A few months ago I decided to take a trip to Leamington with my step mum and sister to check out the Food & Drink festival, so what better way to begin my blog. For a free festival I have to say I was impressed! The turn out was excellent and there were so many exhibitors making sure you didn’t go hungry…the food was not going to be wasted you could say.

Choc “N” Roll’s hand made chocolates (and macarons) had an amazing shine finish to them with beautiful deco, perfect for any occasion.

We bagged three lovely different flavoured salami’s from French Favour – Fig, Olive and Sundried tomato. Try the Sundried tomato for an unusual but tasty treat!

If you have a love for South African delicacies, such as Biltong, then you’d have been in your element! My boyfriend being SA means that I have had the unwanted privilege of smelling and tasting the stuff… to be honest it’s not for me but I know there are some lovers out there who would’ve been thrilled with this outlet.

But the winner of the day had to be the 10 hour slow roasted lamb and beef baps from @rossandrossfood, they were gorgeous! Succulent, flavoursome and of course a little bit messy! The lamb bap was accompanied by a salsa verde and the beef with bacon and romesco. A little disappointed that they had run out of bacon but that’s only a good sign that it was surely a popular choice.

And of course you can’t go to a food festival without getting involved. We were sat watching the Head Chef from Whittles, Luciano Catalinotto, give a demonstration of an absolutely gorgeous seafood dish. Personally I have only recently warmed to eating fish and seafood so am always intrigued to try new dishes to expand my palette, and this one is definitely up there. The basis was a muscle and clam concoction in a creamy herb sauce with fennel, Whiting on top and garnished with carrots cooked in orange juice and a handful of cress. I was ushered to the front to help plate up the dish which was great fun as I was competing against another lady – the standard of my plate was not going to slip!

Luciano went on to talk about the use of sustainable ingredients in cooking which is definitely something that is worth paying attention to. With all ingredients sourced sustainably at Whittles you are guaranteed a lovely fresh meal. I will be looking forward to visiting the restaurant in Warwick soon but in the meantime if anybody has… please let me know what you thought!