Kokova Magazine

On the first day of summer Master Park in Oxted was transformed for a one day event, bringing Urban Street Food to Surrey - and giving residents and visitors a good chance to support some very local businesses throughout the day.

If year one is the marker for things to come then roll on summer 2015.

Last Saturday (21st June) visitors to the Oxted Food & Drink Festival were able to lunch from the Street Food Market, discover new foods at the Producers Market, enjoy cookery tips from local chefs and let the kids learn some new skills through loads of cooking activities designed especially for them.

Tony Tobin, Reigate restaurateur and BBC Ready Steady Cook celebrity chef, was on hand demonstrating a divine taster dish of barbequed scallops, while Ali's Vintage Pop Up brought together afternoon tea, hand baked scones and beautiful vintage china.

We went home with a few bottles of Hayman's Gin, whose London Dry and Sloe became popular with everyone, while our favourite 'meals-to-make-at-home' company Hello Fresh were on hand with a cooking demonstration, putting together one of the recipes you can find in their home delivery box.

Helen Wallis was inundated at her stall selling Valley Mallows - generous chunks of soft, clean mallow in an assortment of flavours certainly hit the spot with the crowds - and Helen could be found sitting down on her empty boxes at the end of the show, completely sold out!

Church Farm Services, another local company, were offering tasters of their superb quality Halliloo Longhorn Beef. The meat is marbled with fat, important for succulence, tenderness and flavour - but more importantly it is locally reared and prized by top chefs, including Heston Blumenthal.

To season your selection throughout the day and available to take home were the flavoured salts and spices from Lancashire based company Twist and Kick. Hamish and Oli created Effin Fine Foods as an excuse to work with great food all of the time and the aim of Twist & Kick is to source and create fantastic natural seasonings and spices which are both unbelievably tasty and extremely simple to use. All ingredients are natural and they are constantly on the lookout for ways to minimise the food miles their ingredients and food cover.

To wash it all down without getting overly sweet Adam Baker was on hand with the new CHO! The Drinking Gazpacho. Hand made using all natural ingredients, organic where possible, the Gazpacho blends fruit, vegetables, extra virgin olive oil and mountain spring water - all in the same bottle.

At the end of the day we were treated to a 'donation only' curry selection courtesy of COOK where they make remarkable food for your freezer, prepared by hand at their kitchen in Kent, using the same ingredients and techniques you would use at home. All proceeds from this 'end of day eat-in' went towards making #curryforchange for Find Your Feet - supporting the poorest rural families in Southern Africa and South Asia to build a future free from hunger, poverty and discrimination.

Next year we would like to see more businesses becoming involved in local events like the Oxted Food & Drink Festival and hope they manage to take over most of Master Park in 2015.

For more details visit www.oxtedfoodfestival.com and check out our pictures from the day on Flickr - OxtedFoodfest.