Free tickets came up on offer once again for Taste of Christmas so Sandra and I decided we had nothing (but time) to lose by taking them up. You can easily spend a whole day at the Taste festivals but by mid-afternoon the events start to really get crowded by which time I’ve normally had enough! Still, Sandra and I still made the most of our time at the festival which included being only metres from Heston as he officially cut the ribbon on the day’s opening (I couldn’t believe how rude some people were – there was a couple off to my side who still had a pretty good view of Heston, particularly considering how short I am, but was still pushing us around to get even closer)

Heston’s appearance in the Taste Theatre was scheduled second on the bill and learning from previous events we made sure to get to the Taste Theatre extra early (before even the first chef appeared!) to line up. There were two lines, one for the VIP ticket holders and one for regular ticket holders (us), and both lines ended up being even longer than they were last year. We were worried that all the VIP ticket holders would take up the seats but actually they are only guaranteed seats in the first five rows, and that included seats off to the side, and once they’d started filling the rows they let us regular ticket holders in … as a result we ended up nearly smack bang in the middle with better positioning than some of the VIPs! Although too bad about the camera!

But first up in the Taste Theatre was Silvena Rowe. What a character. This Bulgarian born on the Turkish border chef has been all over London and written a few cook books and even consulted on the movie Eastern Promises. Currently executive chef with the Baltic Restaurant Group she treated us to a very entertaining and sexy session (it’s her accent and her hair that does it …)

So Heston’s session was less about his cooking and more about other people’s cooking! He was actually judging a contest which involved members of the general public having a stab at a Heston-esque Christmas dish (Christmas with a Heston Twist.) There were three finalists who I must admit came up with some interesting creations. But before the finalists came up Heston discussed with us his cooking style and talked about exploring fully all of our senses.

We then got to sample his special Christmas mince pie and also this other thing which we were instructed to eat whilst holding our noses, which was a play on changing the flavour without bias of expectation.

The finalists were all clearly chuffed to be up on stage sharing it with Heston. One guy in particularly kept talking and talking and talking. I think he talked his way into winning. Ha ha! The first guy created “snow”, the lady Christmas cake themed cup cake (the Heston twist being the dry ice on the bottom creating a mood I guess) and then the winner created a re-visiting of an Eton Mess. At one stage Heston was like, uh, can I have the mike back now please? Ha ha.

After the Heston session it was off to try some of the food before the crowds got too ridiculously out of control. Pork belly was the order of the day for me – I can’t resist it!

Modern Pantry: Vietnamese Style Duke of Berkshire Pork belly, mash, pickled bean sprouts, crispy shallots. It may not look like much but it was pretty tasty.

Roast: Slow Roast Wicks Manor Pork Belly with Bramley apple sauce, root vegetable mash and port reduction. Delicious and perfectly tender.

Club Gascon: Foie gras popcorn. The popcorn didn’t really work too well with the foie gras but otherwise a nice dish.

Hotel du Vin: Braised Donald Russell Ox cheek, hickory smoked pommes puree. Getting very full at this stage – the ox cheek was melt in your mouth tender though a bit rich considering how full I was starting to feel.

I couldn’t resist more pork belly though with Hotel du Vin: Pugh’s roast porchetta, pommes lyonnaise and charcutterie sauce. Mmmm …

After lunch we headed off to the Waitrose Cookery School to burn off some of our energy, but I think we had a net gain instead of calories from the dessert we made (which we eventually ate!!)

We were partly through making our dessert when one of the assistant chefs came along and did this to our egg! Entertaining but don’t think Sandra was too impressed as it made a mess of our table and of our separating the yolk from the white! Ha ha!

Think the assistant chefs were more interested in having fun with us than anything else – but I didn’t mind! The whole session made me laugh!

The finished products