Concert News

WILDERNESS FEASTING & DINING EXPERIENCES OPEN FOR BOOKINGS

• 24th May 2022

Having already announced a hotly-anticipated arts and music programme the highly respected culinary presentation now takes centre stage as Wilderness go on sale with their pioneering Feasting and Dining experiences. 

Over the years, Wilderness has cemented its impeccable reputation for creating unique and memorable dining experiences filled with Michelin-starred heavyweights, globally renowned chefs, home-grown favourites, and the hottest, emerging talent on the food scene right now. 

This year Wilderness presents an all-star line up of Chefs who will showcase inspired menus that spotlights equality, zero waste, sustainability, seasonality and a whole platter of epicurean cuisines and styles critical to all diets and lifestyles.  

Paul Glossop, Event Director of Wilderness proudly states, “We continually seek to present breath-taking experiences across our entire programme, and this year’s feasting and dining offerings are no exception. Event Manager Emma Kirkby and I were delighted to partner with hospitality aficionados Alex Head, Holly Jack and Charlotte Spencer from Social Pantry alongside our Chefs and Caterers to develop an irresistible and authentic food programme with a purpose that far exceeds the eating experience”.  

THE CHEF’S TABLE 
Food For The Future – Zero Waste

Thursday: Will Devlin (The Small Holding)
Friday: Niklas Ekstedt (Ekstedt)
Saturday: Adam Handling (Frog by Adam Handling)
Sunday: Skye Gyngell (Spring)

Overlooking the majestic Lake Superior, this year’s pioneering Chef’s Table focuses on food for the future, delivering a decadent menu whilst embracing a zero-waste kitchen ethos in the field. It’s here, at The Chef’s Table, these innovative chefs will cook a 7-course tasting menu using the freshest ingredients before your eyes, at a spectacular intimate restaurant under canvas.    

Adam Handling, Chef and owner of Frog by Adam Handling, comments, “I’m really looking forward to being at The Chef’s Table at Wilderness – it’s going to be really exciting to create delicious food there, whilst highlighting the importance of utilising what’s commonly considered as ‘food waste’. Sustainability is at the heart of our group and regardless of whether we’re cooking in a field at a festival or in a Michelin-starred restaurant, we always abide by the same rules. Our snacks are always made from by-products from the main dishes, it’s the part that gives you little snippets about what the food journey is going to be. I love that none of the guests will know they’re eating “waste” or by-products, it’s just going to be amazing food. I’m all about showcasing that what could be considered as waste can actually be turned into something incredible. It’s an open kitchen so I’ll be there talking to guests and having loads of fun – I can’t wait.” 

Will Devlin, chef patron of The Small Holding, added, “I’m really excited to be cooking at Chef’s Table this year. The way we cook at all our restaurants in the acre group is about making the most of every part of the ingredient from nose to tail, root to flower. We rear our own animals and grow most of the vegetables and soft fruit we use at The Small Holding; when you’ve nurtured something from seed or bottle fed a sick lamb and put so much effort and graft in, it’s impossible to even consider the tiniest wastage. Zero waste is in vogue, as it rightly should be, but for us it’s just something we’ve always done out of sheer respect for the commitment it takes to put food on people’s plates.”  

WOODFIRED & FRIENDS
The Feminist Kitchen with Clare Finney

Thursday: Chantelle Nicholson
Friday: Sally Abé (The Pem) 
Saturday: Sam Evans & Shauna Guinn
Sunday: Bettina Campolucci Bardi

Wilderness are thrilled to welcome back Woodfired & Friends, this time collaborating with Clare Finney, award winning food journalist and author of ‘The Female Chef’, to bring together some of the most inspiring female chefs in the UK to cook alongside Ben and his Woodfired team for the weekend.  

Ben Quinn of Woodfired Canteen, commented that, “Woodfired & Friends will always be about teaming up with optimistic, like-minded folks to make lifetime memories at our long tables. Our amazing leadership team guides incredible food experiences every day. We’re so proud to be working with Clare Finney, who’s programmed an awe-inspiring line-up for our feasts at Wilderness”. 

Clare Finney said: “I am excited – and honoured – to be working with Wilderness and Woodfired to create a feminist kitchen at this year’s festival and generate a discussion around what that means and looks like. Though I, like so many of us, grew up on the food of my mother and grandmother, it wasn’t until I came to interview 30 chefs for my book The Female Chef that I realised how closely bound up food is with female identity; for whilst the rarefied world of gastronomy has always been male dominated, the work of nourishing and sustaining communities has historically and biologically been ‘women’s work’.  Now that the sands are shifting and food as ‘industry’ is moving from something male-lead to something more balanced, the question of whether/to what extent female industry leaders feel they should encompass womanhood within their professional life – indeed cherish it as a fundamental source of their success – or follow their counterparts in banking, law and so on in casting it off seems increasingly relevant. This is just one of the many conversations I hope will be sparked by Woodfired’s ‘feminist kitchen’, whose grills will be ably wommaned by some of the Britain’s most exciting and progressive female chefs’”. 

THE WILDERNESS KITCHEN 
Vegan & Vegetarian Feast
Presented by The Social Pantry

Thursday: Alex Head & Sarah Turner (Social Pantry)
Friday: Helen Graham (Bubala)
Saturday: Noor Murad (Ottolenghi)
Sunday: Harriet Mansell (Robin Wylde)

Following on from the success of last year, Wilderness are thrilled to announce the return of the vegan and vegetarian long table banquets, headed up by some of London’s most accomplished chef talent. Four chefs, collaborating with Social Pantry to present a delicious line up of mouth-watering plant-based menus in their own imitable and unique style.   

Alex Head of Social Pantry, comments, “The Wilderness Kitchen is back by popular demand! And this year, I couldn’t be more excited to welcome an incredible line up of host chefs who, alongside Social Pantry, will be showcasing the very best in vegan & veggie feasting. Whilst the food might be strictly meat-free, we welcome everyone at this table – whether you’re a carnivore or herbivore, these banquets will not disappoint!” 

Ottolenghi’s Noor Murad, “Bahrain’s food is a little bit Arabic, a little bit Persian and a little bit Indian and, myself, I’m a little bit English, so this feast is what I like to call ‘Arab-ish’. Really, it’s about bringing all corners of the world together, via burnt aubergines and black limes”.  

LONG TABLE BANQUETS

Thursday: Robin Gill (Bermondsey Kitchen)
Friday: Jeremy Lee (Quo Vadis)
Saturday: Tom Barnes (L’Enclume)
Sunday: Sam Buckley (Where The Light Gets In)

Playing host to some of the finest Michelin-starred chefs from around the world, the now infamous Wilderness Long Table Banquets have become one of the weekend’s magical moments. Feasts of epic proportions, culinary delights and surprise performances, this year’s line-up yet again does not disappoint with the addition of big hitters, Robin Gill, Jeremy Lee, Tom Barnes and Sam Buckley all presiding high in the banqueting kitchen this summer. 

Tom Barnes, Executive Chef at L’Enclume, “There’s such a great line up of chefs at this year’s festival, I’m really excited to be a part of it. I’m looking forward to bringing my style of cooking to the festival surroundings and serving up my dishes as part of a long table banquet, should be fun. When I get some down time, I’m looking forward to checking out the other food stands, wine and of course, the music – Wilderness has been on the bucket list for a while now.” 

AMERICAN EXPRESS® PRESENTS THE DINING ROOM

Presented by American Express® Experiences, The Dining Room will host an array of delicious menus, tastings, wine pairings and talks side-by-side with some of the industry’s most exciting talents as well as an exciting new for 2022 gastronomic spectacular – to be announced soon.

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