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BBC News
01-08-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Melton Mowbray hosts double festival of pies and spirits
Melton Mowbray's beloved PieFest is getting a spirited upgrade as it joins forces with another popular local are running the event on Saturday and Sunday between 10:00 and 16:00 BST alongside SpiritsFest, celebrating the growing distillery sector in and around the known as the UK's pie capital, the Leicestershire town will once again host competitions for the best pies in various categories as part of the British Pie addition of the spirits festival gives visitors the chance to meet local drinks producers at the Livestock Market in Scalford Road. A Pie Theatre will host talks and demonstrations on the history of pies, while workshops will give visitors the chance to try making their own. Categories range from traditional meat pies to vegetarian and sweet varieties, while the spirits on offer include artisan gin, rum, whisky and organiser Matthew O'Callaghan said: "The British eat over a billion pounds worth of pies every year. "We host the British Pie Awards, where almost 1,000 pies compete for the title of 'Supreme Pie', so it seems only logical to organise a festival celebrating the British Pie."We used to run a separate Spirits Festival, but with the food calendar already supporting four food festivals (Cheese Fair, PieFest, ChocFest and the East Midlands Food Festival) we thought it best to combine it with PieFest until we can develop the festival in its own right."Sadly the number of independent distillers in the area has declined, but we're hoping other independent distillers in the area will replace them."
BBC News
21-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
'You can eat a different UK cheese 365 days a year'
"In the British Isles you can eat a cheese from a different cheese-maker every day of the year."Matthew O'Callaghan, chair of the Artisan Cheese Awards 2025 believes there is now a huge choice for consumers as a result of a recent "renaissance" in the art of cheese-making in the said there had been a "record" 650 entries from 123 producers in the cheese awards at Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire this O'Callaghan said previously consumers had been largely restricted to a small variety of cheese made by large companies with just a few regional cheese-makers. "In the past we've had the industrial block cheddar but now the small micro-producer is expanding our ranges of cheeses, including continental ones and experimental cheeses," he said."We've got 20 classes here of different types and it's wonderful to see this blossoming of the British cheese scene."Mr O'Callaghan said the entries at this year's awards had come from across the UK and Ireland."The French boast that they can eat a different cheese every day of the year and in the British Isles, we can eat a different cheese from a different cheese-maker every day of the year, the variety is enormous," he said. Tim Rowcliffe, an ambassador for the Specialist Cheesemakers Association, said the variety of cheeses in the UK were reduced during World War Two."It was all about feeding an island nation," he said."The Milk Marketing Board formed to regulate and govern what happened to milk in the UK and as a consequence the vast variety of cheeses that were being produced... got focussed into cheddar."Pre-war the biggest selling cheese in the UK was Cheshire Cheese, that all but disappeared. "It saved the dairy industry but knocked out all the individual makers." Mr Rowcliffe said efforts began in the 1960s and 70s to boost the numbers of small cheese producers."I cannot tell you how amazing the growth is over a relatively short space of time," he said."We now make more cheeses in this country than France."The winners of the 2025 awards were judged on Thursday and will be announced at the Artisan Cheese Fair held in Melton's Cattle Market on 24-25 May.
