Kenwood House was home to Foodies Festivals for the first time last weekend which gave the opportunity for all foodies to come and sample delicious wine, healthy snacks, zebra, macaroons and much much more. The number 1 summer food and drinks festival we couldn’t have picked a better day to go. The sun was out in full as we arrived on the beautiful grounds of Kenwood and made our way around the different stalls.

We started at the top of the hill where there were a few stands situated just behind Kenwood house which included the master chef bus and lots of stalls selling gin! A particular favourite was one called  the summer cup which for someone who has never been  a lover of gin definitely made me change my mind. Bursting with fruity flavour it reminded me of pimms but with a tangier taste. After sampling a mix of gins and even fresh strawberry champagne we were definitely in the mood for food so wandered down to the main area to see what they had in store.

The mixture of smells hit me right away, from hog roast, to crispy duck, paella and morrocan tagine, there was definitely a fine variety of cuisines to try. I was quite keen to have a wander around, sample a few things before buying, however Craig’s rumbling stomach signalled he wanted food and was on a mission to find it. A lover of duck he was easily pleased when he came across The Duck Truck stall. They had a relatively big que which I usually take as a sign that the food has to be good and it didn’t disappoint. Craig opted for the duck wrap which was crispy shredded duck marinated in a hoisin sauce with lettuce and wrapped up in a tortilla. Again I don’t tend to eat a lot of duck from having a bad experience eating it when I was younger but I ended up eating almost half of Craig’s wrap!

After satisfying our bellies, for the time being, we wandered round the various stalls passing some that were certainly there to satisy a sweet tooth including churros, vegan cakes and an ice cream stall called Gelarto which had some fabulous flavours including Gin & Tonic sorbets. We then came across Riot bar which wasn’t hard to miss with its bright signs and a beautiful ceiling made out of soft material that looked like coloured petals. Serving an array of cocktails such as Brazilian martini and a twist on the classic mojito it was definitely popular, Craig and I opted for a refreshing strawberry and elder flour cider which was up there with my favourite cider of strawberry and lime rekorderlig.

The atmosphere of the day was relaxed and fun filled with lots of families and their doge as well as having Kenwood house as a backdrop certainly wasn’t sore for the eyes. Different musicians played throughout the day and there was play areas for the kids too. It was easy just to wander aimlessly around for a good couple of hours and get lost in all the different stalls.

I tried the most delicious goats cheese here sprinkled with paprika. Several of her cheeses have won awards and after tasting them you can see why. 

I fell in love with this stand and all it’s incredible different herbal chai tea flavours. I am addicted to chai tea lattes however I found a new love in a Iced chai. I had the spiced chai and it was absolutely delicious. They also have flavours in mango, vanilla, chocolate and peppermint.

We came across Drury and Alldis at the BBC good food festival and loved their design for oils and different flavours. The white balsmic was a new flavour and was sweet and would work fantastically in salads.

Gaucho was by far the busiest stall of the day. Selling rib eye steak at £7 I’m not surpised. I thought it was linked to the famous Gaucho restaurant however this is actually separate but from the que it definitely matched in popularity.  One restaurant who did have their food to sample was the The Trust Arms whose food was small and beautiful. The toffee pudding was mouth watering and I loved the set up. The kitchen staff were kept busy restocking each dish as soon as one was sold and if one dish was left out for too long it went up for sampling!

A super lovely day, made even better with the lovely sun shining. It’s always a treat to explore new food and drink places and Foodies Festival is a perfect way to market this. What better way to spend a Sunday by drinking wine, sampling and buying delicious food and discovering food places I didn’t even know about.