Continuing its ethos of supporting local independent businesses, the festival opened on Friday 9 May at Fitzbillies on Trumpington Street with a collaborative School Dinners themed pop-up supper created by local chefs Leo Riethoff from Steak and Honour and Jack van Pragg from Jack’s Gelato.
Fitzbillies is well known locally and further afield for retaining its status as an independent café, bakery and restaurant, and owners Tim Hayward and Alison Wright showed their support for the festival by agreeing to host the event. Other small business owners got in on the act too; the impressive menu and place setting was designed by Ely-based designers We Three Club who came along to join in the fun on the night. Also at the table were headline sponsors, Bidwells, a property consultancy celebrating 175 successful years of operating at the heart of the community in Cambridge. Whether advising on commercial, residential, or rural property matters, Bidwells retains a clear focus on supporting the local area and its communities.
Extending their support to this year’s Eat Cambridge festival, Richard Pilsworth (Head of Bidwells' Cambridge Office) stated: "If eating out is all about anticipation of the joy of discovery, then 'school dinners' ticked all the boxes, judging by everyone around me at the Eat Cambridge launch!"
Elsewhere in the city, the collaborations continued throughout the weekend. Saturday saw over 1000 visitors to the Eat Cambridge Street Food Market, hosted by local Indian food business Inder’s Kitchen on Clifton Road. All in the name of good food, Nick and Inder Bull at Inder’s Kitchen kindly opened up their doors, and site, to a whole host of independent, high quality street food traders for an evening of alfresco dining, Eat Cambridge style. Cambridge Wine Merchants lent a hand, too, and did a sterling job of keeping a snaking queue of thirsty customers happy with their pop-up wine and beer bar.
Find full festival listings at www.eat-cambridge.co.uk and the 2014 festival brochure at http://www.eat-cambridge.co.uk/2014-programme/
Eat Cambridge is a not-for-profit food festival, organised by local people with a true love of independent local producers, cafes and restaurant. We want this festival to show off the best of Cambridge food and drink and we will continue to work our bottoms off to make it the biggest and best around. The team behind Eat Cambridge are a bunch of very enthusiastic local food lovers who want to give the producers of Cambridge the chance to show off the amazing food, drink and restaurant scene that has been slowly growing over the past few years. We are not doing this for money or great acclaim, we simply want to create a new and exciting event that truly unites the Cambridge food and drink scene.
2014 Sponsors:
Headline sponsor: Bidwells
Established 175 years ago, today Bidwells is one of the UK’s leading property consultancies. We employ almost 500 people in 12 offices across England and Scotland and we provide a full range of services across the Commercial, Residential and Rural sectors.
Our 40 specialist teams focus on helping our clients:
• Acquire or dispose of assets
• Manage and enhance the value of their portfolios
• By providing strategic consultancy advice.
Above all, clients appoint us because of the depth of our knowledge, our focus on delivery and the fact that everything we do is designed to help them achieve their goals.
Festival sponsor: Gog Magog Hills Farm Shop
This bustling farm shop nestled on one of Cambridge’s only hills is a hive of local food and drink, with many producers sells their wares in the deli, cafe or shop. The Gogs have supported Eat Cambridge since the very beginning and love being part of something that gives them and other locals producers the platform to shine. Last year saw a Pint Shop pop-up at the farm which sold out in hours, this year’s event promises to be just as exciting so watch this space.
Festival sponsor: NFU Mutual
What sets NFU Mutual apart from other insurance companies is our local, personal service; it means we take the time to get to know our customers and when they need our help, they know they can count on us to provide it – quickly, with no fuss. We believe that there really is no substitute for a quality local service and excellent cover. And that’s why we win awards. Please call on 01954 210007 to start the conversation.
At the Cambridge branch of the NFU Mutual we are extremely pleased to be sponsoring EAT Cambridge as the City’s very own proper food and drink festival. We fully endorse their attitude to innovative businesses and local quality produce.
Media Sponsor: Cambridge Edition
Media Radio Sponsor: Cambridge 105
Events sponsors and friends:
Cambridge Cookery School
Cambridge Junction
Airport Lynx
Cambridge Business Lounge
Cambridge Sustainable Food City
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Press enquiries can be directed to organisers Heidi White, Sian Townsend or Caroline Biggs at [email protected]