The Bay Restaurant in Cumbria will be serving up a mammoth 21-course lunch today to mark the start of a new Cumbrian food festival.
The £21 Ultimate Cumbrian Taster Menu aims to showcase the best produce from the region and will use ingredients such as salmon from Cartmel Valley Game and pancetta from Richard Woodalls in Waberthwaite.
Diners at the restaurant at The Waterhead Hotel will be able to watch head chef Michael Weston-Cole (pictured with the dishes) and his team prepare the dishes in the kitchen on TV screens dotted around the restaurant.
Weston-Cole said: "We’re starting the festival with our Ultimate Cumbrian Taster Menu to show the diversity and quality of our local produce and to give people a taste of what is to come over the following four evenings at the festival. We think it’s the most courses ever served at a restaurant in the North West. It’s a real challenge for the team in the kitchen and the waiting staff but once we’d sat down and thought of all the different things we wanted to do we decided we needed 21 dishes to do justice to Cumbrian food.”
The hotel`s five-day food festival will be supported by four themed evenings in the restaurant, including a Classic French evening run by former Le Gavroche head chef Steven Doherty.
Visitors will also be given the chance to meet some of the local suppliers.
Weston-Cole added: “Cumbrian produce really has gone from strength to strength over the last five to ten years and we can now lay claim to be Britain’s greatest food county. That’s why we wanted to create a festival that really demonstrates the excellence of Cumbrian food."