FOODIE HEAVEN

Article published in the Observer series newspapers 27 April 2006.

Food enthusiasts are in for a treat this weekend at Chichester's annual Celebrate the Taste event, writes Sue Gilson.

The 9,000 foodies who headed for the Celebrate the Taste event at the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum last year must have thought they had landed in gastronomic heaven.

More than 50 producers laid out their quality wares on stalls around the picturesque and historic site in a stunning array of the best in locally-produced food and drink.

This bank holiday weekend the open air museum at Singleton opens its doors once again to the increasingly-popular event, and you really don't want to miss out.

Sample succulent meats and game, cheeses, relishes, pickles, sauces and aromatic breads, then head for the sweet stuff which will include ; cakes, ice-cream and confectionery, all washed down with wines, ciders and beers.

Many of the names showing at the event, which is jointly organised by A Taste of Sussex to help the county's producers promote their wares, will be familiar including O'Hagans Sausages, Bookers Vineyard - a leading Sussex producer of quality wine and red - Beaulieu Ice­ Cream with its handmade ices from the New Forest, and Gran Stead's Ginger which makes the famous non-alcoholic mellow ginger wine.

But tables placed around the award-winning 50 acre site - bringing a unique atmosphere to the occasion with the authentic working Tudor kitchen Winkhurst at the heart of the taste celebrations - will be groaning with much, much more besides

A Taste of Sussex - the Fine Food Fair, on Sunday, April 30 and Monday, May 1, will  feature companies new and established.

For Emsworth duo Tessa Smith and Sue Newsom last year's fair was the first public outing for their home-made chilli relishes, preserves and pickles, produced by their The Chilli Jam Company, set up just 16 months ago.

"It was our first show and we were absolutely delighted. There was a wonderful atmosphere and people loved our stuff. It was a great boost," says Tessa, who will be taking along hot sauces, relishes, jam and chutney. Her friend Sue had made chilli jams and relishes in Zimbabwe and they knocked Tessa's socks off.

"There was a surplus of chillis in Zimbabwe as the elephants don't like them and leave them well alone so she was making all this stuff. I tasted it and said 'hey, what about us doing something with this?'," says Tessa.

The pair, who both have experience in catering over many years, established themselves in Tessa's kitchen and now they are going great guns with their jars going out to London, specialist delicatessens, country parks and farmers' markets and farm shops.

Their piccalilli, called Picca Chilli Lilli, won a prestigious gold in the annual national Great Taste Awards and they are in the running for a Waitrose prize to be announced in June.

"We were walking but now we are almost having to gallop," laughs Tessa who tries to keep her ingredients as local as possible and is looking to expand premises.

Chichester's Just Cheese has been going for 26 years, putting a little spice into English cheeses which always go down well at shows such as Celebrate the Taste. A regular fixture at Chichester market, Julia Lander, of Just Cheese, comes up with unusual recipes for the cheeses which are then created at Wincanton.

"When we started putting spices into English. cheese it was almost unheard of, we were one of the first," she says.

But now fans make a beeline for her Caribbean Temptation, with pineapple and papaya, and her most popular cheese, infused with chilli and garlic.

"Fun, informative and a great way to shop for tasty treats, Celebrate the Taste is a gastronomic delight and a truly family affair," says Hilary Knight of A Taste of Sussex, which, under the umbrella of Sussex Enterprise, provides a support service for the county's producers, helping them to expand their markets and making their wares more accessible.

Visitors can have fun finding out about food through demonstrations and tutored tastings, while visiting some of their favourite local producers and discovering some exciting newcomers eager to introduce their products.

Children will be able to enjoy an interactive quiz about healthy eating and discover more about different food groups in the schools services area. The youngsters can learn about what constitute healthy - or unhealthy - food choices and they will be asked to identify a number of foodstuffs, some of which may not be immediately familiar to them!

The event also brings together the three great influences on our lives - food, culture and landscape - in one taste experience.

Hosting the food fair is a fitting seasonal addition to the museum's 'Field to Feast' theme which runs throughout the site.  'Field to Feast' demonstrates the traditional processes involved in getting food from the field to the table, and highlights the importance of agriculture to our rural ancestors.

Wholemeal grain is ground into flour in the museum's seventeenth century watermill, Shire horses carry out seasonal agricultural tasks, and cereal crops are sown in the field strips.

Visitors can sample authentic Tudor fare in the working Tudor kitchen, and later this year, unusual vegetables grown in the field strips will be available to buy in the Museum shop and at Chichester farmers' market.