After rainy start, Caterham Food Festival sees success

Food Festival review by George Swan

In spite of a rainy beginning, Caterham Valley’s food festival was a great success. A colourful mixture of delicacies was served ranging from continental patisserie to gorgeous Caribbean cuisine.

The Great Caterham Bake-Off featured a tremendous selection of Caterham baked cakes and other patisserie offerings. Two items in particular stood out as exceptional. One, a gorgeously intricate giant cupcake, with red, white and blue flower shaped icing, and a confectionary union flag itself beneath. The other, and the winner, was a lovely rendition of the Saint George Cross featuring a crown and wondrous frosting roses, a very patriotic display, all in all. As well as this there was a variety of other baked delicacies.

Caterham’s own Casa Lola served a gorgeous paella, the chicken and rice cooked in a creamy sauce, and marinated in the salty sea-food flavour of the mussels in the dish. A visiting Italian patisserie handed out mouth-watering samples, crisply baked pastries surrounding a deep chocolatey interior. Copious displays of chocolate bread, varied flavours of Turkish Delight, rich, oily Mediterranean olives half submerged in warm sauce, all came together in a cavalcade of wondrous flavours.

Many jams, chutneys and local produce were also brought to the festival. Sarah and Bette of The Orange Co served a vibrant array of chutneys to the public and a delicious walnut marmalade from another stall was also sold, and Tim Fisher’s own freshly-baked pastries. Altogether there was a superb range of sweet and savoury local produce.

As well as this wealth of locally-sourced goods was a bounty of Continental produce. Be it the seductive tang of Alain from “A Gout de France”’s cheeses, or the abundant Continental pastries crammed into their stalls, the Food Festival enjoyed a roaring success.