Good Food, Good Wine, Good Celebrity Chefs – what more could you ask for. Arriving early at the The Festive BBC Good Show is definitely a good move. With thousands of foodies and winies coming to eat and drink their way through the day, the Show can very quickly get out of hand – but in a good way if you don’t mind pushing your way through the crowds. Getting there early also means that you have the chance to grab the fire hot free tickets to The Festive Tasting theatre (tasting classes for wines and cheeses, beer, tea & biscuits and chocolates) and the Christmas Kitchen.

In the Christmas Kitchen, Jo Pratt and the delicious Kurtis Stone firstly entertained us with some party treats and then the main event – Rick Stein. Rick Stein really was lovely – he seems like a very genuine guy and he just couldn’t stop smiling throughout the whole performance. We had spent approximately two hours in the Christmas Kitchen and by then it was around 1.30pm and we were suprised by how many people seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. Nevertheless we geared ourselves up to try push our way through the crowds. It may be an idea to try and approach the Show in an orderly fashion if you are interested in hitting all the stands – otherwise just go with whatever catches your eye.

The Show was definitely an interesting experience allowing us to taste a number of products – a range including cheeses, dips, sauces, jams, sausages, breads, ice-creams (including an interesting Red Hot Chilli number), sweets. A number of times during the Christmas Kitchen reference was made to the fact that the wine side of the Show definitely was seeing more business than the food side of the Show but to me it seemed evenly split. Not being a big drinker I thought a visit to the wine side of things was more for completeness than anything – but I did taste some really yummy toffee vodka so it wasn’t a complete waste of time :). Mmmmm.

Overall a nice way to spend a leisurely Saturday.