All the world’s a stage
Well, April was certainly full on. I like being busy, really I do, but there are limits! What with the day jobs, the Brighton and Hove Food & Drink Festival and those other little things that over the years I have embraced, I’m fair jiggered.
Not that I would have it any other way. I’d rather be busy, it’s the best way of knowing that you’re not dead, although at moments over Easter I did feel like I was dying from the feet up.
My love of food has developed into a massive commitment to the food festival. It fills so much of my free time throughout the year and when festival time hits it takes up almost every available waking moment – and I love it!
This year had some real highlights. What a treat it was to ride on the back of the Harvey’s dray with the Mayor of Brighton, my lovely friend Denise Cobb. Throughout her mayoral term she has become a serious supporter of what we do and a valuable ally. She also has a wicked sense of humour and is the very best of table companions.
“Then it will be bed baths and soft food and kindly souls saying “He’s 89 you know” – until then I’m giving it my all!”
My biggest job of course is hosting the Live Food Stage on Hove Lawns. It sees me up there with the very best chefs from miles around and they cook up a storm. It also sees me greeting a random host of local celebrities. This year I cooked for Chris Ellison and Dolly Rocket who loved my nuns on velocipedes (that’s oysters wrapped in parma ham and fried in olive oil for seconds). Wine expert Ollie Smith was equally enamoured with my aphrodisiac nibbles and ate two.
Earlier in the weekend I was joined on stage by Nathan Au and Jenny Rowlands, CEO of Lewes Council. With ‘that chef’ Ed, from The Brunswick, we had to conjure up dishes from leftovers as part of a campaign to reduce food waste called Zero Heroes and to highlight the wonderful work that Nathan and his cohorts at FareShare do in redistributing food that would otherwise be sent to landfill.
I made salad soup and leftover ham and cheese sandwich bread and butter pudding (believe me it works) and using scrapings from Jenny’s fridge to make a prawn stirfry. I’d love to tell you what Ed made but I was far too intent on not burning my savoury pud. Anyway it all went down well and we had a great laugh.
When you add to this a list of events which include hosting dinners for Discover The Origin, interviewing Taste Masters for Western Australia and Travelbag, writing and presenting a full on foodie pub quiz, putting three chefs through their paces at an extraordinarily good dinner and finally ending up at The Ginger Pig for a special dinner entitled Ginger Beer – it’s a no wonder my feet ached.
Much s I love the work I do think that there is a downside to this not-showing-your-age malarkey. It’s my own fault. My work colleagues joked that my new shoes were me trying to be ‘down with the kids’ I didn’t explain that I chose them because they offered good ankle support.
Quite honestly I suspect that much of this is of my own making. But will there be a breaking point? Will I wake up one morning to find that my legs no longer work? Then it will be bed baths and soft food and kindly souls saying “He’s 89 you know” – until then I’m giving it my all!
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