Sue Hitchen is the founder of Foodies Festival which takes place in Inverleith Place on the weekend of 7-9 August 2015, and she is also editor of Foodies Magazine and the Edinburgh Festivals magazine.

Sue Hitchen

When we spoke to her earlier this week we found out that this year Foodies Festival is to be even bigger than before. Last year around 30,000+ people visited the Festival, making it already the biggest in their suite of events. Sue explained: “This is the tenth anniversary and the show is extending so that it will have double the footprint it occupied last year. There will be a lot more space to picnic and just enjoy the festival.

“There will be 60 artisan producers but in total over 300 exhibitors with restaurant events, the normal Chefs’ Theatre starring among others the chef Marcello Tully from Kinloch Lodge, and they will all doing what they do best – cooking!”

As well as the Chefs’ Theatre there is a Drinks Theatre, a new Tasting Theatre with masterclasses designed by bloggers and experts. Visitors will be guided through oyster shucking and mushroom foraging!

In the Cake and Bake theatre which is billed as a ‘confectionery paradise’ there will be cake making par excellence with 3-D cakes, sugar-crafting and a village selling all sweet things.

The Festival is open from 11-7 on Friday 10-8 on Saturday and 10-7 on Sunday.

People are invited to come along on any one day but Sue said: “Some visitors actually come along on more than one day as the entertainment is different each day on the Entertainment Stage with music provided by local musicians.”

And of course you can try out the food in the restaurant tents where there are usually three taster dishes all reasonably priced in the region of £5 each.

And if it rains? Sue is optimistic about the weather but said: “In the event of inclement weather there are lots of big tents where people can take shelter. But Scottish Foodies fans are a pretty hardy lot who just don their wellies and come along anyway!”

This is the eighth festival that the Foodies team have attended this year. They go from place to place and run the festivals in each area from Brighton to Birmingham and Bristol.

Tickets cost £10 on Friday and £13 on Saturday and Sunday. There are also family tickets and you will find out more on the website.

Sue  especially loves to meet the chefs as they come to the Festival with their special dishes to  cook for the audience and also hand out lots of tips.

Foodies Magazine is one of the sponsors and so the audience can watch the recipe being cooked and then take the magazine home with them as it will have the recipe in it.

Sue herself professes to be a keen cook and particularly enjoys roasting a chicken for Sunday lunch. She recommends cooking a chicken in a roasting dish surrounded by vegetables and stock so that it all cooks as one. For the last 20 minutes she removes the lid which means that the chicken is browned to perfection, the vegetables are tasty and the stock makes a lovely gravy.

Sue concludes: “The one pot dish is easy to make and also makes for very easy washing up! We spent some time living in Spain and Morocco,  and I was brought up in Africa so serving couscous with roast chicken would be just the perfect accompaniment.”

Foodies Festival 7-9 August Inverleith Park EH3 5NZ

Bus services close by include Service 8, 23 and 27,  which go along Inverleith Row. The number 29 also stops on Comely Bank Road. For timetables please visit Lothian Buses.

There is public parking available in the local area of the event, but this is usually very busy due to the proximity of the Botanics.

Dogs are allowed but must be kept on a short lead.

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Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.

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