Spent a fantastic Sunday at Hampton Court last weekend, where me and Lena the semi finalist of ‘The Big Allotment Challenge’ performed in the feast theatre from 11am showing how easy it is to make simple recipes from in season produce from your summer garden. I chose to make a gazpacho & Lena a delicious coleslaw.
It was another inspirational RHS show showcased at Hampton Court that is situated in Surrey on the outskirts of southwest London. RHS this year is made up of themed zones; grow (where you can buy plants & gain advice from the best stalls around and grab hands on help from RHS garden experts), feast (new for 2015, the home from everything from edible plants, grow your own, to home barbeques), & inspire (the heart of the with breathtaking gardens to explore, garden design workshops, craft etc).
The show was me and Lena’s first time performing live in a kitchen theatre so we were a bit apprehensive however we simply love growing food and experimenting with what we can do with our home grown ingredients so it was a no brainer that we just wanted to share, share, share 😀 or as Lena would say in excitement YIPPEE. Me and Lena were hosted by Joe Talbot (who you can catch on BBC local Radio on Sundays from 6am) who guided us through our 1st time experience, and what an experience do be part of a show that has over 30,000 visitors per day, during a show that was celebrating its 25th anniversary and a day working along side geniuses in food such as Greg Wallace who immediately proceeded our slot to show what a performance an experienced foodie can showcase (drawing in a HUGE crowd and captivating the whole audience with stories from master chef showing everyone how to make a proper artichoke). After questions from Joe it truly brought us back to our experience of the show not least for the fact that you really have to multitask talking and cooking at once something I am still perfecting not least for the fact that guys can’t do more than one thing at once haha.
Highlights
- Loved watching Greg Wallace’s at his feast performance, Greg is a simple food god constantly giving unheard of insider info/tips, such as how master chef is filmed. For instance how masterchef it filmed to look just a little bit more frantic than it actually is, and how they try food which is at room temperature because the cameras have to shoot the food as soon as its made before any tasting can be done, to how his previous restaurant was sold on as he opened it in Putney an area Greg now calls a dorm area.
- Mirrored corn box; got a little lost and a bit confused inside a mirrored box full of corn. I literally got so confused I looked in through a peeping hole and got transported into an American field but stepping back a second all I see is a tiny box… Truly a work of art forcing me to step away and really think….
- RHS Community Street an initiative that shows how green fingers can holistically improves communities and make a real difference in an urban setting using a real street in Bristol as the backdrop.
- Scarecrow competition; where school kids are being inspired into growing their own through making their own unique scarecrows to save their veggies from those pesky birds, saw some great ideas!
Cool fact:
- I learnt speaking to some experts that in the southern Mediterranean our summer is very much their gardening winter; let me explain. If you think about it our winter is our weather extreme when the temperature is very cold, ground is near enough frozen, water logged an extreme where roots cannot absorb nutrients or sufficiently photosynthesis, aka grow. In comparison to southern Europe where it can be 40 degrees plus in the summer, where there is little rain; this results in the opposite extreme but an extreme to note as well. So it explains why in part for instance you get oranges blossoming in Italy in our winter, weird I know but it’s all about extremes…
citygardn 