A Really Wild Time

I'm currently set up at the Really Wild Food festival in St David's Pembrokeshire. The family are fast asleep in the tent and I'm up pondering what to cook for today's demo. It was a great day yesterday, I rustled up a tasty paella in front of a delightful audience, while Tim Hayward and 'Rich the mike' from radio four's food programme waved microphones in my general direction. Not sure when it's going on air, not sure if I was supposed to tell you that, but hey! Summer's finally here. We even drove down the road to Whitesands beach for a splash in the waves after the show yesterday. Looking in the cupboard I reckon it going to be a broad bean and asparagus risotto today. I've also got some turkey hearts and laverbread which Tim and Rich brought for me yesterday, oh and some black pudding too, heaven knows what I'll make of those, but it will all get cooked! Long long drive home tonight after the show, then it's time to start packing for our family holiday as we're off at the weekend. A jaunt to Spain on the train and a weeks camping on Menorca.

It's Official

Hold the front page! The Guyrope Gourmet has recently bagged a book deal!  Of all the perfect publishers, Punk have come up with the goods.  Punk publishing is an independent publisher behind the best selling 'Cool Camping' series of books.  It's a perfect match for the Guyrope Gourmet and i'm delighted.  Nestled comfortably among Punk's other great publications; Dixie Wills' 'Tiny Campsites', Matt Carroll's 'Escape Routes', Daniel Start's 'Wild Swimming' and the delicious food lover's guide 'Taste Britain', Guyrope Gourmet has finally found a place to pitch up.


My book will be published next year (scheduled for May).  With a working title of Guyrope Gourmet - a collection of camping recipes & outlandish tales, it lifts the lid on the ins and outs of cooking great food under canvas.  Packed with photographs, illustrations, ideas and recipes, it's set to become 2013's camping culinary must-have.  It also carries a tale or two of my culinary adventures in far-off lands including run-ins with Syrian soldiers and gun toting American Sheriffs.


But that's not all, with support from those delightful people at Outwell, who have kept me supplied with amazing camping equipment over the years, the Guyrope Gourmet book will inform and entertain and hopefully inspire campers to try out new dishes and sample food produced and grown locally to their campsites.  I'm already planning a 'book tour' which will carry me far and wide to food festivals and campsites the length and breadth of the country, where I'll be doing the (almost) infamous Guyrope Gourmet cookery demonstrations, signing copies and generally cavorting around.  If all goes to plan, I'll be joined by "One of the finest guitarists of his generation" (according to Mojo Magazine) but more about that later.


In the mean time, I'm busy writing new recipes and shooting for the book and looking forward to the upcoming food festivals, The Really Wild Festival and Abergavenny Food Festival.


Thanks for all your support so far. X

A cookery school in a sheep shed!

 I'm thrilled to announce that in association with Outwell tents and Studfold Farm Campsite, the Guyrope Gourmet cookery school is open for business on the following dates: 21st July, 25th July, 31st July, 22nd August, 25th August.

 
All events will take place at Studfold Farm campsite, situated at the top of Nidderdale in North Yorkshire. Each session will last around and hour and a half, depending on what we cook. All equipment and ingredients will be provided. Ingredients will be sourced where possible from local providers, keeping food miles to a minimum. Come and build a paella using Yorkshire Chorizo, or stir up a risotto. Wrestle with a ragout or tackle a tagine, hone the inner guyrope gourmet and have fun while learning to broaden your camping cuisine.

 Why not come along and use fresh local Yorkshire ingredients, the company of others and a spot of Guyrope Gourmet know how to try something a little different. You don't have to be camping on site to join the fun, but if you are all the merrier.



Dates: 21st July, 25th July, 31st July, 22nd August, 25th August.

Duration: 1 - 2 hours (commence 11:00 am)

Location: Studfold Farm Campsite, Lofthouse, Nidderdale, North Yorkshire, HG3 5SG

Tarrif: £35 per person (includes all ingredients and equipment use). Bookings via the shop on the Guyrope Gourmet website (Paypal).

A Supperclub in a tent

Following the success of previous events, I'm delighted to announce some more dates for the infamous Guyrope Gourmet supper club in a tent.  Taking place on 'Champ's Field' at Home Farm in Colton (near Tadcaster), I will always endeavour to use ingredients bought from the on site 'Food from the Farm' shop.  Farmers Angela & Andrew Kay take great pride in their herd of Hereford cattle, supplying beef to Waitrose supermarkets as well as local butchers and selling in their own 'Food from the Farm' shop .  They also have a nearby market garden and grow an amazing range of vegetables.  The Guyrope Gourmet supper club is a true zero food miles dining experience.

It's an informal affair, with room at the table for ten guests.  It all takes place in my tent.  I cook on site in 'Nan the Van' which is always parked alongside the tent.  You'll be served with a three course meal from a fixed menu.  Unfortunately I'm unable to cater for allergies/intollerances owing to the ridiculously basic equipment I'm cooking on (you wouldn't get away with that at the Ivy!)

Guests are invited to contribute a set fee of £20 per head.  To compensate for previous experience of 'no showers', I am asking that you secure your reservation with a £10 deposit which is payable in the 'Shop' on the Guyrope Gourmet home page (tab in top right corner).  Please feel free to bring your own wine.  There is of course no fee for corkage!


The dates for Summer 2012 are: 


Tuesday 1st May - Dinner at 7:00pm. Please note that BBC's Look North team will be onsite throughout the evening as the event is being televised. There is a strong likelihood that guests may appear on regional TV!  And here's the film that went out over most of the North of England.  Largely thanks to this, the July date is now fully booked!


http://youtu.be/4u9Fbf0I_t4


Saturday 14th July - Dinner 7:00pm  (Fully booked)


The menus will be announced on the Guyrope Gourmet website/facebook  & Twitter sites ahead of the events.  Menus usually contain meat or fish and are rarely fully vegetarian.

2012 off to a good start

2012 is shaping up to be a busy year for the Guyrope Gourmet.  I'm now a member of the Guild of Food Writers and have a regular slot in Camping Magazine as well as Great Food Magazine.  Both tomes, excellent in their field, with the former being very excellent in a field!  I continue to ply offerings to Fire & Knives and the Foodie Bugle, while also temping editors of the national press to take my epistles (with a degree of recent success I might add!)


Had a splendid night at Bettakultcha in February, where I waxed lyrical about the origins of the Guyrope Gourmet in front of a willing crowd. Hoping to be invited back soon.


I've booked a 'world tour' of cookery demonstrations, which will be laced with tales of derring-do, delicious food for you to sample, and the odd tune on my trusty ukulele. 

Confirmations for the following prestigious foodie and outdoor events: 


20th May - Malton food festival
28th & 29th July - The Really Wild Festival, St David's
25th August - Studfold Farm campsite, Nidderdale, Yorkshire
28th August - Kilnsey Show, North Yorkshire (with #supperclubinatent planned for the evening)
15th & 16th September - Abergavenny Food Festival


The first of the 2012 Guyrope Gourmet #supperclubinatent nights will be in April (date TBC), with more to follow over the summer and into the autumn.

A new venture, the Guyrope Gourmet Cookery School, is set to get under way at Studfold Farm campsite.  This is being made possible with the help of the very excellent tent and camping equipment manufacturer Outwell, who have supplied cooking stoves and other equipment for the school.  These will be small, informal classes in which you can pick up a few tips and learn to be a guy rope gourmet yourself.  Full details, including dates and costs will follow in the Spring.


Throughout 2012 I will be working hard on the Guyrope Gourmet cookery book, which I am hoping will be published in the Spring of 2013.  I'm dying to let this cat out of the bag, but fear it might escape, so you'll just have to bear with me for details soonish.

Big Thanks

2011 has been a superb year for the Guyrope Gourmet. Many thanks to all those who helped .


In random order: Jamie Coulson,Melissa Corkhill,Mick Hickling,Iain Duff,Tim Hayward,Mark Sutcliffe,Annie Stirk,Rebecca Roberts,Tony Parker,Heather Holden Brown,Joan Ransley,Kevin Gopal,Matt Wright,Andrew Webb,Silvana De Soissons,Nick Smith,Alpkit,Clive Garrett,Elly James,Amanda Wragg,Jill Turton,Phil Putnam-Spencer,Paul Greenan,Anne-Marie Davies,Alec Carmichael,Outwell,Anne Dolamore,Barry Cox,Andy Bulmer,Angela & Andrew Kay,All my Twitter followers & Facebook likers.

The rise of the Succour Club

We all need a little comfort and reassurance from time to time, especially those that place their work in the public domain, artists, writers, chefs, even politicians! I've been plying my wares as a freelance writer for some time now and i've found that adding strings to the proverbial bow brings in new opportunities and with it new challenges. Along with demonstrations and cookery 'classes' at food festivals, the Guyrope Gourmet has found a new way to show off, the Supper club in a TENT. It has to be a foodie first.

Seeking succour through my supper club, I first mooted the idea on Twitter, and with a few wise words of encouragement from experienced  veterans, @jteramsden and @sabrinaghayour I released the bats so to speak.  The first Guyrope Gourmet supper club took place on Champs' Field campsite near Tadcaster. I'd chosen the site as Champs' Field is on a working farm and owners Angela & Andrew Kay are passionate about food. They raise Hereford beef and supply Waitrose supermarkets and have a small market garden growing a range of vegetables for their veg box scheme. Their Food from the Farm shop is packed with locals and passers-by. The shop is across the track from Champs' Field, so the Guyrope Gourmet supper club can claim to be a zero food miles event with 100% local produce on the menu (ok the chocolate in the dessert may have travelled a little).

With capacity of 8 covers and 50% of those turning up, the first event was a superb evening with two guests travelling up from Sheffield. I'd arrived on site in the afternoon to set up the restaurant and build a fire for my bread making. I'd brought rugs, fairy lights and candles as well as a handy 8 piece total dinner service I found in a charity shop for a fiver. The tent was transformed and with the use of a plug-in electric radiator, made for a cosy environment for a meal with strangers. I've cooked for numbers from my tent before, but I'd never tried to provide a three course meal to paying guests. With the basic equipment of a camping stove and no warm storage area, getting the timings right was paramount. I'd put together a simple menu using ingredients from the Food from the Farm shop. My whole philosophy about cooking is keep it simple and let the ingredients speak for themselves and there was no way I was going to divert from that philosophy for this new venture. I'd mulled over the running order in my head; light fire bake bread, make soup, make dessert and prepare veg.

Electing to hold my first supper club in November was a bit of a gamble, but I was blessed with a glorious day, with the sun shining down as I pitched the tent and kneaded my dough. Guests arrived at 7:30 and were greeted with a glass of prosecco and uttered coos of delight as they entered the tent. I was bowled over by the sheer enthusiasm they had for my little idea. From the off it was a success, with my four guests chatting and laughing as I heated the soup through and joked about my slightly burned fire-baked bread.

With a 'bivouac' of pan seared beef loin, braised fennel with parmesan and a sautéed potato & chard stack as a main course, the diners were amazed as I brought fine food to the table. I must admit, I was feeling rather pleased with myself. Sadly I was concentrating so hard on getting things right, I failed to get any good quality shots of my dishes. That's something I will have to rectify for next time.  By the time the mains were on the table I was able to relax a little and going my guests for a glass or two. Dessert was a chocolate mousse with fennel seed chocolate crust. 

The washing up was piled in a huge bucket, ready for the dishwasher back home and we retired outside to sit by the roaring fire. Knackered, elated, more than a little pleased with myself and slightly drunk I fell asleep by the fire dreaming of the next Guyrope Gourmet Supper Club in the Spring - anyone fancy it?