Event News 2008

After a patchy start, 2008 concluded with two outstandingly successful events.

In October, the Slow Frugal Dinner celebrated the publication of our new member Fiona Beckett’s book The Frugal Cook. A packed Ocean Cafe tucked into a bargain basement menu of treats such as lambs heart casserole, bubble and squeak and fromage trouve, created by Stuart Seth in consultation with Fiona.

In December another animated throng of members and friends  met in Quartier Vert for the Slow Food Bristol Christmas Party, combined with the celebration of the Twentieth Anniversary of Barny Haughton’s ground-breaking first restaurant. Unfortunately QV closed down shortly afterwards, but this was less due to the Curse of Slow Food than the economic climate.

Bristol Slow Food was also instrumental in the organization of another extremely successful event in Barny Haughton’s newer restaurant, Bordeaux Quay. This was the national Soil Association Slow Food Dinner, which brought together several hundred delegates from around the country, and a battalion of the West Country’s best food producers. BQ staged a sumptuous buffet of which delights such as Othniel oysters, poached carp with sauce gribiche, Heron Green Farm roast beef with aligot and West Country ice-creams were merely a small selection of high points.