Brighton Food Festival Now On!

The Brighton & Hove Food and Drink Festival is back all September, offering a month of delicious and quirky events in the UK’s most trendy city by the sea. Superb Sussex seasonal fare will blend with Brighton’s unique city foodie culture, offering an eclectic mix of tasty events for food lovers, visitors and local families.

Every weekend offers up a major public foodie event, including the centrepiece ‘Big Sussex Market’ on September 10-11 by the Royal Pavilion, with an exciting Live Food Show with chefs demos.

Kicking off a ‘new tradition’ this year, ‘Sussex Cheese Bowling’ will be part of the People’s Picnic on 17 September at Preston Park, a great family day out with Morris dancers, a real ale bar and plenty of food stalls; and the Fiery Food Chilli Festival, the biggest UK chilli event, runs September 17-18, offering cult chilli followers an eye watering, spicy experience.

Sussex will also show off its world-beating bubbly at the Champagne & Sussex Sparkling Wine Festival on September 25 at Hotel du Vin.

Every weekend, Sussex Gourmet tours are on offer, with a guided tour of local producers in the stunning Sussex Downs countryside – hop on the vintage bus to discover the provenance of some of the best produce Sussex has to offer – but do book ahead.

Families can also enjoy the ‘Sussex and the World Market’ by the sea on Hove Lawns on September 24, running alongside the Children’s Food Festival, with lots of foodie fun for kids.

Lots of other ticketed events and special festival menus are on offer across the city, including 'Make Your Case', giving local vintners six minutes to argue why their chosen wine is the best (£15 max per bottle), on September 9^th – limited tickets available so get in there quick.

As the festival comes to an end, Brighton Oktoberfest toasts the awards with a showcase of the best Sussex beer and continental beers available from Friday 30th September - Sunday 2nd October (ticketed) before the festival curtain closes with the Brighton & Hove Foodie Awards 2011 ceremony in the ballroom of Pub du Vin (www.brightonfoodawards.com).

For more information see www.brightonfoodfestival.com

Brighton Foodie August leaders announced

Brighton & Hove Foodie Awards August leaders were announced today for the last time until the public’s first choice for best Brighton & Hove restaurant, food pub, café and food shop is revealed on October 3.

Public voting closes at midnight on September 12 and the top ten finalists in each of the four categories will be invited to a grand finale party, sponsored by We Talk Law and Gourmet Britain, where winners will find out if they have won and receive their trophies from Juice FM’s Andrea Fox and foodwriter Andrew Kay, in the beautiful Dome room at Pub du Vin.

With voting up almost 20 per cent on last year, well over 3,000 votes have been registered in the Brighton & Hove Foodie Awards in the past four months since it was launched as part of the city’s Spring food festival, according to organisers Natural PR.

So what’s happening on the leaderboard as we go in to August?

Best Restaurant: Terre a Terre and the Chilli Pickle have maintained their stronghold on the leaderboard staying first and second respectively. Indian Summer has for the first time dropped off the leaderboard losing out on third place to Kemp Town favourites 24 St Georges. It remains incredibly tight with everything to fight for in the last six weeks of voting.

Best Food Pub: The battle for first and second places goes on and this month it is The Prince George who leads, pushing the Ginger Pig back into second place. For the second month running we have a tie for third place with The Foragers in Hove coming onto the leaderboard for the first time since voting opened in April, sharing third position with the Lion and Lobster.

Best Café: Iydea in Trafalgar Street is still holding on to the top spot, whilst Cloud 9 has regained second place in its jostle with Metro Deco, which moves to third position. Can either of them catch Iydea as we enter the last six weeks of voting? That’s up to you!

Best Food Shop: There’s still no change in this category – the wonderful Infinity Foods holds its lead, with the brilliant Taj in second place and the Real Patisserie coming in third. Will there be a shock change in position next month? Only you can make this happen so get voting!

“No more news now until September once voting has closed and finalists are announced. Traditionally there is a rush of voting in the final weeks which can impact tremendously on the final results,” said Paula Seager, MD of Natural PR, who runs the awards.

“Thank you to everyone who has voted and all the food outlets which are so enthusiastically taking part. But remember there are still six weeks to go until voting closes on 12 September and much can change in that time, so come on people in Brighton & Hove, you must have a favourite restaurant, food pub, café and food shop, so please vote now!”

Vote and keep up to date on the leaders board at www.brightonfoodawards.com - everyone has one vote per category.