Success on a plate for the Big Nibble

Featuring twice the number of food stands in two town centre locations, The Bigger Nibble got the Horsham District's third three-week Food and Drink Festival off to a scrumptiously good start.

Local food heroes and well known masterchefs were among a line up of professional cooks seducing the tastebuds in the Bigger Nibble Kitchen, while eager nibblers thronged cheese and beer classes and munched their way through an astonishing feast of local produce in Horsham's Drill Hall and Carfax.

"It went amazingly well and the produce in the hall was absolutely fantastic," said one of the masterchefs, who deftly combined local cheese, Sussex vegetables, the county's famous lamb and English apples to produce a three course menu of astonishing colours and flavours.

The Drill Hall venue attracted more than 1,500 people and organisers reported that the hall was full to bursting with people during most of the day with all exhibitors very busy indeed.

Meanwhile, many food and drink traders in the town's Carfax reported as much as a 50 per cent uplift in sales as locals armed with their money-saving festival programmes made the most of special deals and tastings.

Full story in West Sussex Gazette, September 22