Sun shines for Feast East 2010 over the weekend

The glorious weather for the region's annual food festival, Feast East 2010 on Friday and Saturday helped make it the biggest and best in its 16 years' existence since it was first organised by Tastes of Anglia back in 1994.

Thousands of visitors flocked to Chilford Hall in south-east Cambridgeshire to enjoy superb food and drink from the six counties - Beds, Herts, Cambs, Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex - at some 80 well stocked stands from the excellent producers the East of England is famed forfrom beer to bread, ham to cakes, soup to pesto. Congratulations go to Thursday Cottage of Tiptree in Essex for the Best Dressed Stand 2010 and to The Cake Shop in Woodbridge for the runner up

Opened by celebrity chef Anton Edelmann of Anton's Restaurant at Great Hallingbury Manor near Stansted on Friday morning followed by one of his entertaining culinary demonstrations: In the Cookery Theatre, many of our region's best chefs cooked top class restaurant dishes in real time to the amazement of the audience; wewere also delighted to welcome Galton Blackiston, star of Market Kitchen and Great Britain Menu, to the Festival stage to showcase his food from Morston Hall in North Norfolk.

In the Foodie Skills Area, eager food lovers learnt about different ingredients and kitchen techniques from expert tutors such as venison, healthy eating, fish, pastry skills and spices; particularly of interest were master classes by Mark David and Marriages in how to make the best bread.

The well known Earsham Street Cafe from Bungay in north Suffolk created a flavour of their award-winning cuisine in the Feast East Food Court.

This year's festival was kindly supported by Anglia Regional Co-operative Society and generously sponsored by RECAP - the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Waste Partnership and the Game's On Campaign from the BASC - The British Association of Shooting and Conservation.

The Crown at Woodbridge, a boutique townhouse inn in East Suffolk donated a two night break for the Festival prize draw won by Steve and Carole Wyatt of Fressingfield near Eye in Suffolk and the Tastes Anglia luxury hamperwhich waswon by Rosemary Wilder of Felixstowe, Suffolk