DARTMOUTH FOOD FESTIVAL 2023 … AND BEYOND
Spanning three days in October, Dartmouth Food Festival has all the ingredients for a perfect foodie experience in this beautiful coastal town. Celebrating the best food, drink and cookery skills from the South West, the event has something for everyone – an exciting mix of delicious regional produce, chef demonstrations, workshops, lively food debates, tastings and book talks. And best of all, most of it is free.
The event runs from Friday October 20th – Sunday 22nd, but prior to that on Thursday 19th a dedicated Children’s Day takes place, which sees local primary school children learning about food and the environment in a series of fun and hands-on workshops.
The beautiful Royal Avenue Gardens are the beating heart of the Festival, and home to a number of street food vendors offering everything from dim sum and bao buns through to vegan mac’n’cheese and gut healthy bowl food. Over 80 additional stalls then spill out down the picturesque Embankment and up into the Old Market Square. Here you’ll find an abundance of locally-produced, high quality ingredients including award winning cheeses, hand-made preserves, delicious artisan doughnuts, locally made chocolate and artisan coffee. And, as ever, there is no charge for entry to the exhibitor areas.
The Festival welcomes many special guests, from internationally renowned chefs to celebrated writers and critics. This year, an exciting list of household names, led by our Festival advocate, award-winning chef and restaurateur Mitch Tonks, includes Matt Tebbutt, Mark Hix, Richard Bertinet, Jane Baxter and Orlando Murrin. Local heroes such as Elly Wentworth from The Angel, James Goulding from The Pig and Nick Evans from Rick Stein’s Cookery School are also championed in the buzzing Chefs’ Demo Tent.
Alongside these chefs, wine experts such as Susy Atkins (Sunday Telegraph), Will Lyons (The Times) and Fiona Beckett (The Guardian) will be tickling your palate with their tutored wine tastings. And if wine isn’t your thing then don’t worry, as local spirits such as Salcombe Gin and Hattier’s Rum will be running masterclasses in the Royal Castle Hotel.
An area which has gone from strength to strength over the past few years is the Food Matters programme – a series of lively discussions and debates which this year covers topics such as regenerative farming, eating for the planet and how aquaculture may help solve our food supply issues. Speakers include Professor Tim Spector, Guy & Geetie Singh Watson and Henry Dimbleby.
Browns Hotel will once again host a number of Tasting Sessions which give you the chance to learn (and taste) a bit more about a particular food – topics this year include charcuterie, chocolate, Sharpham cheese and fermented foods. Kathy Slack will also be talking about her book Tales from the Veg Patch with local Cooking School owner, David Jones. And if you want to get a little more hands-on, then book onto one of our Pasta Making or Sushi Making workshops run by Coastal Cookery.
As many of our events are free, the generosity of Sponsors, Friends and visitors is vital to enable us to keep it this way. For this reason we do ask for a small donation for our official programme and you will also find donation points at certain events.
Nest year (2024) will be our 20th anniversary and to celebrate this we are creating a very special celebratory book which will pull together recipes, images and stories that we have gathered over the last 20 years. The book will be dedicated to our founding Patron Joyce Molyneux, who sadly passed away last year.
If you would like to donate to this very special project then please go to :
