Chefs and traders ready for second day of Wakefield rhubarb festival

Celebrity chef Peter Sidwell is kicking off a second day celebrating the city's rhubarb heritage.
Heather Copley cooks up her rhubarb recipesHeather Copley cooks up her rhubarb recipes
Heather Copley cooks up her rhubarb recipes

The TV chef, who found fame presenting Britain’s Top Bakery and Lake on a Plate, will be the first to take to the cookery stage to showcase his favourite rhubarb recipes, as part of Wakefield’s tenth annual Festival of Food, Drink and Rhubarb.

He will be followed by local and regional chefs including Gemma Alderson of Hogarths, Ashley and Ben McCarthy from Ye Old Sun Inn, Heather Copley of Pontefract’s Farmer Copleys and Paul Marshall of the Wakefield Beer Exchange.

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Traders of the Deliciously Yorkshire market will also be setting up their stalls again today selling crafts and food goodies, many with a rhubarb twist.

Visitors can expect cakes, ale, gin, candy floss and pork pies flavoured with the vegetable, which is grown in Wakefield, Morley and Rothwell.

Street entertainers, Dame Ruby Rhubarb and stilt walkers Roo and Barb will be mingling with the crowds, throughout the event, which runs until 5pm today and from 10am until 4pm tomorrow.

Other attractions include family friendly craft and play workshops on Brook Street and in the Elizabethan Gallery and cookery masterclasses, which can be booked at the Visitor Information Centre in The Bull Ring.

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Tours of the E Oldroyd and Sons rhubarb farm in Carlton and The Rhubarb Triangle and Other Stories photography exhibition by Martin Parr will also be running alongside the festival.

Coun Les Shaw, Wakefield Council’s cabinet member for culture, leisure and sport, said: “I’m also pleased that we are welcoming back a whole host of our amazing local talent. Come and see the local chefs in action as they share their favourite rhubarb recipes.”

For further information about what’s still to come, keep checking the Express website, visit www.wakefield.gov.uk/rhubarbfest or follow @MyWakefield #rhubarbfest on Twitter.