Broadstairs Food Festival: Dine out on the Garden of England’s bounty

Foodwise, we’re spoilt for choice, living in our pocket of Kent. 

Between Ramsgate, Broadstairs and Margate, we have an eclectic selection of restaurants and food businesses, whether you’re hankering for fish and chips mixed in with the grit of windswept sand or a Michelin-recommended dinner to bask in. 

Broadstairs Food Festival brings together a hefty chunk of Thanet and Kent’s main players under cliff-top marquee domes overlooking Viking Bay for three days later this month. This year’s autumn edition runs Friday, September 27 to Sunday, September 29. However, umbrella events in nearby pubs and restaurants start from Wednesday, September 25. 

What started in 2008 as an opportunity to support the town’s independent pubs, restaurants, cafes and shops, the festival has become a bi-annual affair celebrating “Kent’s rich heritage of great food and drink”.  It boasts a curation of sustainability-focused growers and producers and a 100-odd stalls proffering up things to devour at the festival, stuff to take home and inspiration  to elevate your own home-cooking game. 

Event Director Jo Scott is feeling the festival buzz already. “I love seeing the marquees going up, knowing what's to come,” she says. “Our line-up is looking amazing and we are really looking forward to welcoming everyone, from chefs to volunteers and exhibitors to visitors – it's like having Christmas three months early.”

If only all our Christmas dinners were this delicious; demos by two of UK’s top chefs, Michelin-starred Stephen Harris from The Sportsman, Seasalter and Matt Sworder from Canterbury’s Corner Housen the programme. 

There are stalls and events by much-loved local haunts like Pomus, Mariachi and No. 1 Oscar Road Wine Bar, as well as new exhibitors such as Local Luxury Chefs too.  

Beyond the market’s promenade, venues like Royal Albion Hotel, The Charles Dickens pub and Twenty-Seven Harbour Street host one off dinners and events.

With so much going on, we’ve rounded up a handful of festival highlights we think will leave you feeling stuffed and sated.

Autumn Broadstairs Food Festival - Strange Tourist’s top picks

Dinner: The Perfect Place to Grow
September 27, Festival Theatre, 7.30-11pm, £50 - Book here
Held in the Festival Theatre, Margate’s training kitchen puts on a four-course menu for hungry punters. For the festival, TPPTG has teamed up with local chef and forager Mike, from Mike & Ollie, to create a menu using in-season and foraged ingredients that have been paired with English low-intervention wine. Established by Ani James and Lee Coad from Angela’s/Dory’s and Harry Ryder from Bottega Caruso, TPPTG supports young people into work. Partnering with guest chefs, the team creates interesting and delicious menus and one-off dining events that are used to teach skills and create sustainable pathways into employment.

Chef Demo: Matt Sworder from The Corner House
September 28, Festival Theatre, 11am-12pm, free 
After earning his stripes in the kitchens of Gordon Ramsay, Anthony Demetre and Adam Byatt, Sworder went on to open his first restaurant in Minster, before establishing The Corner House in Canterbury. In this demo, he will prepare a Corner House classic, Dockyard gin and beetroot-cured salmon, with pickled cucumber and crème fraiche.

Chef Demo: Stephen Harris from The Sportsman
September 28, Festival Theatre, 12.15-1.15pm, free
Chef Stephen Harris and his brother took over The Sportsman in Seasalter in 1999, and the restaurant has garnered a string of accolades since. It has held a Michelin star since 2008, was voted the number one restaurant in the UK in 2016 and 2017 at the National Restaurant Awards and named Restaurant of the Year in the Good Food Guide Awards 2023. We don’t know what this celebrated chef will be preparing for the crowds, but don’t miss out on this opportunity to learn a few tricks from one of the best. 

Dinner: The Foreign Embassy
September 28, Festival Theatre, 8-11pm, £75 - Book here
A Ramsgate-based pop up of no fixed abode, The Foreign Embassy take their rootless supper-club to Broadstairs Food Festival for the first time this year. In fitting with the seaside locale, the feast will be a banquet of Kentish seafood and seasonal produce, but that’s all the information you can have, for now. While the team like to serve up satiating themed-dinners, they like to do so with a side of mystery and intrigue. Tickets included seven courses served family style, and a welcome drink. 

Workshop: Daisy Rollo’s coffee workshop
September 29, Festival Theatre, 11am-12pm, free
Ever wonder what goes into the perfect cup of Joe? Ramstage-based Daisy Rollo takes you through a cup of coffee, from farm to your morning caffeine jolt. Learn about cultivation, roasting and extracting, and then test out your knowledge with a flight of coffee.

Stalls to pig out on

Made from Plants
This Margate-based home operation will have a supply of plant-based sweet and savoury goodies. Head here for fully vegan brownies, cinnamon buns, sausage rolls, pies and pizzas. 

Windmill Community Gardens
Another Margate community initiative, Windmill gardens deliver veg boxes around Thanet, and also have a weekly farmers' stall. Pick yourself up some ultra-locally grown pears and potatoes, or whatever else is in season. 

The Halloumi Stop
As if halloumi fries weren’t delicious enough on their own, The Halloumi Stop’s fries come loaded, turning a finger-licking snack into a decadent, gluttonous meal. Try the mac n cheese fried halloumi, or douse your fries in any number of toppings. 

Rent a Cherry Tree
You can just quaff Kentish cherry juice or cherry brandy liqueurs at this store, or you can rent yourself out an entire cherry tree. This gives you a week of picking cherries each year, as well as blossom walks and updates on how your tree is progressing throughout the year. 

YouBao
A food truck favourite, YouBao plates up pillowy steamed bao buns stuffed with tangy Asian fillings and drizzled with zesty sauces and come in meat and veggie options. 

The autumn edition of Broadstairs Food Festival returns Friday-Sunday, 27-29 September 2024 at Victoria gardens, Broadstairs, CT10 1QS and various other locations around town. Free entry. Find out more at broadstairsfoodfestival.org.uk