This is a lost episode due to issues with using the honestech software to capture not only my live review but the footage from the show istself, with the fact that it added artificial noise as well as losing the majority of my footage in the transfer process it lead to severe delays in release due to quality issues, also due to memory problems I appear to have had some rendering issues not correctly cutting my picture in picture footage with the cheese and chef footage and it rendered at a state prior to editing and fixing correctly. I apologise for the issues and I hope you enjoy the review regardless of the issues that presented themselves, and this is the reason for the delays because I wanted to be able to get better hardware to resolve the issues for later episodes (which I have now done)
The good food show winter 2013 was held over 4 days each with its own supertheater and minor stage appearances by chefs of both celebrity status and renound michellin star restaurant chefs making appearances to cook and prepare food live in front of your eyes throughout the show. Depending on which chefs you would wish to see you should make a booking to ensure you’ve purchased a ticket for the day your chef will be making an appearance.
I visited on a friday believing this to be the most suitable day to be able to get around the event freely without too many people and also be able to get good footage for review.
The show itself spanned over 4 interconnected halls at the nec with another consisting of the supertheatre where shows would be performed throughout the day on a live large stage with your favourite tv shows being recreated on stage in front of your eyes, there were also a large number of smaller stages throughout the show including a great british bakeoff section which was rather popular towards the end of the day when the series winner was on stage, and also masterchef mini stages and belkin and other brands with thier celebrity chef of choice performing at intervals. I chose to include some footage from one of these events, and unfortunately due to my lost footage I lost the best parts where chef pointed out his sous chef watching in the crowd, a nod to me stating how things he’d stated he shouldn’t be stating as they’d be out in the press the next day, and the humour the chef input when someone ran in front of the stage rather than walk around during the show.
This alone is worth the cost of entrance if you consider the show itself to be the foody equivalent of a rock concert, where your favourite chefs perform throughout the weekend and you choose to watch whichever ones you wish to see while missing others, and due to the way this show is setup you have a much better chance of getting up close and personal because not only do you get to be very close up to the action itself and even if you’re feeling adventurous enough taste the food after its “left out for display” but you can also go up to and converse with the chefs who are usually happy to have thier photographs taken, and chef turner was seen posing with visitors to the show at the belkin stand before his performance.
For those wishing to make a purchase at the show there is also plenty on offer ranging from good quality produce to award winning speciality food that you would normally only be able to obtain online, some with a minor show discount and pretty much everything at the show was available to be sampled. I would stress that if you were to visit the show intending to sample that you be considerate of others as there were some people swarming the food stalls taking more than one of each sample in order to simply eat everything available beyond one sample of each flavour, many sat stuffing thier mouths with 5-6 chunks of the same flavour cheese which was very greedy and inconsiderate, especially when you add the fact that the world cheese show was being held at the show which not only meant there were a significant number of cheese vendors all with samples on offer, but also once the judging had been performed that exceptionally large numbers of high quality cheeses would be available for consumption by any who desired.
Don’t fret if you’re not into cheese or lactose intollerent as there were other foods availalbe as well, with cooked and chilled meats, vegetarian specials, sweets of all varieties along with beers wines and soft drinks, all with samples as well as purchasable gifts to take away that very day should you have been inspired to cook at home with the produce and ingredients available.
I also noticed a number of techy gadgets for aiding your kitchen experience, from an egg yolker which removes the yolk via a dropper and keeps it intact to juicers and blenders and some unusaul technology in between. When I did ask if one vendor would be happy to demonstrate his juicer he instead decided to question my camera equipment calling it something from batteries not included, which was a little offensive considering I prefer the analogue film style as a medium for artistic choice due to the realism of colour depth, unfortunately this was not possible with the new honestech software and my old hardware for transfer not having software compatible with windows 7 being xp only I lost the ability to transfer high quality video footage and retain my analogue artistic vision. I have now been forced to change to a toshiba camilleo x450 which I must say looks less like a camera and more like a tube, so if that’s how people consider professional camcorders now I would prefer something that looks like my old camcorder. (and the new camcorder doesn’t even capture audio well) Of course I saw through his insult and asked how long it would take for his machine to produce anything and he stated 20 minutes, so obviousely he was simply trying to cover up the fact his machine would be slow and terrible at demonstrating how to make a quick smoothy and wanted the media to avoid showing off the slowness of his product at all, and it probably output a terrible quality smoothy too considering he refused to demonstrate it.
Time slipped by quickly and soon the day was over, which is why I would state if you were to visit you should definately plan which stages you wish to visit for which chefs and which stalls you would most like to visit to make the most of your day and be able to see everything you desire, and definately get samples and free goody bags from the vendors that have these on offer, and on your way out from the show in order to maximise your value for money, but just on the fact that you get to see and interact with the chef’s alone if you’re a fan of any food shows on tv and celebrity chefs you should definately check out the lineup of chefs at the show and choose a day where you get to see them up close and personal and you’ll get more than your moneys worth, especially if you choose the double feature ticket which gives you access to both the winter and summer shows.
If I’m lucky enough to go again and take footage I know I’ll be choosing to plan my day better, and at least I have more trustworthy video technology now also so that I won’t lose all of my footage from the show, and with a more timely review I can also give a better in depth review of the particular show, and hopefully draw comparisons between the winter and summer shows to better demonstrate the differences between them.
In the meantime check out the good food show site for yourself and see wether you think you would like to attend this year. www.bbcgoodfoodshow.com