Running from 22nd September to 7th October and now in its sixth year, British Food Fortnight is the biggest national celebration of the diverse and delicious range of food that Britain produces.
The event’s initiative inviting cooks and chefs to work with schools to teach children how to cook is being expanded three-fold. This year, organisations representing over 9,000 chefs have volunteered to take part signifying the stirrings of a major mass movement. This means that British Food Fortnight has already over-taken France’s long-running Semaine du Gout which sends chefs into French schools every October to teach children about the delights of their national cuisine. Retailers, farmers and producers are also signing up to participate.
To complement the initiative, all schools are being invited to bring chefs into the classroom to teach children how to prepare simple meals using the best of Britain’s in-season produce and to enter the British Food Fortnight ‘Cook for Life’ Challenge, sponsored by Kenwood, to find the school that incorporates cookery in the national curriculum in the most imaginative and innovative way.
For the first time, all the major supermarkets and all medium-sized retailers are being invited to run British food promotions during the event. The gauntlet is again being laid down by Budgens and the independent sector with a mass of in-store promotions already planned. However, with three of the major supermarkets participating last year and with the attraction of 30% plus sales increases that the event generates, expect to see more shop shelves than ever bursting with British produce this autumn.
Restaurants, pubs, tourism attractions, hospitals and staff canteens will again be putting the best of British on their menus. Four major pub groups, all the chef associations and four of the largest food service groups, led by ARAMARK, are all taking part so there will be an abundance of British food on menus.
