BBC Good Food Show starts at the NEC near Birmingham

Nov 28 2007 By Jasbir Authi, Birmingham Mail

THE BBC Good Food Show rustled up another tasty treat as it threw open its doors to foodie lovers today.

For the next five days more than 130,000 people are expected to see the likes of Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver, Ainsley Harriott and Anjum Anand cook up a storm and get a taste of the good life at the NEC Arena.

Celebrity chefs James Martin and Atul Kouchhar cut the ribbon and opened the show at 9am.

Tickets for today's cookery demonstration given by James Martin, Rick Stein and Atul Kouchhar, in the Super Theatre were quickly selling out.

Also appearing at the show today were Masterchef host Lloyd Grossman and Peter Jones from BBC's Dragon's Den.

Pucker Jamie Oliver will be entertaining the crowd tomorrow and motormouth Gordon Ramsay is scheduled to cook up a storm from Friday to Sunday.

For those who are more partial to a tipple than a tart, expert Oz Clarke, Olly Smith and Matt Skinner will be offering advice in the drink's section of the show.

Tony and Pamela Say drove from Cheltenham for their 18th show. Mrs Say, aged 71, a retired housewife and mother-of-two, said: "We come every year and love everything about it. We love trying different things.

"We don't want to meet the chefs though, because we don't want to queue. We usually end up buying something for the kitchen because they have the latest items at the show."

Richard and Angelique Dunne, both pharmacists from Bristol, were looking forward to meeting celebrity chef James Martin.

Richard, aged 36, said: "This show is something different and we can try something new and learn different recipes.

"We came to see James Martin, he makes nice desserts and is quite cheerful."

In between watching their favourite chefs at work, visitors can see the latest in kitchen gadgetry or gorge themselves silly on some of the countless tasty samples offered by some of the 400 stalls filling six halls.

It is not all gluttony at the extravaganza. Up-and-coming chefs will fight it out for the prestigious title of Gordon Ramsay Scholar.

The winning student, or young professional chef, will be announced on Saturday and he or she will have the pleasure of cooking live on stage with the chef the next day.

For tickets, priced from £18.50, call the special hotline on 0870 040 0311.