Lewes Octoberfeast

Across Lewes, Friday, September 18, to Saturday, October 10

AS Lewes Octoberfeast celebrates its sixth edition, the three-week event dedicated to Sussex produce is set to welcome culinary legend Rick Stein.

The Padstow-based seafood aficionado is coming to the All Saints Centre, in Friars Walk, Lewes, on Tuesday, September 22, to talk about his new book and TV series From Venice To Istanbul: Discovering The Flavours Of The Eastern Mediterranean.

Stein has penned more than 20 cookery books and an autobiography, as well as fronting more than 30 cookery programmes. He has cooked for The Queen and Duke Of Edinburgh, UK prime ministers Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher and French president Jacques Chirac.

Leading the discussion will be Mark Ridgwell, who is a trustee of Octoberfeast and author of bartender’s reference book Spirits Distilled.

Tickets cost £15, with the option to enjoy a meal of Harveys-battered fish and chips from Olly’s Fish Shack following the talk and book signing for an extra £10.

There are more talks during the Octoberfeast including food writer Hattie Ellis, who is hosting a supper celebrating one-pot cooking at The Hearth Pizzeria, in Eastgate, Lewes, on Sunday, September 20, for £10.

Harveys head brewer Miles Jenner will be talking about the company’s 225 years in Lewes, and leading tastings of Imperial Russian Stout, Prince Of Denmark and Star Of Eastbourne, on Tuesday, September 29, at The Brewers Arms, in High Street, Lewes, from 7.30pm, tickets £7.

And Mike Best, from the Wine And Spirit Education Trust, will lead a short course on food and wine pairing at Symposium Fine Wine, in Lansdown Place, Lewes, on Sunday, September 20, from 3pm, tickets £15.

The festival launches today at 9am with two markets, the regular Friday food market in Market Tower and a Farmers’ Market, featuring 30 Sussex producers, in Cliffe High Street.

Over the weekend the Linklater Pavilion, in Railway Lane, Lewes, will be hosting apple pressing sessions from 10.30am to 4pm, for donations of 50p per litre of pressed juice.

Across the town are a series of pop-up restaurants, offering everything from a Mediterranean and Middle Eastern supper tomorrow in Grange Road, to a great British dinner in Spences Field on Saturday, September 26, plus Nordic tapas, seasonal food, vegetarian menu and a surrealist dinner party, hosted by Lewes artist Laina Watt, in Priory Street, on Friday, October 2.

Film and food are linked in a film supper on Friday, September 25, at Laportes, in Lansdown Place, for £15.50, ahead of a screening of Jon Favreau’s 2014 comedy-drama Chef at All Saints Centre.

And there are a series of festivals within the Feastival – including Diversity Lewes’s Soup Festival on Sunday, September 20, at All Saints Centre, featuring a selection of freshly prepared hot soups from across the world from noon, and the third annual burger festival at the Pelham Arms, in High Street, Lewes, on Friday, September 25.

Look out for the Street Food Feast 2015 in Harveys Brewery Back Yard, in Cliffe High Street, on Saturday, September 26, which is also hosting a free Morris dance to welcome this year’s brew of Harveys Old Ale on Saturday, October 3, from noon.

The Snowdrop Inn, in South Street, is hosting a home-brewed beer competition on Sunday, October 4, from noon, as part of Burning Sky brewer Mark Tranter’s Great Beer Exposition, which starts on Friday, October 2.

And The Swan in Southover High Street, is closing festivities this year, on Saturday, October 10, from 6pm by transforming itself into a 1950s hangout under the brilliant name Jerry Lee Lewes Diner.

Plus there are supper and panel discussions with The Food Assembly, Barcombe Nurseries in Mill Lane, Barcombe, will welcome Brighton zero-waste restaurant Silo for a one-off evening on Thursday, October 1, from 7pm, and Southover Church, in Cockshut Road, will host two pre-match parties in the build-up to England’s Rugby World Cup games against Wales and Australia.

For more information and the full programme visit lewesoctoberfeast.com