Thursday 25 October 2012

{REVIEW} BBC Good Food Show





You may remember recently that the good people at Plenty gave me some tickets for the BBC Good Food Show being held in the SECC in Glasgow, over the weekend of 19-21 October. As luck would have it, Disneyboi and I were visiting Glasgow that weekend anyway to see the Scissor Sisters (what a great concert!), so I arranged to go down earlier than planned, to visit the show. Sadly, my pal Linley had to call off, but I travelled down on my own for a nosy.



I entered the hall at the SECC to be greeted by amazing sights and smells, a free Good Food show guide
  – and LOTS of people. The area was set up with little stalls for each company, promoting their wares. One side was set up for Scottish exhibitors – billed as Scotland, Land of Food and Drink Regional Village. The other side was touted as the Producers Village (I couldn't really tell the difference!). Plus there was a Farmer’s Market, a Seasonal Tasting theatre, Nick Nairn demonstrating recipes for his Cook School and the Supertheatre. I wandered around the stalls, trying samples of the delicious food and drink on offer. There was vodka, wine, cider – all very early in the day, but I managed. Also lots of varieties of cheese, bespoke vinegars, spicy curries and of course Arbroath Smokies (from my home town!). I also had Hog Roast Roll for my lunch which was delicious, packed with lots of stuffing and onions.

But being Cakeyboi, the biggest draw for me was the array of sweet goods of display, oh yes, and the small matter of Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry from The Great British Bake Off being there. I had booked a visit to the ‘Supertheatre’ at one end of the hall, for a GBBO Masterclass with Paul and Mary. Now it only cost £3, but I was a bit disappointed that they were on stage for probably a little less than half-an-hour. Olly Smith from Saturday Kitchen introduced them; they then in turn made a couple of bakes from the series (iced finger buns and fraisier cake). And to top it off, at the end they brought out James Morton, one of the runner’s up from the show (and who I wanted to win!). All in all, despite it feeling a bit rushed it was enjoyable.



I ventured back into the main area, to sample sweet treats – lots of fudge, shortbread, tablet, brownies, cookies and Tunnocks teacakes at the Tunnocks stall. I bought a Salted Caramel brownie from The Brownie Bar, which was delicious – there were a lot of flavours to choose from, it was a hard choice! I also bought a couple of rolls of chocolate chip cookie dough from Mo’s Cookie Dough – but more on this in another post! And I spied some MAHOOSIVE meringues from the Whole Food exhibit, one of which I bought for Disneyboi. It was swirled with raspberry and looked like an all-in-one Eton Mess to me. He hasn't tried it yet…



I later watched Mary Berry again, at the ‘Love Food, Hate Waste’ theatre, where she ran through a couple of recipes, giving tips on how to use all of your food, without chucking anything away. Now this was a free theatre, and lasted longer than the paid Supertheatre event, so I did feel that the main show was a bit of a swizz. Oh, another bugbear was the amount of people who just stood aimlessly, blocking paths, or folk rushing about jabbing you with their elbow – consideration for others please!!!



Paul and Mary were signing books at the WH Smith stand, although I didn't wait in line, lots of gadgets being demonstrated a-la-shopping channel-mode (I bought a 'whizzy whisk' – don’t ask!) and some supermarkets promoting their lines.

I stayed a few hours, before realising I couldn't sample another thing! I did enjoy myself and will visit next year, if I get the chance. My photographs may be a bit poor, but I was trying to balance my camera and goodie bag, full of my buys and samples, so apologies.

But thanks again to Plenty for the tickets. I hope my ticket winners had as good a time as I did. 

4 comments:

  1. Looks like you had fun. Sorry I wasn't able to go, maybe next year!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I wanted to go but left it too late as I wanted to go on the Friday to see Paul and Mary, might give it a go next year x

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm sorry, were you saying something? I've become lost in the raspberry meringue piles...Being over in Canada, we don't get Eton Messes very often (I love them but have only ever had them once in my life!)...DROOL!!! Sounds (and looks) like it was a great event!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for leaving your comments. I love your feedback and really do appreciate it.

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.