Foodies gear up for the best of British

The year’s British Food Fortnight will see a celebration of all thing edible and drinkable hailing from the British Isles.

During the two-week festival, which runs from 18 September to 3 October, pubs across the country will be offering selection of seasonal menus featuring British sourced foods such as London bangers with English mustard and Savoy cabbage, white crab, lemon hollandaise and North Sea brown shrimp fritter, and Highland venison with beetroot, horseradish and parsnip.

In addition, a series of cask beer festivals will take place in selected Young’s pubs. Speciality beers will include the Twickenham Naked Ladies, a beer inspired by the statues of water nymphs in York House gardens, Hogsback Tea from Surrey, and Bath Ales Gem. Taster paddles with three beers are available at £3.

Other highlights include free specialist meat, cheese and game master classes in selected Young’s pubs, and a “Harvest Swap Shop” at St Paul’s Cathedral on the 26 September.

The swap shop will offer a free Sunday roast at The Restaurant at St Paul’s in exchange for a shoe box full of home grown fruit and veg, which will be transformed into “almost forgotten food with an up-to-date twist” by the restaurant’s head chef Candice Webber the following week, featuring a special thanks to the grower on the menu.

The Windmill pub in Mayfair will also be partaking in the fortnight with its Pie & Pint festival, offering 10 of its best-selling pies from over the past 15 years with a free third of a pint of real ale or cider.

The BFF is now in its ninth year and, as the event will overlap with UK universities’ fresher’s week, will for the first time take its activities to universities where students will be given tips on how to make wholesome – and low-budget – food from good English stock.

The freshers most likely will need little encouragement to try a wide selection of the British beers that will be available during the fortnight.

Marinel FitzSimons, 31.08.2010