This weekend the Downs is set to be busy as it hosts this year's Foodies Festival. Dubbed 'Gastro-Glasto’, the event is a one-stop shop for great food, drink and entertainment.
The weekend will see music stars such as Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Scouting For Girls, Five, Liberty X and Rozall perform as well live cooking demos and a chilli eating competition. The festival will bring some of the biggest names in the culinary scene, from MasterChef stars to expert bakers.
And, some of Bristol's best local chefs will be making an appearance. Elliot Lidstone of Box-E, Larkin Cen of Woky Ko and Mark McCabe of The Ethicurean will show off their skills.
READ MORE: Line-up announced for Bristol Foodies Festival on The Downs
We spoke with the cooks who shared what they plan to bring to the festival as well as their culinary inspirations and more. Here's everything you need to know about three of Bristol's best chefs.
Mark McGabe is head chef and co-owner of The Ethicurean Restaurant, a converted glasshouse set in a Victorian walled garden just outside Bristol. And Elliot Lidstone is the head chef of at BOX-E - a local, seasonal, sustainable restaurant in two shipping containers at Wapping Wharf on Bristol’s docks. Larkin Cen's foodie haven is also at Wapping Wharf. He is the founder of Woky Ko and recently featured on BBC’s Great British Menu.
"I used to be a lawyer but I always knew that cooking was my true passion and after I made it to the final of MasterChef, I took the leap to completely change my life and make it all about food," he told Bristol Live.
Elliot told Bristol Live: "My mother and grandmother were great cooks which was a big inspiration. Scouts was a big part of my life when I was younger and I loved cooking for others when I was away camping so I decided to go to college and train to be a chef. I was working full time in a Michelin star kitchen from the age of 18."
Mark was also inspired by his mum, who owned a restaurant before he was born. He said: "She was always cooking and foraging when I was growing up so I guess it was ingrained in me although I didn’t realise it at the time!
"After I left home and started cooking for myself I was really drawn to the early seasons of River Cottage and the connection that Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall had to the land and his surroundings. All of his food had a purpose, whether that was to show respect the produce, to give something back to the land, to bring people together or to show that humble ingredients can be delicious. There was a reason for all of it and I carry a lot of that with me today. "
And Larkin's inspirations come from a similar place. "Food and cooking has always been a massive part of my life. Growing up, my parents owned a Chinese takeaway in Cardiff and I was always helping out," he said. "Once I’d get home from school, it was straight out of the uniform and into an apron. I love it and it’s where I get most of my inspiration from."
This weekend, visitors to the festival can expect to the chefs to bring their A-game, with a range of dishes that show what they're about. "I’m going to be cooking up some of my favourite dishes including a classic egg fried rice that people know and love, as well as a fried chicken and kimchi fried rice, which is one of my go-to dishes when I’m in the mood for something a little more special" Larkin said.
"I’ll be using our homemade Woky kimchi to make this dish stand out - it’s delicious," he added.
Mark will bring some of The Ethicurean's best-loved dishes, using Arctic char, which the chef described as 'an amazing fish that’s hugely sustainable and utterly delicious'.
Visitors can expect a fantastic fish dish from Elliot, who will be serving up pan-fried sea bass, spring vegetable broth with pickled radish.
Each chef is excited for a different element of this weekend's event. "I’m hoping to get my hands on a pina colada in a pineapple!" Elliot said, before adding: "Seriously though, it’s lovely to have food lovers coming together to celebrate the local scene."
Larkin shared his excitement to be joining forces to cook alongside who he called 'some of Bristol’s best chefs' as well as saying that he wasn't sure whether to be 'excited or nervous' about the Hot Chilli Challenge.
"If you’re a foodie, it’s definitely the festival to be at as it’s got everything from cooking demos and live music to shopping villages," he said.
Mark said he was excited to be uniting with other local chefs. "Running a restaurant, particularly a rural one, can be quite all-consuming at times so I’m mainly looking forward to watching some of the other chef’s demos, seeing some old friends and hopefully making some new ones," he said.
And despite being experts in their field, even these three are a little nervous for the festivities. "Working in the restaurants, you don’t often have an audience watching your every move, so live cooking definitely keeps me on my toes," Larkin said.
Mark echoed a similar sentiment, saying: "There are definite similarities to cooking in a restaurant in terms of needing to be super organised for both but generally in the restaurant we would try and have each element as ready as possible before service to allow us to cook for as many people as we need, as opposed to cooking it all from scratch for a demo.
"There’s no place to hide or redo things when cooking at an event so there is definitely a slightly higher level of jeopardy involved, which of course adds to the fun!"
Elliot said cooking at event is more 'pressurised' than a restaurant adding: "The kitchen at the demo studio will probably be bigger than ours at BOX-E."
The festival takes place from May 20-22 on the Downs. More information can be found here.
