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What Food Books have Really Changed the World?

Name: What Food Books have Really Changed the World?
Start: 2026-10-24T15:00:00+01:00
End: 2026-10-24T15:50:00+01:00
Location: Food Matters Tent, Royal Avenue Gardens

Sat 24 Oct 2026 · 3:00 pm – 3:50 pm · Food Matters Tent, Royal Avenue Gardens

Food Matters

Craig Davidson chats with authors Ian Wellens, Kathy Slack & Fiona Beckett.

Please note: Well-behaved dogs and children welcome.

FreeNo ticket needed

Date

Saturday 24 October 2026

Time

3:00 pm – 3:50 pm

Venue

Food Matters Tent, Royal Avenue Gardens Dartmouth, United Kingdom

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Meet the presenters

Craig Davidson

Food Matters Co-ordinator

Always fond of good food and wine, and an enthusiastic domestic cook, Craig has since retiring to Dartmouth become a lobster fisherman, sourdough bread maker and dedicated seasonal eater. He has also become interested in how food is produced and became aware of the ecologically poor record of modern farming and the food industry

Kathy Slack

Chef

Kathy Slack is an award-winning food writer, cook and veg grower. She’s a rat race escape who began her life in food at Daylesford Organic Farm before becoming a full-time writer and presenter sharing recipes and stories inspired by her back garden veg patch.

Her latest book, Rough Patch: How a year in the garden brought me back to life, a memoir with recipes, explores how growing food helped her recover from depression, leave her highflying career and build a new life inspired by the land. Her debut cookbook, From the Veg Patch, was shortlisted for The Guild of Food Writers Award for Best Cookbook.

She has written regular features for Delicious magazine, Simple Things magazine, OcadoLife, Borough Market’s Market Life, is a regular contributor to the BBC Gardeners World website, and writes the bestselling Substack newsletter, Tales From the Veg Patch.

Kathy gives talks and demonstrations about seasonal food, both in her role as Fortnum & Mason’s vegetable expert and around the country at various festivals, radio shows and podcasts, all with a focus on growing and cooking your own food.

Book: Rough Patch: how a year in the garden brought me back to life

Fiona Beckett

Drinks Expert & Food Writer

Fiona Beckett is a contributing editor to the wine magazine Decanter and former wine columnist for The Guardian.

She is an award-winning food and wine writer and one of the UK’s leading experts on food and drink pairing. She has her own website Matching Food & Wine and Substack newsletter Eat This, Drink That

Ian Wellens

Cheese Retailer

Ian Wellens is a Director and co-founder of The Cheese Shed in Bovey Tracey, which has now been selling Westcountry cheese for twenty years. It started as an online-only venture before adding a ‘bricks and mortar’ shop and – most recently, – a cafe in its courtyard offering exceptional cheese toasties with an optional glass of something.

Its range of around 130 regional cheese is unrivalled, while the displays and floor-to-ceiling shelves of whole cheeses in its chilled shop offer customers a cheese experience hard to find outside cities like London and Edinburgh.

Previously Ian was a cabinetmaker, which was followed by work in music and in education – before the cheese called in 2006. His second book “A History Of Palestine In Five Fruits” was published this year.

Book: A History Of Palestine In Five Fruits

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