Edinburgh Food Festival 2023 Begins
Festival Dates: Friday 21 – Sunday 30 July 2023
Edinburgh Food Festival 2022, photo by Tom Duffin
Edinburgh Food Festival 2023 is now open, with live events taking place in the Treehouse Kitchen at Assembly George Square Gardens, as well as a fantastic array of food and drink stalls. Among the chefs turning up the heat this summer are Ka Pao Executive Chef Sandy Browning, and MasterChef alumni Sarah Rankin and Vijaya Kunaparaju who will each present a free cooking demonstration in the festival’s outdoor kitchen, from Friday 21 to Sunday 30 July.
This year’s programme will include demonstrations and workshops around Ethical Eating, Seasonality, Mood Impacting Foods, Plant Based Living and the Zero Waste Kitchen; with a different food focus for each day of the ten-day event, including free daily children’s activities to kick off each day’s line-up.
Saturday 22 July will be Spice Saturday, with a series of workshops and tasting events that’ll spice up your summer. Fife-based private chef and MasterChef 2023 contestant Vijaya Kunaparaju will lead a Children’s Curry Workshop at lunchtime before sharing her secrets on how to prepare the perfect dosa with a practical demonstration making the South Indian savoury crepes in the afternoon. The seasoning experts from BoTree Seasonings will take visitors on a Spice Voyage with a tasting event exploring single origin spices and the stories behind them. And Ka Pao Executive Chef Sandy Browning will be joined by founder Jonathan MacDonald to present a cooking demonstration on seasonality and how they blend the best of seasonal Scottish produce with Southeast Asian flavours to create signature dishes like their Arbroath smokie miang, with galangal, spinach leaves and peanuts.
Later in the festival, Edinburgh community garden Rhyze Mushrooms will explore the key role that mushrooms play in our planet’s eco-system and why the future is fungus with a variety of free mushroom themed workshops and cooking demonstrations, including a children’s mini mushroom alchemy workshop, an oyster mushroom cooking demonstration, and a discussion on building food sovereignty in Scotland.
The final weekend of the festival turns its focus to Wild Food and Plant Power. Edinburgh Fermentarium will lead a double bill of masterclasses, teaching visitors how to prepare their own kimchi and kombucha; cookbook author and MasterChef 2022 Finalist Sarah Rankin will cook up a wild feast live in the Treehouse Kitchen; and award-winning author, wild food expert, and herbalist Mo Wilde will share her experience living on a foraged diet and lead a discussion on Scotland’s wild food biome.
Ka Pao Executive Chef Sandy Browning; Author and cook Sarah Rankin; Wild Food Expert Mo Wilde
The live events at the Treehouse Kitchen will run alongside the festival’s vibrant Global Kitchen, showcasing some of the best street food from across Scotland. Highlights of this year’s festival menu include British Street Food Award 2023 Finalists The Falafel Stop, Okanda, and The Funnel Cake Co., authentic stroopwaffel from Wholly Waffles, and speciality drinks from Panther M*lk and Stranger’s Point Gin.
New for 2023, the Edinburgh Food Festival will host a Producer’s Market with a changing line-up of stalls from some of Scotland’s best producers and makers selling produce and gifts to enjoy at home. Both BoTree Seasonings and Rhyze Mushrooms will have a presence at the market in addition to their live events in the Treehouse. Plus, visitors will be able to sample and purchase multi-award-winning vegan nut butters from Aberdeenshire’s Hungry Squirrel; get a taste of raw superfruit juices from Seabuckthorn Scotland; artisan chocolate brownies from the Chock Shop; vegan baked goods and stuffed cookies from the Leith-based Babyfaced Baker; artisan homemade savoury sauces from Jake’s Street Food; luxurious fruit liqueurs and exquisite hand-crafted chocolates from Perthshire’s Pomology; and non-alcoholic fermented kvass from Quas Drinks, the only purveyor of genuine all-natural kvass in the UK. If all that shopping makes you peckish, then a snack of vegan sushi from Leith’s own KAMA’s Comfort Food; artisan Greek pastries from Newington favourites Lady and the Bear; and authentic handmade cannoli from Glasgow’s Cannoli Get Better will see you right.
The ninth edition of Edinburgh Food Festival will take place in the bustling festival hub of Assembly George Square Gardens. The ten-day event is an annual celebration of Scotland’s larder, placing Scottish produce firmly at the centre of the table. Edinburgh Food Festival 2023 will run Friday 21 July through to Sunday 30 July at Assembly George Square Gardens. For more information and to sign up to receive updates follow @edfoodfest or visit www.edfoodfest.com.
Ends
For more information, interviews, photos or media enquiries please contact Hannah Bradley Croall hannahbradleycroall@assemblyfestival.com | 07580 041 899 or press@assemblyfestival.com
Press images are available to download here. Photographer credit Tom Duffin
Notes to Editors
Edinburgh Food Festival
Since its launch by Assembly Festival in 2015, Edinburgh Food Festival has gone from strength to strength, hosting top industry figures such as Carina Contini, Shirley Spear, Tom Lewis, Guy Grieve and Neil Forbes.
The city's only free central Food Festival welcomes visitors of all ages to George Square Gardens, with stallholders offering everything from Alandas Gelato and Fish & Chips (East Lothian) to Jarvis Pickle pies (Berwickshire) and Chick & Pea Street Food (Edinburgh). Quenching thirsts throughout the five days are a selection of popular drinks brands, including Edinburgh’s own Bellfield Brewery and Panther M*lk. Highlights of 2023’s event include festival debuts from Okanda, Chix, and a return for the award-winning The Peruvian.
With quality Scottish food at the heart of it, Edinburgh Food Festival is a fantastic introduction for visitors to sample a taste of what Scotland’s larder has to offer. #EdFoodFest edfoodfest.com
Street Food & Speciality Bar Traders
Producers Market Vendors
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