“The CLA Game Fair this year was as fantastic as ever. Much of that is down to Nicky Barr and her army of staff that make the cookery demo tent run like clockwork. A special mention must go to Richard, Mary and Nicky’s mum who helped me and the other chefs  with many aspects of our demos and not forgetting Viv. Viv is one of the corner stones of the cookery demos making sure all the food is there, helping with prep and running about all over the place for us.

Popular demos

The demos were as popular as ever, and I had a brief chance to catch up with friends and fellow chefs Mike Robinson, Rachel Green and Michael Moore (who is an ex-student of the College) as well as Marie Taylor and Alan Claxon. All of us where kept busy by the sheer number of people watching the demos; I don’t think I counted an empty seat over the three days.

A new falcon

During the show, a friend of mine delivered my new young Peregrine falcon and she is a stunner. Training started in earnest during my time at the show by sitting with her quietly in the evenings. She is going special and a replacement to Isabella and Sophia, who died last winter after contracting a mystery air borne virus that killed 36 female Peregrines around the country in captivity but that now seems to have stopped with no more cases since March.

Lovely Bubbly Champagne

The Game Fair seems to be getting better and better each year and I look forward to the atmosphere and people I meet. Yet again this year, Mike and Fiona from Lovely Bubbly Champagne were on site with their Champagne Bar. Mike always does a spot with me matching Champagne to my food and believe me when I say that there is nothing they do not know about the fizzy stuff.

“Champagne is not just for special occasions. It is to be drunk at any time and the best thing is we invented it,” Mike tells the heaving crowd at one of my Alaskan seafood demos. “The French used to send to us here in the UK the lesser wines during the middle ages and, thinking they were being clever, added malaises and sugar to it to make it more palatable. This wine took up to a month to travel to the UK and during this time a second fermentation took place which caused the bubbles in the wine. The French thought they were sending us flat, second rate wine but it was only many years later that they discovered they were sending us a fizzy wine now known as Champagne.”

Mike and his wife Fiona import Champagne from the smaller producers in the Champagne region therefore supporting family run businesses who are focused on the quality of their limited product. During my demos for Bradley Smokers and Alaska Seafoods, Mike matched many Champagnes to my dishes, one of my favorites being Lancelot-Pienne Cuvée Rosé. This rose Champagne is limited to 5000 bottles 2500 of which Mike and Fiona stock. This Champagne sat well with my Wild Alaskan Salmon Tartar and before the Fair was over we shared a few glasses. Just the drink for the summer. Cheers!”