john torode opening the show

The final stop of the 2009 tour saw us at BBC Masterchef Live at Olympia in London. We came to this show last year when it was known as BBC Good Food London so we did have an idea about how popular the show was, but it still exceeded our expectations!

Each day the show was opened by John Torode and Greg Wallace – presenters of TV’s Masterchef series. Alongside this, there were demonstrations all day, every day by past winners of Masterchef and Celebrity Masterchef. This brought many familiar faces such as Wendi Peters, Liz McClarnon and our old friend Steven Wallis (Mastercehf winner 2007 who worked with us on the 2008 tour).

Our demonstrations, led once again by our very own Simon Woodhouse, went down a storm

Simon's Grilled Pork with Blackstick Figs

with every show being a sell out before lunch time! Simon prepared Smoked Salmon Crostini with Savoury Cranachan, followed by Grilled Pork with Blackstick Figs. Both recipies were fantastic, with many visitors commenting on how they will be trying to recreate these dishes at home – something they had felt wasn’t possible with some of the other demonstrations they had seen at the show.

We had many different products to offer samples of at this show. These included – pate with melba toast, mixed olives with feta

products we were sampling

cheese, peppadews with cream cheese, cheddar cheese with black pepper served with chutney, stilton cheese, mince pies with brandy butter and truly irresistable crisps and crushes. Once again we had the team from Head Office offering samples of Co-operative wines and we also had one of the suppliers of apples and the supplier of salads on the stand who were also offering samples of their products.

We once again had smoothie bike sessions running throughout the day which were a huige sucess, especially on the first day of the show as there were a number of schools visiting the show and who all enjoyed peddling their way to a smoothie.

Masterchef Live Team

This show was the last of the 2009 tour and what a fantastic time we have had!

me meeting and greeting

On behalf of Chris and Chrissie I would just like to thank everyone who has been part of our team for 2009 – the tour has been excellent and we have met some really nice people along the way!

I would also like to thank anyone who has taken the time to follow my blog and hopefully there will be more to come soon!

Bye for now!

Christine xxx

Brand Ambassador and tour blogger 2009

Caro giving out samples

This was the second time we had taken the Roadshow to Westmorland and what a fantastic show it was! This show is only on for one day and a good day was had by all! The sun was shining, and everyone was in high spirits.

children on the Plan Bee stand

There were many schools in attendance at this show as a large number of them close for the day and bring the children, which meant Plan Bee and the Smoothie Bike were in high demand!

The cookery demonstrations throughout the day were presented by Simon Woodhouse who prepared Spiced Elmwood Chicken with Homemade Bramley Apple Chutney along with our favourite Barbequed Fruit Kebabs. Every session was full and Simon received many compliments…with one gentleman having never tasted curry before, commenting how nice it was and that he would definately be having it again!

The sampling at this show consisted of tomatoes, Truly Irresistable cookies and shortbreads, Truly Irresistable crisps, fruit crushes and cider, all of which went down well with the crowds and sold out in the shop by the end of the day!

This was  a great show to end the tour of county shows with and we were all sad that the outdoor leg of the tour was over for another year. However, we still have the two Good Food shows to look forward to and I hope to see you there!

Bye for now!

Christine x

Brand Ambassador and tour blogger 2009

The show was a three day show. We were welcomed by rain which turned the foot paths into bogs.! However this did not put the public off. Everyone donned their wellies for what turned out to be a fantastic show.

Our executive chef Simon Woodhouseprepared a beautiful dish of Chicken on Broad Beans with Fennel, followed by Barbecue Fruit kebabs. The demonstrations were very well received , with every session sold out . There were people who had visited us last year who joined us again for Simons culinary expertise.

Sampling of locally grown Tomatoes took place everyday which people loved and were even tempted to buy. The smoothie bike sessions were always well attended by children and adults alike.Plan B was found to be very popular with local bee keepers who had heard of the campaign.

We have a long break now until our next show in September at the Dorset County Show on the 5th & 6th, see you there!

Brand Ambassador and tour blogger 2009

This show was very significant as it was the last ever Royal Show to be held at the showground in Kenilworth. However, we suceeded in making it a very memorable show as we won not one - but two awards here! We won second prize for ‘Most informative Trade Stand’ and the Gold award for the best trade stand overall!

Simon Woodhouse our executive chef prepared ‘Grilled Elmwood Chicken on Fennel and Broad Beans’ as well as the ever popular ‘BBQ Fresh Fruit Kebabs’. Both dishes were very well received by all with many people returning to watch the afternoon demonstrations as they were so impressed by what they had seen in the morning!

Again, there was a huge interest in the Plan Bee unit, especially from Bee Keepers who also had a stand at this show and were keen to learn more about what The Co-operative were doing to help the plight of the bee.

There was, as ever, a huge crowd for every smoothie bike session we had throughout the show with both children and adults alike enjoying peddling their way to a smoothie!

This show was a landmark for us on this tour as it was the final Royal Show and has been one of my personal favourites so far!

Anyway, there isn’t much time to rest….. we are off to Yorkshire in 2 days!

See you then

Christine x

This was the second time that we had taken the Good With Food Roadshow  to Cornwall (and I have to say it is one of my favourite shows!)

The Team

The weather was beautiful throughout the show – especially on set-up day which meant that we did get to spend an hour on the beach near to where we were staying once we had finished working.

We were pleased to see that the Human Cannonball was back at this show as well – he is becoming one of our favourite features at the county shows this year!

Simon Woodhouse, our executive chef, prepared a chicken curry with British Elmwood chicken and a home-made bramley apple chutney and his barbequed fruit kebabs – which went down a storm with it being perfect for a barbeque!

We showcased many of the Co-operative’s products at this show but for me a special mention has to go to the delicious Cornish strawberries which were served with truly irresistable clotted cream…they were perfect!

Pirate Radio broadcasting live from our stand!

A highlight of this show was that local radio station Pirate Radio actually did a live broadcast featuring our smoothie bike!

After this three day show, we travelled back home to prepare for our next show – The South of England Show in Sussex.

Hope to see some of you there!

Christine x

Brand Ambassador and tour blogger 2009

As we saw at the 2008 show, Bath and West is actually nicknamed the ‘Bath and WET county show’ and for the set – up day and first day of the show it was definately wet! However, armed with our wellies and trusty plastic poncho’s we were ready for this fantastic show regardless of the weather!

The bad weather on day one did not seem to matter, especially when the next three days were glorious sunshine and, despite day one being a bit of a washout, we managed to walk away with the Gold Award for the best trade stand at the show!!

We had a brilliant location at this show, overlooking the main ring which was perfect for attracting a crowd and also for watching the ‘Human Cannonball’ who we have seen for the first time at this show and were amazed by! Here’s a link to a video we took of this incase you weren’t fortunate enough to be there and see this for yourself! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMvAORov94c

At this show, Simon Woodhouse prepared King Prawn Pasta Arrabiatta and BBQ Fresh Fruit Kebabs – which went down fantastically well – especially when the sun was shining and it was perfect weather for a barbeque!

We also had some VIP guests – Prince Charles and Camilla were present ( although sadly they did not come to one of our cookery demonstrations, despite us reserving two seats at the front ‘just in case!’) as well as conservative MP David Cameron (who also missed out on our demo’s!).

The smoothie bike was agin a big hit here, especially when being manned by Rob and his ‘banana microphone’! Everyone gathered round to watch the smoothie being made and were especially pleased to get a sample of it to refresh them in the hot weather!

As we have seen throughout this tour, the new ‘Plan Bee’ stand has been very sucessful and this show was no exception, with many children and adults alike wishing to learn more about this initiative and the plight of the bumble bee!

We don’t have too much time to rest now as in two days we begin the Royal Cornwall show at Wadebridge!

Hopefully see you there

Christine x

Chris peddlng a smoothie for the Countess

Wow what a show! Royalty and the public of Devon were out in full force to visit our stand. Over the three days we had fantastic weather as well as a whole host of interesting people on the stand. The main visitor was The Countess of Wessex who came on the first day. She was particularly interested in visiting the Plan Bee unit where Naomi Davies from the Co-operative’s Social Goals department, and Lisa Johnson from the Marketing Department were only too pleased to explain what it was all about. The Countess then sampled one of our delicious smoothies, peddled by our very own company director Chris Jackson!

The Countess of Wessex enjoying her smoothie!

Brand Ambassador and tour blogger 2009

The team at Newark

This was the first time that the Good with Food Roadshow had been to Newark and the stand went down a storm! We were situated right near the ‘Sheep Show’ (a show which we had seen many times last year and was sure to attract the crowds) and near the vintage cars, surrounded by many other food stands.

All the weather reports gave a terrible forecast for the weekend, so we were prepared for the worst (with our wellies and ponchos!) however, luck was on our side and it turned out to be a lovely weekend which also meant that the crowds were not put off either!

As well as our first time at Newark, this was the first time that the ‘Plan Bee’ section of the Roadshow had been unveiled. This is an interactive ‘Kids Zone’ educating them about the plight of the bee, as well as informing both children and adults alike, about the Co-operative’s new initiative – ‘Plan Bee’, a ten

me on the new plan bee stand

point plan aiming to educate people about the need for bee’s and empower them to do something about it. I was given the privilege to man this section of the Roadshow throughout the show and it was very well received and a huge success!

Of course, we still had the ’smoothie bike’ , shop and our executive chef ‘Simon Woodhouse’ who prepared a dish of chicken with a Bramley apple chutney and barbecue fruit kebabs for desert.

Once the two days were finished, the team didn’t have much time to rest as it was straight on to Belfast for the Balmoral Show… see you there!!

Christine

Brand Ambassador and tour blogger 2009