The 25th Manchester Food and Drink Festival will be taking place 15th-26th September 2022.
This year will see an extra special celebration of Manchester’s incredible food and drink scene as the whole industry comes together to mark 25 years of the city’s original food festival. Today the first wave of festival programme events are announced, and bookings are now open at MFDF’s website.
MFDF 2022 is set to be the foodie destination of the Autumn with Cathedral Gardens at the heart of the action. The Festival Hub will become home to an array of street food traders, bars, and artisan producers, as well as masterclasses and takeovers. The free to enter Hub will be open 15th–18th & 21st–25th September from midday to 11.00pm.
The first ever Festival Fire Pit Takeover will be coming to the Hub for both long weekends. Sponsored by Weber, one of the world’s leading barbecue specialists, the Festival Fire Pit will invite some of the region’s best loved chefs to cook over fire for a first time festival feast. Caroline Martins, founder of the Sao Paolo project, Robert Owen Brown and Francisco Martinez from Fazenda will all be bringing their own specialist BBQ flavours to the fire pit as part of Weber’s takeover.
The Hub will also host the Octopus Cookbook Confidential demo kitchen on Saturday 24th September in collaboration with Octopus Books. Top chefs and industry experts will be coming together to share their tips, ideas and knowledge in cookery demos, conversations and debate discussions. A full day of foodie demos and panels will include:
- Kate Humble & Lia Leendertz: The joy of the outdoors – Eating & Cooking with the Seasons
- Edd Kimber: Pudding Love! – discussing our love of puddings from childhood to becoming professionals and everything in between
- Pip Payne & Nicky Corbishley: Tips, ideas and hacks for putting dinner on the table every night without breaking the bank
- Joe Woodhouse, Josh Katz & David Bez: From the swede to the courgette – why we should all be eating more veg and all the veggie inspiration you could hope for
- Jeremy Pang: School of Wok Chinese Cooking Demo
- Rahul Mandal: The Baking Surgery
- Jaega Wise vs Joel Harrison in conversation with Neil Ridley: Beer vs Cocktails
- More exciting names to be announced soon….
Free spaces for the Octopus Cookbook Confidential are limited and can be booked here.
Some of Manchester’s best-loved chefs will also be joining the Festival Hub to lead cooking masterclasses on the opening weekend of the Festival – a detailed programme will be announced soon!
The much-anticipated Artisan Food Market will take place across the duration of the Festival, opening 15th–18th & 22nd–25th September from midday to 7.00pm. This free to attend market will showcase some of Manchester’s finest food and drink producers, including New Market Dairy, The Flat Baker & Dghnt.
Away from the festival hub, an array of activities will be taking place across Manchester city centre…
MFDF will be the first event to take place at the iconic New Century in Manchester’s NOMA district to bring the Wine and Fizz Festival to town. New Century is currently being restored with stunning original features creating an extraordinary new live music and events hall for Manchester. Opening in September, the Wine and Fizz Festival will be the first event to take place in this iconic space. A chance to see amazing retailers like Cork of the North, Prestwich’s Grape to Grain and UKiYO Republic (showcasing their wonderful range of Japanese sake) in an incredible setting. Tickets are available to buy here.
Across the city for the duration of the festival, MFDF are also curating a line up of fantastic restaurants to take part in their £25 for 25 years menu collaboration. Northern Quarter favourite District will be creating an exclusive £25 drinks pairing menu to compliment their amazing Thai cuisine and celebrate the 25th anniversary of Manchester Food and Drink festival. Embankment Kitchen are also creating an exclusive £25 menu to give diners a taste of the best of their offering at a reduced price. Other restaurants taking part include Mi and Pho with a Vietnamese take on the exclusive menu offer, as well as Three Little Words, Shoryu Ramen, Tast, Society and many more to be announced over the coming weeks.
The best way to keep up to date with the full programme of events is to download the MFDF app where food fans can view and book all the events, takeovers, masterclasses and more.
