Valentine Warner Announced as Celebrity Chef for Falmouth Oyster Festival 2010
20 July 2010
Valentine Warner, food writer and star of BBC Two’s ‘What To Eat Now’ series will be the Celebrity Chef at this year’s Falmouth Oyster Festival... [click for full story...]
Chefs Line-up Announced for 2010
4 May 2010
The festival, celebrates the start of the native oyster dredging season and showcases leading local chefs in a cookery demonstration programme throughout the four days – and best of all - the cookery shows by local chefs are all free!... [click for full story...]
2009
Perfect Partners - St Michael's Hotel & Spa and Falmouth Oyster Festival
28 May 2009
The organisers of Falmouth Oyster Festival are extremely pleased to announce that St Michael's Hotel & Spa is to be the major sponsor for the festival, which takes place from the 15th to 18th October this year... [click for full story...]
Mat Follas, 2009 MasterChef Winner - to Open Falmouth Oyster Festival
26 June 2009
Viewers of the BBC television series - MasterChef will immediately recognise the name of Mat Follas, winner of the 2009 amateur competition. Mat will be the Celebrity Chef at this year’s Falmouth Oyster Festival... [click for full story...]
New Look Falmouth Oyster Festival Flyer
and Website Now Available!
17 August 2009
The new look Falmouth Oyster Festival flyer is now widely available from Tourist Information Centres, shops, pubs and restaurants, sailing clubs, attractions and other outlets throughout the area.... [click for full story...]
Spotlight on Chefs!
21 September 2009
Falmouth Oyster Festival has cookery at its heart... [click for full story...]
The Oyster Ball is Back!
21 September 2009
The Oyster Ball celebrating the Falmouth Oyster Festival is back this year and is sure to be bigger and better than ever. The festival main sponsors, St Michael’s Hotel & Spa, will be hosting the ball on Saturday 17th October in the Regatta Suite... [click for full story...]
Fantastic Music Line up!
29th September 2009
A feast for the senses awaits festival-goers at Falmouth Oyster Festival this year. The festival which runs from 15th to 18th October at Events Square, celebrates the start of the native oyster dredging season and features a lively and varied line up of local bands alongside the daily cookery demonstrations... [click for full story...]
Falmouth Schools Join in Oyster Festival Fun!
5th October 2009
Falmouth Schools will feature even more widely in the 2009 Falmouth Oyster Festival which takes place at Events Square from Thursday to Sunday next week... [click for full story...]
Falmouth Prepares for Oyster Festival Opening on Thursday!
5th October 2009
Final preparations are being made for the four day Oyster Festival which starts this Thursday at Events Square in Falmouth. The festival celebrates the start of the native oyster dredging season... [click for full story...]
Falmouth Oyster Festival – Best Ever!
20th October 2009
Over 28,000 people flocked to the town over the four day event to experience the unique atmosphere of Falmouth Oyster Festival.... [click for full story...]
Falmouth Oyster Festival – Best Ever!
Over 28,000 people flocked to the town over the four day event to experience the unique atmosphere of Falmouth Oyster Festival. The event celebrates the start of the oyster dredging season and the traditional methods used by the oystermen to dredge the celebrated local delicacy. An astounding 20,000 oysters were consumed throughout the festival.
“Local people and visitors alike voted with their feet to make the 2009 Falmouth Oyster Festival the biggest and best in its thirteen year history” announced Mike Rangecroft of Falmouth Festivals Ltd, festival organiser.
The festival started on a high with Mat Follas, winner of MasterChef 2009 demonstrating his love of seafood, with a smoked oyster dish and steak, stout and oyster pie. Local chefs continued the culinary seafood entertainment with demonstrations from the Royal Duchy Hotel, Two Ten, St Michael’s Hotel & Spa, The Greenbank Hotel, Housel Bay Hotel, The Cove, and The Three Mackerel. Annie Sibert from My Fish Kitchen showed the audience how to fillet and prepare simple, delicious dishes using a range of fish caught in our local waters.
Saturday was the busiest day of the festival with 12,000 visitors spilling out of the festival marquees to sit in the glorious sunshine enjoying oysters from Duchy Oyster Farm, Skinners ale, and wine and champagne from Walter Hicks. St Michael’s Hotel & Spa had a great first year as festival sponsors, hosting a number of events and occasions at the hotel as well as serving seafood delights at the festival from the Flying Fish Seafood Bar. The return of the Oyster Ball was a great success, with guests enjoying oysters shucked before them and entertainment from award winning soul sensation Ley Adewole.
"It’s been fantastic to be part of such a popular event celebrating our local food heritage. We have been delighted with such a turnout and of the enthusiasm shown by the town,” said hotel proprietor Nigel Carpenter. “The events at the hotel have been well received and we’re now looking to next year to make the weekend an even greater success."
University College Falmouth Media students filmed the cookery demonstrations throughout the festival and relayed the action to a large screen for the audience to see the chefs work at close quarters. Cornwall College students also supported the festival to gain live event experience as part of the Event Management course.
"The festival organisers are extremely grateful to the students and staff for their contribution to the festival, it is also a great opportunity for them to get involved with a live event," said Sam Groom, Tourism Officer for VisitCornwall. "The festival has again been a resounding success, with an increasing number of festival goers travelling from all over the country. Accommodation providers have reported excellent occupancy rates throughout the four days."
An exciting schools cookery project involved all Falmouth primary schools where pupils were partnered with local top chefs Arty Williams from The Cove, Chris Taylor from Two Ten and Sanjay Kumar from The Greenbank Hotel and learnt to cook a seafood dish, which they taught their classmates back at school. Ingredients and recipes were then taken home for the children to cook for parents. School children assisted their chefs with their cookery demonstrations at the festival and appeared centre-stage to share their experience with the audience. The Greenbank Hotel offered a meal for a family involved in the project, drawn from the feedback questionnaires completed by parents. The winner was Toby Manser from St Mary's School. The festival organisers expressed thanks to John Frankland, who co-ordinated the project. Feedback from parents was genuinely appreciative:
"What a wonderful idea! The dish was awesome, didn't think the kids would taste mussels but they did!"
"It was delicious! We will definitely eat more fish from now on. My daughter was really confident in the production of the dish and taught us one or two new things. She really enjoyed this project."
Over 250 Falmouth school children also joined in the Grand Oyster Parade on Friday, and were welcomed in the Maritime Museum to be thanked by the Mayor of Falmouth for their hard work an creativity.
The Moor hosted lively day time cookery demonstrations by the Royal Marines with daytime markets. A mini beer festival and live evening music were organised by Pubs United Falmouth, supported by Falmouth Bids.
Falmouth Oyster Festival embraced sustainability again this year, continuing with the initiative introduced three years ago to return the empty oyster shells to the oyster beds around the River Fal. The shells will form the ‘culch’ or base on which the young oysters will grow. Visitors to the festival last year were very happy to put their shells in the recycling containers provided and to support the green initiative. Fifteen sacks of shells were returned to the oyster beds
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