I was really excited when I found out I got a press pass for the BBC Good Food Show because of The Jammy Bakers' food blog. The press pass, which gave me entry to the press room, was a relaxing room filled with delicious samples. I especially enjoyed the Earl Grey tea from The London Tea company, marshmallows from Marshmallow Heaven, crisps from Ten Acre and a range of Lindt chocolate.
The BBC Good Food Show was even better this year as it was two shows in one, and also included the BBC Good Food Bakes and Cakes Show. The first demo of the day was Paul Hollywood. He made a chocolate roulade and a fougasse. We were interested by his bakes. We are going to use Paul's recipe to make a special chocolate roulade for Christmas. Straight after the demo we met Paul Hollywood at the book signing and he signed my book and I told him about my success at the World Bread Awards.
Le Cordon Bleu were really kind to us when we asked about masterclasses. They said in the future I should go and do some classes with them and learn some new skills. Later on in the day, we went to a Le Cordon Bleu masterclass and learned brushwork embroidery on some flower biscuits. This was a new technique for me and it was fun learning how to do it.
Lindt did an interesting chocolate tasting session and explained how chocolate was made. It was run by Master Chocolatier Stefan Bruderer who had flown in from Switzerland especially for the session. He told us how he had been involved in inventing new flavours. He encouraged us to use all our senses as we tasted the chocolates. The chocolates were really tasty: my favourite was the salted caramel.
We chatted to Cyrus Todiwala from the Incredible Spice Men and he liked what I did and said I should go and work with him when I was older. He was kind and generous.
One of our local businesses: Farrington Oils was at the show. We tasted some roast potatoes cooked in their Mellow Yellow rapeseed oil - they were delicious. Duncan Farrington kindly gave me a bottle of rapeseed oil which I am going to use in my breadmaking.
At demonstration with Mich Turner, we discovered how to make a tasty carrot cake. Mich made her carrot cake even more delicious by adding some caramelised walnuts to the middle and top of the cake. This is something I will try with my carrot cakes. I chatted with Mich at the end and asked her about what subjects were important to be good in cookery. She said it was important to do science, cookery and creative subjects.
I had a fantastic day at the Good Food Show, meeting lots of interesting people and doing some hands on activities to learn new things. There were quite a few children at the show so next year it would be great if there was a special children's area where children could try out different equipment and learn new techniques.
