Beccles Food & Drink Festival Cookery Theatre 2025
Last year the Cookery Theatre was located within New Market.
Our headline chef in 2024 at the Cookery Theatre was Samantha Mattocks – the Delicate Diner.
For 2025 we will once again have the pleasure of hosting the Local Flavours mobile cookery theatre. This bespoke vehicle has been secured through generous contributions from East Coast College Lowestoft, Fen Farm Dairy and M+A Partners accountants from Norwich.
As well as future chefs from the college, we have some exciting demonstrations from a variety of excellent chefs to provide culinary inspiration.
This year’s schedule of the Chef Demonstrations is shown below.
Details of the chefs currently confirmed to appear 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.
As this is our 10th Anniversary the College students will be presenting a cake at 12:15 at the Cookery Theatre and this will be cut by Paul Parravani, chair of the Beccles Food festival Committee and an ever present helping to organise this event. Please come along and congratulate the team and enjoy a piece of the cake!
Last year the Cookery Theatre was located within New Market.
Our headline chef in 2024 at the Cookery Theatre was Samantha Mattocks – the Delicate Diner.
For 2025 we will once again have the pleasure of hosting the Local Flavours mobile cookery theatre. This bespoke vehicle has been secured through generous contributions from East Coast College Lowestoft, Fen Farm Dairy and M+A Partners accountants from Norwich.
As well as future chefs from the college, we have some exciting demonstrations from a variety of excellent chefs to provide culinary inspiration.
This year’s schedule of the Chef Demonstrations is shown below.
Details of the chefs currently confirmed to appear 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.
As this is our 10th Anniversary the College students will be presenting a cake at 12:15 at the Cookery Theatre and this will be cut by Paul Parravani, chair of the Beccles Food festival Committee and an ever present helping to organise this event. Please come along and congratulate the team and enjoy a piece of the cake!
2025 Cookery Theatre Food Talks Schedule
TIME: 11:15 am Mili Mendez
DESCRIPTION: Mili Mendez Cakes, which specialises in cakes made with hyper local ingredients and fine flavour Venezuelan cacao.
TIME: 12:15 pm Cake cutting by Paul Parravani – Chair Beccles food & Drink Festival committee and a member of East Coast College Management.
DESCRIPTION: To celebrate our 10 years anniversary, East Coast College students have made a special cake.
TIME: 1:15 pm Alex Stevens – Harris & James
DESCRIPTION:
TIME: 2:15 pm TBC
DESCRIPTION:
2025 Cookery Theatre Demonstration Schedule
TIME: 10:30 am
Dish: A meal created from ingredients gathered from the stalls.
CHEF: – Peter Clarke – Executive Chef Imperial Hotel Great Yarmouth
TIME: 11:30 am
Dish: TBC
CHEF: Lewis Howe – Chef The Swan Hotel Southwold
TIME: 12:30 pm
Dish: “A Taste of Italy” – Fresh pasta dish inspired by a college tour of Sorrento.
CHEF: Kacey Cunningham – Level 3 student East Coast College.
TIME: 1:30 pm
Dish: “All about Venison” Sustainability of Wild Venison and benefits to health.
CHEF: Julian Stoyel & Ian Richardson – Red Oak Deer Services
TIME: 2:30 pm
Dish: Strawberry and Raspberry Tarts filled with Creme Diplomate and Italian Meringue.
CHEF: Loic Malfait – Satiate Artisan Cookery School Kings Lynn
2025 Chef Bios
Executive Chef, Peter Clarke, celebrates 25 years at the Imperial Hotel Great Yarmouth in 2025. Starting as a trainee in February 2000 he progressed through the kitchen ranks to be appointed Executive Chef in January 2022. He is the very essence of a local boy made good. A Yarmouth boy, his love of cooking stems from his childhood and cooking with his Nanny.
The kitchens of the Imperial Hotel are famed as the training ground of many of Norfolk’s best known and most respected Chefs – including Daniel Smith, Mark Dixon and the late Richard Hughes – and are where Peter learned, honed and continues to apply his skills today.
Peter’s culinary journey continues today, finding joy in experimenting with flavour combinations, playing with cooking methods, placing his own stamp on classic dishes and creating his own new ones.
Through his own experience, Peter is a firm advocate for continuing professional development. He continues to learn, is an ardent reader about food and is constantly researching to be able to bring new ideas to the team and to the table. True to the ethos of the Imperial Hotel, he is passionate believer in passing on his skills to younger team members and trainees in order to help them to be better cooks and to get on in life.
Peter was a runner up in the Chef of the Year category in the 2023 Norfolk Food and Drink Awards.
Loïc is a classically trained pastry and cuisine chef who worked in various fine establishments in France and London before joining an internationally renowned culinary school where he taught French cuisine and patisserie to thousands of students and entertained countless people in his cookery demonstrations on television, cruise ships and all around the globe.
Loïc now shares his passion at his cookery school, Satiate Artisan, situated in beautiful Norfolk countryside in the village of Beeston.
Satiate Artisan offer a diverse range of cooking and baking workshops, tasting demonstrations and bespoke events that are designed to awaken your passion for cooking and baking for both novice and experienced home chefs.
Satiate Artisan champions simple, delicious food presented in a friendly and professional setting that will leave you perfectly satisfied yet wanting more.
Julian Stoyel has over 40 years experience in deer handling, management, conservation, and genetics. His extensive background encompasses a deep understanding of deer behavior and habitat requirements, enabling him to implement effective management strategies.
Committed to conservation, Julian actively promotes sustainable practices that ensure healthy deer populations and ecosystems. His expertise in genetics further enhances his ability to improve deer stock quality, making him a valuable asset in the realm of wildlife management
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.
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 - East Coast College Student
Kacey is currently studying Professional catering Level 3 at East Coast college Great Yarmouth campus. After high school she got onto the Hospitality and Catering course at East Coast college where Chef Patterson is the tutor.
