Beccles Food & Drink Festival Cookery Theatre
Last year the Cookery Theatre was located within New Market and the wonderful Lauren Ellis from Coutts bank was our headline chef.
This year, the location for our cookery theatre will once again be in New Market, in the centre of the Grazing Trail, and is based on the Local Flavours mobile unit. This bespoke vehicle has been secured through generous contributions from East Coast College Lowestoft and Fen Farm Dairy.
As well as future chefs from the college, we hope to line up some exciting demonstrations from a variety of excellent chefs to provide culinary inspiration
As well as future chefs from the college, we hope to line up some exciting demonstrations from a variety of excellent chefs to provide culinary inspiration.
This year’s schedule of the Chef Demonstrations is now confirmed and shown below.
Details of the chefs appearing this year are shown below.
Prior to the Chef demonstrations we have arranged for some of the stallholders and local businesses to give brief talks about their business. A schedule for these talks can be found below and these will take place in front of the Cookery theatre van in New Market.
Last year the Cookery Theatre was located within New Market.
Our headline chef in the Cookery Theatre was Lauren Ellis from Coutts Bank.
We have again this year managed to organise the Local Flavours mobile unit. This bespoke vehicle has been secured through generous contributions from East Coast College Lowestoft and Fen Farm Dairy.
As well as future chefs from the college, we hope to line up some exciting demonstrations from a variety of excellent chefs to provide culinary inspiration.
This year’s schedule of the Chef Demonstrations is still now confirmed and shown below.
Details of the chefs appearing this year are shown below.
Prior to the Chef demonstrations we have arranged for some of the stallholders and local businesses to give brief talks about their business. A schedule for these talks can be found below and these will take place in front of the Cookery theatre van in New Market.
2024 Cookery Theatre Food Talks Schedule
TIME: 10:00 am
DESCRIPTION: Truly Traceable – Multi award winning Venison & Game Pies
TIME: 10:10 pm
DESCRIPTION: Fairfield Farm Crisps – Award winning hand cooked crisps
TIME: 10:30 pm
DESCRIPTION: Oakfired – Award winning Pizzeria in Beccles
2024 Cookery Theatre Demonstration Schedule
TIME: 10:30 am
DESCRIPTION:
CHEF: – Samantha Mattocks – The Delicate diner
TIME: 11:30 am
DESCRIPTION:
CHEF: Kacey Cunningham – East Coast College
TIME: 12:30 pm
DESCRIPTION:
CHEF: David Nash – Kings Head Blofield
TIME: 1:30 pm
DESCRIPTION:
CHEF: Dave Patterson / Lewis Howe – East Coast College
TIME: 2:45 pm
DESCRIPTION: .
CHEF: Daniel Swan / Todd Fordham – Graze @ The White Horse Beccles
2024 Chef Bios
Dave Patterson
Dave Patterson is a Chef Lecturer at East Coast College, where he trained. Now based at the Lowestoft Campus, he has spent 25 years in the industry, with the last 15 of them teaching the chefs of tomorrow.
Dave has a wealth of industry knowledge and has run his own catering company alongside his teaching role for the last 9 years.
He has run the cookery theatre at Beccles Food and Drink Festival since 2017, and helped to build the event’s reputation through his professional approach.
Dave Nash
Dave Nash works as a chef at the Kings Head in Blofield. He has worked at many places and believes taking the methods, processes and techniques learned has made him the chef he is today.
Dave believes it is important to use local and seasonal ingredients and he tries to keep the flavour in his dishes whilst not being too complicated.
Samantha Mattocks - The Delicate Diner
Samantha is the woman behind The Delicate Diner, dedicated to delicious food and drink, and appeared on MasterChef UK in 2019.
Samantha very much believes in local, seasonal produce, utilising the very best flavours from across the region. Her love for good food and drink led her to appear on MasterChef in 2019, and she has since demoed across Norfolk and Suffolk.
Samantha co-founded and ran nourish, the taste of East Anglia magazine for two years, before turning her attentions to her own writing – she is also an award-winning author and published her debut children’s book in 2023.
Daniel Swan / Todd Fordham
Daniel and Todd will be demonstrating together and they both currently work at Graze @ The white Horse in Beccles.
Daniel loves cooking modern and contemporary food. He trained at Lowestoft College and worked at places like Sibton White Horse, The Randolph at Reydon, and Bramfield Queens Head. After owning his own restaurant for four years, he’s now happy to be cooking at Graze .
Daniel believes in keeping things simple and tasty, whilst creating small twists on classics. For him, it’s all about making delicious food that people enjoy and return to eat again.
Todd is a chef with a passion for food and a vibrant personality. From learning at Yarmouth College to his current role at Graze Todd’s love for cooking shines bright.
Todd’s journey started very young, he then discovered a love for Asian cuisine during a trip to Thailand. He worked his way up from Chef de Partie to head chef at Reedham Ferry before joining Graze. Along the way, Todd has made many friends in the kitchen and gained experience in the process.
East Coast College Students
East Coast College offers students a 3 year Hospitality and Catering course with a range of career opportunities. The course is for anyone who wants to improve their skills and knowledge in professional cookery or front of house roles.
Students that have completed Professional Cookery Level 3 have also progressed to the Edge Hotel School at the University of Essex.
Work experience is part of the course and previous students have worked for Tom Kerridge, Jamie Oliver and Raymond Blanc, as well as many prominent hospitality venues in the Norfolk and Suffolk.
Kacey Cunningham
Kacey is currently studying Professional catering Level 2 at East Coast College where Chef Patterson is the tutor.
Initially she worked with Chef Patterson to learn a variety of dishes, from Chicken Korma to Chocolate Fudge Cake. This has inspired her to take on a career in the catering industry and she is currently working part-time at Filby Bidge Restaurant.
