Home | Chester Food, Drink & Lifestyle Festival

Food Festival brings out the cook in all of us.

The Chester Food Drink & Lifestyle Festival, sponsored by Taste Cheshire, took place over Easter at Chester Racecourse for the 18th year and this year saw more people cooking and being involved in cooking than ever before.

So much to see & do!

Our festival is the largest of its type held anywhere in the UK, with over 150 Food and Drink Exhibitors on show. Headline chefs from the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 feature with Paul Rankin, Chris Bavin and Jun Tanaka as well as the best chefs from around the region over 3 days of free cooking demonstrations on the stage. With free cooking classes for Adults and Children and BBQ Classes as well, everyone in the family can have four hours of foodie fun.

Wannabe a Sausage Judge?

Join us on Sunday 1st April at 11.00am in the Demo Theatre and if you are one of the first 40 people to attend you can come and taste and judge the 6 finalists in this years search to find the NoWFOOD Centre Sausage of the Festival. There will be 3 plain sausages and 3 flavoured sausages to judge with Chairman of judges Steve Vaughan in attendance to tell you how to make a great sausage.

Ready Steady, Rankin signs on

Paul Rankin is both a great chef and a great entertainer. He is the man who changed the face of culinary Northern Ireland when he opened Roscoff, the restaurant that was to become the first to win a Michelin Star in the country. Soon after opening, it became the favourite meeting place for the Belfast business and arts community, and people travelled from Dublin simply to experience what was considered to be the best cooking in Northern Ireland at the time.

BBC Star Chris Bavin joins the cast

Chris Bavin is so full of character he was born to be on TV. He is currently co-presenting his fourth series of BBC1’s hugely successful series Eat Well For Less? With Gregg Wallace.
In addition to Eat Well for Less, Chris has presented Tomorrow’s Food with Dara O’Brian, The Truth about Meat and he is co-presenter of BBC1’s returning series Food:Truth or Scare with Gloria Hunniford.

Jun Tanaka to star at Festival

Jun is Head Chef and owner of The Ninth, a contemporary restaurant in the heart of London’s buzzy Fitzrovia. Jun is a regular on BBC1’s Saturday Kitchen, UKTV’s Market Kitchen and BBC2’s Something for the Weekend. He has also appeared on various other shows such as Masterchef, Michel Roux Jr’s Food & Drink, and Food Network US’s Chopped, where he won the title of Chopped Grand Champion in 2013.

BBQ Cook-a-long returns for 2018

Make sure you stop by the BBQ Demo Area brought to you by Harthill Cookery School and put your name down for one of these free sessions. It’s just fabulous, learn how to do it, master the art and then eat what you make. Enjoy.

Adult Cooking Classes brought to you by Harlech Foodservices

Are your weekday meals lacking the flavour of a meal out? Or are you missing that opportunity to show off some of your knife skills? Well then come and join us at the Adult Cooking Classes brought to you by Harlech Fine food s in the Chef’s Cuisine Cooking School at this year’s festival.

Vote Now for the Taste Cheshire Food Awards

Voting is now open for the Taste Cheshire Food and Drink Awards 2018. Last year the organisers reported that once again you broke the record with an astounding 44,000 votes cast in the Annual Hospitality Awards. This is the 20th year of these awards and previous winners represent the finest establishments anywhere in the UK. Voting closes on the 2nd March so vote now

Enjoy the BarLounge VIP experience

We are happy to announce that Bar Lounge will be returning to the festival this year hosting our VIP Experience. After the success of the Bar Lounge Secret Garden last year we can't wait to see what theme they have in-store for us this year! This area, which is covered; has seating for up to 200 people, will feature live music during the day and is hosted for by Bar Lounge a 6 time winner of Best Bar in Chester.

Kids Cook for Free

For the last 8 years the Academy of Culinary Arts team have provided free cooking classes for the children who have come to the Chester Food Drink & Lifestyle Festival. James Holden, the Northern Director and his team of chefs last year taught over 900 children in three days in a series of sessions through out the day. These classes get very busy so book on the day early to ensure your child gets the opportunity.

Local Young Chef Talent, cooking up a storm

The Dining Room & Academy restaurant from Cheshire College-South & West are delighted to be collaborating with renowned, local TV Chef, Brian Mellor, to bring you an unique Pop Up Restaurant exclusively to the Chester Food and Drink Festival.

305 days to go

2019 Tickets will be availble from November 2018

150 artisan food & drink exhibitors

CamperFest is filling fast - book now!

Experience the festival

Watch the video to see why our festival makes Easter in Chester special.

20th - 22nd April 2019 Open Saturday & Sunday 10am - 6pm | Monday 10am - 5pm