Cooking up a storm at Taste of Birmingham 2009

Apr 20 2009 Agenda, Birmingham Post

As Taste of Birmingham approaches, Ian Taylor looks at the plans for this year’s international food festival.

Birmingham is a foodie’s city. Stand by the Iron Man in Victoria Square and you can walk to more than 200 restaurants in minutes, serving menus drawn from dozens of countries.

Birmingham has more Michelin-starred restaurants than any other regional English city. It’s the birthplace of the balti, that addictive dish now served on every High Street.

Food is one of the best symbols of the quality, creativity and diversity of Birmingham. It’s something we need to start celebrating more, not just in the city, but beyond.

This year, we became the first city to really embrace Taste, the international food show, with Marketing Birmingham taking on the event’s franchise, backed by sponsorship from Advantage West Midlands.

It’s a bold move, but it’s one that demonstrates the confidence the city now has in being a centre of culinary excellence.

Over the past three years, Taste has brought positive publicity and economic benefits to the city and wider West Midlands that can be measured in millions of pounds. By owning and managing the event locally, we can make Taste yet more of a benefit for Birmingham and the region, putting the interests of its residents, restaurants and visitors first.

And it is a strategy that appears to be succeeding - we already have several more restaurants than last year signed up to the show, which will be held at Cannon Hill Park from July 9-12.

Although Birmingham prides itself on the international breadth of the cuisine it offers, it is important Taste has a distinctly local flavour.

We are being advised by a group of local chefs and restaurant owners to ensure the event works for them and their customers.

We will be emphasising the region’s homegrown culinary talent with award- winning chefs like Luke Tipping and Glynn Purnell of BBC2’s Great British Menu, as well as quality restaurants such as Edmunds, Itihaas, Cielo and Worcester’s Fusion.

Many of those chefs are great advocates of buying locally, so a key theme of this year’s event will be local produce. We’re working closely with Heart of England Fine Foods to showcase just how much fine food the Midlands has to offer, with brands like Herefordshire’s Flights Orchard Organic, Staffordshire’s Freedom Beer and Worcestershire’s Fudge Heaven.

As you would expect, Marketing Birmingham is keen to stress the contribution Midlands eating makes to the Midlands economy. The food and drink sector creates and supports tens of thousands of jobs directly and helps attract even more paying visitors. So, to emphasise food’s importance to the region’s wealth, we are inviting leading members of Birmingham’s business community to a special preview evening called Taste of Business.

Another big focus this year is value for money. Taste is, above all, a family event, so we’re making admission free for children under 16 who are attending with a paying adult, while we have cut the price of an adult ticket to £10 if booked in advance. All this means that the cost for a family of four will be just £20, half that of previous years.

This is important, not only as a recognition that we live in more cost-conscious times, but because the message of good eating needs to be taken to all incomes and all ages.

It is also vital to emphasise that preparing good food and healthy eating is something everyone can enjoy, particularly young people, so this year’s Taste will lay great emphasis on issues such as growing your own produce, getting the public to take part in cookery demonstrations and “cook-off” competitions.

We also want to ensure that Taste brings benefits not just to the thousands who come to Cannon Hill Park, but to the wider city and the West Midlands; this year, we will link the event with other city organisations to broaden the interest and encourage more people to visit, as well as offering plenty to see and do throughout each day.

Everything Marketing Birmingham does is driven towards improving perceptions of Birmingham and attracting visitors to the city, for both business and leisure.

Events are an excellent way of creating that positive buzz, getting people talking about the city and the region, generating interest and intrigue, showcasing what we are good at. If we want to celebrate and promote the region’s culinary excellence, then there are few ways better than by bringing all of our best food and drink to one place, Taste, and letting people enjoy them.

The proof really is in the eating.

* Ian Taylor is Marketing Birmingham’s commercial director.