Grains of Selim known by many names including African pepper, Negro pepper, Guinea pepper is from the seeds of the shrub Xylopia aethiopica and it has a musky flavour. This is toasted to release the aromas and features in Nigerian Jollof rice, pepper soup and other stews.

Yemi’s demo dish – Jollof rice, fried plantain and pepper sauce

Grains of paradise is an aromatic spice originating from West Africa with notes of cardamom, coriander, citrus, ginger, nutmeg and juniper rolled into one. It looks like black peppercorns but the more complex flavour means it is versatile for both sweet and savoury dishes.

My other highlight was connecting with fellow chefs and foodies whose passions for their crafts have resulted in change of careers, training and competing at the highest levels whilst still being really grounded.

I made some new friends and I can’t wait for next year’s event.

In the meantime, I look forward to sharing some of the recipes, new food ideas and my Jollof rice recipe with you in the coming months.

From left – chef Norman Musa, Babna from Babna’s patisserie, Yemi, and Scot Massey from Leeds School of Cookery at the back.

Yemi’s Food Stories: Making the most of honey

The past couple of weekends have been full of food adventures involving honey which is always a staple in my kitchen, given its many health benefits.

From having lemon-ginger-honey drink to stave off a chest infection, drinking honey and balsamic vinegar water before bed, to replacing sugar in many savoury and sweet dishes.

Louisa’s honey has been a feature in my past two weekends as I got to work with other chefs to create dishes using their many varieties of honey including the Acacia Ginger, Coriander, Lime, Citrus, the award winning Bosco, Acacia and Chestnut honey.

Food allows one to be creative and there’s nothing better than creating on the fly without recipes. The first event required the chefs including Gennaro Contaldo, of ‘Two Hungry Italians’, to create dishes from a range of different vegetables and meat with access to wood fired pizza oven, multiple wood fired grills and stoves.

The beetroot immediately caught my eye. I put some beetroots on the open fire and while they were roasting, I finely sliced some red onions and cooked them in olive oil with grated ginger and some pink Himalayan salt. Once the onions were deeply caramelised, I grated and added the roasted beetroots and finished this with black pepper, whiskey balsamic vinegar and ginger honey.

This is a simple and quick relish to make and goes really well with grilled meat, burgers, hummus and flat bread.

I then cooked a spatchcock quail dish using a simple marinade of Bosco honey which has a woody and intense flavour mixed with fresh oregano and thyme, lemon juice, grated habanero chilli, salt and olive oil. This was a real crowd pleasing dish ( see image below) and all it took on a really hot grill was about 9 minutes depending on the size of the quail.

My final savoury dish was squid cooked with some shallots, roasted peppers, Louisa’s lime honey, chilli, lime juice and fresh herbs. This was a really quick dish and one that I would recommend for a mid week dinner. Squid is a protein that needs to either be flash cooked in 2 – 3 minutes or slow cooked for hours.

This would be perfect as a side dish, topping for salad, couscous, rice, or an appetiser whilst waiting for the main meal. It’s a healthier alternative to battered squid rings.

The following weekend found me and a few other chefs at the BBC Good Food show in Birmingham, where I created a couple of honey inspired savoury canapes – toasted sourdough topped with prosciutto, drizzle of acacia honey, fresh thyme and micro herbs. The second one was toasted sourdough topped with labneh which is a strained cheese, sundried tomatoes, a drizzle of acacia honey and micro basil. I find the saltiness of the tomatoes and the sweetness of the honey make for one of those marriages made in heaven.

My dessert creations included carrot, ginger and coconut cake using Bosco and Ginger honey, strawberries and cream canape with ginger honey and chestnut honey crumb, whiskey balsamic and citrus honey macerated strawberries served with mascarpone on sourdough cracker.

My final creation inspired by middle eastern flavours was sourdough cracker topped with mascarpone, roasted pistachios, citrus honey and rose petals and this was tasted and complimented by Katy Truss from Fabulous Food Finds.

I hope you do more with the honey in your cupboard and you don’t just relegate it to being a drinks sweetener or toast topping. Try some of the amazing honey products that our local shops have to offer and have a go at making marinades, cocktails, sauces and bakes.

If you want to catch Yemi in action she will be giving a demonstration at The Harrogate Food Festival today at 4pm.

Gallery: sun shines on Harrogate food and drink festival

Harrogate’s food and drink festival returned to the Stray today to become the town’s first major event since the coronavirus pandemic.

The event dodged the bad weather of the last week, as the sun shone on the Oatlands Drive part of the Stray that hosted the event.

The festival will be open again tomorrow to offer people the chance to enjoy international cuisine, independent bars, artisan stalls, live music and a fun fair.

The organisers have once again partnered with the mental health charity Mind, with the Harrogate district team stationed on the exit.

Mike Gibbs, chair of Harrogate district Mind, told the Stray Ferret:

“It’s fantastic. We are so grateful to the event organisers who have helped over the years to raise money for Mind.

“Like other charities we are having a tough time with coronavirus. Events like this are going to help save lives.”

Amy Griffin, who is working on the Doe Harrogate stall, told the Stray Ferret:

“It feels amazing, Harrogate is such a great place to be. It feels a bit more normal doesn’t it? Everyone is here.

“We’ve got party rings, rainbows, Victoria sponge cake, the crowd favourite Biscoff and plenty more.”

Adele Wrightson, on the Fire and Dough stall, told the Stray Ferret:

“This is the first time we have been down here, we are from Northumberland. It’s great weather so lovely to have it outdoors.

“It’s odd to have so many people in one place. This is the biggest event we have done in recent times, they have gradually been getting more busy over the summer.”

If you miss the Stray event, it will be back at Ripley Castle on August 28 to 30.

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Harrogate Food Festival coming to the Stray this weekend

Harrogate Food and Drink Festival is set to arrive on the Stray this weekend for two days of food, drink, live music and cooking shows.

The outdoor event will be held on the Oatlands Drive area from 10am on Saturday June 26 to 7pm on Sunday June 27.

Visitors can expect about 100 stalls selling all types of produce, from jams and cheeses to Lebanese food, as well as artisan crafts.

Despite a four-week delay to the end of restrictions the event can still go ahead with its current measures. It will be encouraging social distancing, have hand sanitising stations around the site and provide extra toilets, tables and chairs.

Social distancing means the event does have a limited capacity, but organisers said tickets were still available. Each ticket is given an entry time to stagger arrivals through the day.

A festival spokesperson said:

“We are lucky to be a naturally socially distanced event with limited indoor areas. However, this year we have brought the entire festival outdoors, apart from the cookery theatre, which is in a marquee with the walls removed.”

It will be in the same area in which the town’s bonfire and fun fair is usually set up.

In 2019, the event was based in Ripley Castle for three days. It will return there for a second event on this year’s August bank holiday weekend.

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