The second Amgueddfa Cymru/Museum Wales annual September food festival is to be exclusively conducted online and is also hopefully the last – something you’d imagine the team behind it would echo – but, following a successful digital debut in 2020, its week-long itinerary looks set again to make excellent use of the format.
Although its usual venue, the National Museum Of History in St Fagans, is now open to the public, the specific demands and expected footfall of something like a food festival keeps it off the physical agenda for the moment. Instead, organisers have devised a programme of events available to stream online, including talks, masterclasses and cook-alongs, which retain the emphasis on Welsh produce from sources worth supporting.
It begins at 10am each day with a “Twitter takeover”, which rather neatly brings the collections and activities of the other Museum Wales partners into a culinary context. The first – Fossil Food, on Mon 6 Sept – looks at archaeological evidence held in Cardiff’s National Museum to give us an idea of what prehistoric peoples ate. In the present, meanwhile, the commendable Oasis Cardiff will be discussing their project The Plate, which offers refugees opportunities to cook, and there’ll be two Oasis food boxes for sale. These contain ingredients for one of their own recipes and a link to said recipe.
Classes, how-tos and so forth include input from Hywel Griffith, head chef at Oxwich’s Beach House, who on Sun 12 Sept will rustle up two courses again inspired by the museums’ food collections; Thibault Courtoisier, of Pâtisserie Verte and Bake Off-winning notoriety, doing us a very swish-looking vegan tarte tatin on Tue 7 Sept; and Osian Jones of Cardigan bakery Crwst making a focaccia and a brioche (you’ll need to speak Welsh for this one, or have confidence in your ability with visual cues I suppose).
Finally, there’s an added musical dimension for 2021, in the form of two online gigs. The first, on Wed 8 Sept, has been chosen by a youthful Welsh collective, Bloedd Amgueddfa Cymru, and features performances from Asha Jane, Thallo, E11ice, Niques and Telgate. The other, the following day, is in association with BBC Horizons and Tafwyl and serves up Bandicoot, Eve Goodman, Gwilym, Hannah Grace, Kima Otung and Lewys. An all-Welsh, impressively eclectic programme, both broadcasts kick off at 8pm.
Amgueddfa Cymru Digital Food Festival, online, Mon 6-Sun 12 Sept. Mostly free to view; some events ticketed. Info: here
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