Flavour Fest is back on the table and with headliners Phil Vickery and Chris Tanner on stage, August 14 to August 16 will be fun and full of flavour. Louise Daniel talks to Phil Vickery about celebrity, new recipes and getting involved at Plymouth's largest food festival.
Now in it's fifth year, the Plymouth food event of the year looks set to knock the socks off other regional food shows.
Last year around 140,000 people visited over three days, sampling foodies delights at 100 stalls – and this year will be bigger and better than ever.
Flavour Fest's 2015's cooking theatre line-up is impressive – from St Elizabeth House, to Chloe's, The Oyster Shack to Rocksalt, chefs from around Plymouth will be treading the boards to demonstrate crowd-pleasing recipes using the finest regional produce.
Seasoned professional, TV's Phil Vickery is one of this year's headliners, but he isn't sure what he'll be showing the crowds on Friday, August 14, what is guaranteed is never before seen recipes and food theatre fun.
"I like to make it fun and tell a few stories about when people have cut their fingers off, things that have gone wrong, stuff which happens on television. I'm not quite sure what I'm cooking this year – it will be different and a bit more interesting, not your usual stuff."
He loves the West Country larder – from seafood to seasonal veg, he says:
"Down here the fresh produce is amazing. When you've got great ingredients you don't mess around with them too much."
Known best for BBC's frenetic Can't Cook, Won't Cook and ITV's flagship lifestyle programme, This Morning, Phil's excited about getting stuck in and doing what he does best – even though it's in the middle of the annual family holiday.
"My wife (Fern Britton, who he met on the set of Can't Cook, Won't Cook in 2000) said, 'but we're on holiday!' I had a chat with her to see what I could do. She will be on Radio 2 on the Clare Balding Show on the same day, so I can nip down with my daughter."
Aside from being excited about cooking for the crowds at Flavour Fest, it's a favour for his old cooking compadre from The Castle in Taunton, Peter Gorton.
"Peter is such a nice bloke – I've known him so many years, before we were both grey! He caught me with my guard down! It's his fault!" he laughs.
Phil is a down to earth guy, and you'd be forgiven for thinking his was just another in a long line of TV cooking stars born when the British food revolution kicked in to gear in the 90s.
But he did his time on the kitchen line, working his way through the ranks to achieve awards, a Michelin star and Egon Ronay rating well before he became a celebrity.
He is wary of the celebrity moniker even though he clearly is a celebrity chef – Can't Cook Won't Cook went out to a staggering 9m viewers at it's peak, his work on This Morning has been seen in 26 countries worldwide and he is a best selling author.
"I'm not a celebrity, I just happen to be a cook who has done a bit of telly. I'm a cook first and foremost. "People tend to see you as a celebrity (and I use the term very loosely) but I've done my time."
He is unstarry – he called personally from the family home and I didn't have to go through his 'people' – and he's quite happy to chat about everything from family to other famous celebrity chefs and what telly means to his livelihood.
"Celebrity is not the be all and end all, but it is very good for business.
"I remember Gordon Ramsay came up to me at the Good Food Show and as he jabbed me in the chest, he said 'Phil you won't see me on telly, I'm a real effing chef! That was back in 1994 – and now he's the biggest TV chef in the world!
"He's a fabulous cook – you don't get three Michelin stars for nothing. I have respect for the man. But us boys who do a bit of telly are honest about it.
"It's part of business – if you aren't on telly you won't get a book deal now. It's become a very tough market."
The food world was in flux when Phil began working in kitchens 25 years ago and to date his tenacity and good humour have helped him achieve everything he set out to do, including leading the charge on keeping food simple.
Along the way he's cooked for two Prime Ministers and baked the Queen Mother's official 100th birthday cake.
But it's simplicity which drives Phil's recipes. "It's my philosophy. I always say it's two things – simple, well cooked food."
I wonder if he's happy there's a shift away from finicky fine dining towards more casual eating experiences.
"I certainly hope so. I don't want to be worshipping food; I want to be enjoying the experience. Certainly as I get older, I just want to feel relaxed and happy.
"I don't mind spending money but I don't want to be told every two minutes what I am having and isn't the chef wonderful. I just like simple grub."
But don't be fooled, simple doesn't mean boring.
"To me the food is the star. It's much harder to cook simple food, you can't hide anything because you just have 3 or 4 key ingredients. I'm much more interested in getting the best out of those ingredients instead of chucking foams at it."
Food fashion has changed and now more than ever British people are aware of where food comes from, how it's produced and when to eat it, something Phil has championed since early in his career.
"It's about seasonal cooking. You should look forward to the first asparagus and the first partridge or pheasant. These are the joys of cooking and why you don't get bored.
"You should steer clear of flying stuff in or eating them out of season. I've always thought and cooked seasonally because it keeps it interesting."
Serious cooking credentials need to be tempered with personality and humour in the tough food industry, something he learned from one of the first TV chefs.
"Like Keith Floyd, I like to have a laugh along the way and give a few good tips." Keith Floyd was mentor to Phil who he met while giving cookery demos at the Castle back in the early days of his career.
"My style is very much what I learned from him. He knew about the food and the history of it. He'd say 'no not on me', he always brought it (the focus) back to the ingredient.
"He could speak three languages and knew the history of food. He used to say to me there must be a few seconds in your demo when you give people some good info.
"And that's what I still do to this day and what I'll be doing at Flavour Fest."
"I've come up with some cracking new ideas so I may just show them too!"