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A visit to the Living North LIVE Newcastle
Living North LIVE is the North East’s Spring Fair. You will find interior and garden inspiration and a large food hall with delights from around the region. If that is not enough there are demonstrations from top regional chefs and meet the expert sessions. Read on to find out what we found during our day there.
Every year Living North LIVE takes place on Newcastle racecourse. This year was no exception. The weekend of the 11th -13th May was a weekend full of delicious food, home and garden inspiration. It is also chance to shop for unique and quirky items.
Every year I keep meaning to go but never make it. This year was lucky enough to win some tickets. We went on the Saturday keen to experience all this unique event has to offer.
Living North LIVE
Entering the racecourse we could feel the buzz of excitement in the air. The Spring Fair was busy and full of things to see. Living North Live features over 175 exhibitors. They showcase interiors, garden furniture, gifts and fabulous food. We were expecting an inspirational afternoon and Living North LIVE did not disappoint.
The Food Hall
Our first port of call was the food hall. If you have a teenage son you will know that food is very important. There was so much to look at it was hard to know where to start. We already know may of the local food producers. We found them on our visits the quayside market and to food festivals, like the Proper Food Festival. After visiting the food some new favourites to add to our list.
The Geordie Banger Company make their sausages on the banks of the Tyne. Whenever I see them I always have to stock up, our family love their bangers. It can be so hard to find a decent sausage but these never disappoint.
If you are looking for a vegetable box or a recipe box you should try Riverford Organic Farmers. I have tried their recipe boxes and vegetable boxes before. They provide seasonal food delivered to your door so you know your meals will be full of flavour. The recipe boxes contain everything you need for two meals and will give you new recipe ideas.
One of our new discoveries is Calder’s Kitchen. They make award winning piccalilli from a traditional family recipe. I was never keen on piccalilli before but it is now a new family favourite. This recipe is delicous. It comes in three flavours, traditional piccalilli, chillililli and sillylilli. Chillililli has a spicy kick and sillylilli is seriously spicy.
Also of note is the Stateside Treat Emporium . They make amazing hand made luxury chocolate. Who knew you could get ice cream float flavour chocolate? It tastes like it too.
Frere Quenelle Liquers stock a range of vodka and gin based liqueurs. These are are hand-blended in Northumberland. Their chocolate vodka is amazing, it would make a lovely gift.
Old fashioned cordials are making a bit of a comeback. Mr Fitzpatrick’s handmade vintage cordials are made from 100% natural ingredients. The bottles are rather eye-catching.
We could easily have spent a lot longer wandering around the food stalls but we found the chef demonstrations and went to have a look.
Read more: Dacia Magic Weekend, Newcastle
Chef Demonstrations
Top North East chefs were taking to the Living North LIVE demonstration kitchen to showcase some of their delicious recipes. The aim was to give you an insight into how you could cook this tasty and delicious food at home.
We got to the demonstration booth just as Martin Charlton of The Old Boat House was finishing. He is the founder of the Old Boat House Food Group and owner of a number of restaurants including the Old Boat House, Amble and the Fish Shack, Amble. He was preparing a squid dish that could be made in literally minutes. It did look delicious, but I have to admit I have never tried squid and am not sure if I want to.
Judges Hotel Chef
Next up was Scott Papprill from Judges Hotel. Judges Hotel is a country house hotel in Yarm which is renowned for its fine dining. It recently got County House Hotel of the Year 2018 from the Good Hotel Guide. Scott demonstrated two dishes, a tomato gazpacho consomé and a chicken supreme dish. The demonstration was fascinating, full of hints and tips.
The tomato gazpacho consomé looks really easy to make. Chop tomatoes, herbs, garlic, shallots and red peppers into pieces. Add some salt to bring out the flavour and pop into a food processor for a very short blitz. The resulting mixture is then left to drip though a muslin cloth for a couple of days. You are left with a clear mixture which you can serve in shot glass. The result is a lovely tomato flavourful glass which is perfect for a hot summer day.
The second dish was a chicken supreme. When I think of chicken supreme I think of the classic dish which uses chicken and mushrooms in cream. This dish was a simple pan fried chicken with roast shallots, mash and a tarragon jus. Whilst simple it was full of flavour and is something that could be made easily at home.
It was fascinating to learn that a jus takes days to prepare when they make it in the hotel. It is a long process involving boiling down chicken bones and skimming the fat off. Wine and herbs help to make the final flavour. At home you can get a similar result with less effort by using a stock pot with wine and flavourings. Scott also shared great tips for making mash, including adding white pepper to it so that it stays white.
Home Inspiration
After enjoying the food we went to have a look at what the home inspiration section had on offer. There was plenty to see in this section and you could also go to the live lounge. This offers meet the expert talks on a wide range of subjects from interior design, photography to beekeeping and much more. We didn’t get a chance to pop in but did find a great range of wonderfully quirky interior inspiration ideas.
Read more: A visit to the Maker Faire
What we thought of Living North LIVE
We thought that Living North LIVE is a great way to showcase all the great food and interior companies that we have in the North East. You can easily spend several hours there and still not see all there is on offer. We made a number of new food discoveries, spent an enjoyable hour watching the chef demonstrations and had a great time. If you are looking for home and interior inspiration this is the place to be.
Would we go back? Yes, we are looking forward to attending the event again next year. If you can’t wait until next Spring Living North also have a Christmas Fair in November. This would be a great place to source unusual gifts for your family.
Did you go to Living North LIVE? What did you think? Let me know below.
Why not pin for later?
The food hall would be my first port of call too. Those chocolate flavours sound amazing. The food demo looked inspiring, not sure about gaspacho consomme dripping for two days in our kitchen, I’d get impatient waiting for the result. 🙂
Yes I agree re the consomme, its a bit long to wait but the finished result was worth it. It would be ideal for a dinner party.
I have never been to Living North before, I think I will have to go next year x
I hadn’t either but it was well worth the visit. I am putting the Christmas event into my diary
It looks like a great event. I love these kind of events too, as I always discover new things to try.
It was good, so many things to discover. The only problem is you can end up spending lots of money!
Watching a cookery demonstration is on my bucket list. Sounds like you had a fab day