Bees are buzzing and the Summer is upon us, it must be time for the ‘BBC Good Food Show’ destination Birmingham. On entering the arena I felt like I was being goaded from one delicious stand to the other, my eyes were mesmerised with all that I could see and smell before me. I found myself eating and drinking my way around this years cracking BBC Good Food Show as I always do. In all honesty a day was just not enough. The show was incredibly well organised and offered a huge variety of producers that seemed to be cherry picked to a very high standard.

Affordable products and a few of my favourite producers were offering:  EVOO – Extra Virgin Olive Oil and pastes from  Soralina who take their inspiration from the Abruzzo region of Italy,  to a textured amaretto and almond preserve from The Preservation Society , Cornish Charcuterie indulged me with their fennel salami and seaweed salami, delicate pungent herbs from Urban Herbs are now planted up in my herb garden, spices and balsamic’s from the lovely Mark at Gourmet Spice , roasted pepper and chilli ketchup from Sinclair Condiments and so much more.

The Good Food Show is accessible to all and gives you (the food fan) a chance to try before you buy, maybe even try something a little different that you necessarily wouldn’t . Clear gin from Warner Edwards and some ruby British cassis were to name a few alcoholic drinks I had a chance to try………oh, I mustn’t forget the hazelnut vodka, toffee vodka and banana vodka. All simply to easy on the palate.

Truffles from Italy

I had the opportunity as a Midland Food Blogger to meet the very charming Paul Hollywood and warming Mary Berry. As many, I am a huge fan of the Great British Bake Off and both Paul and Mary were very kind and generous when it came to answering a few questions.

I did ponder over what I could ask Paul, to be honest there was lots I wanted to ask but couldn’t, so keeping with the realms of an appropriate question I asked Paul………. ‘What are your favourite biscuits and do you like to dunk’? Random I know,  but he loves a biccie, so I was curious. His answer was ‘I love a chocolate digestive and ginger-nut, yes I love to dunk, sometimes two at once’!! Lucky biscuit.

Paul Hollywood