Nantwich Food Festival says ‘Have we got some great chefs for you!’

You will already have Nantwich Food Festival 2026 dates in your diary – slightly later than usual this year: September 4th - 6th inclusive. One of the main attractions is always the high quality celebrity and local chefs whose demonstrations remain completely free to visitors.

Festival chef organiser, Karen Young tells us:

"The chef demonstrations will all take place in our state of the art, all-weather Food Theatre, sponsored by Reaseheath College, and located in the Love Lane Festival zone, so I am delighted to announce the line-up of all the wonderful chefs who will be demonstrating this year at Nantwich.

“We announced earlier in the year that the TV presenter and actor plus acclaimed author of best-selling cookbooks, Lisa Faulkner will be taking time out of her busy life to demonstrate on Festival Saturday.

“We are quite sure there will be standing room only for Lisa’s demos, given her pedigree, shown in – amongst others - her fantastic ITV cookery show. In ‘John & Lisa’s Weekend Kitchen’, now in its 9th series, Lisa, alongside her husband John Torode, creates great family recipes for home cooks of all abilities.   

“Jon Watts, our next celebrity chef, will wow us with his demonstrations on Festival Sunday; you will know Jon from his easy to follow cookbooks, relaxed cooking style and extensive charity work.

All of this followed his time in prison as a young man, where fortunately he caught the cooking bug, was well-supported, worked hard and so completely turned around his life. Jon’s is a great success story and has made him into the accomplished chef we now see.”

Karen is keen to welcome the return of the 3rd celebrity chef: the very talented Nigel Brown, saying:

“In addition to being a celebrity chef in his own right and demonstrating his easy to follow cooking style for us, Nigel will again be the Food Theatre Compere on Festival Saturday and Sunday. In this role he provides the all-important commentary to ensure we get to hear what is really happening in the kitchen.”

We are also sure to see Nigel demonstrating his prowess and teaching skills in the Cookalong kitchen too; these skills have been honed over the years in his own Cookery Academy.

All Cookalong details will be available in just a few weeks, when you will be able to book your place to work alongside skilled chefs.

Karen has really pulled out the stops this year with high quality chefs; Festival Friday starts with a bang at midday with none other than Rookery Hall’s Executive Chef, Dion Jones. Dion, originally from North Wales has many awards to his name including 3AA rosettes and a silver medal in the Culinary Olympics; however his proudest accolades are twofold: having been the first British chef ever to win the Escoffier Challenge and also having recently won the Welsh national chef of the year 2026.

Hot on Dion’s heels we see the very welcome return of the wonderfully talented Babna of Manchester’s Babna’s Patisserie; anyone who has watched her previous demonstrations will be keen to see her at work again.

With a particular love for French pâtisserie, Babna regularly trains with leading pastry chefs in France. Her mission is to make elegant French desserts accessible to everyone by combining professional techniques with simple, achievable methods. Her motto: “Patisserie Desserts Made Easy!”

She told Karen:

“I will just have time to finish my work in the Cookalong kitchen before running along to demonstrate in the Reaseheath Food Theatre; I’m so looking forward to seeing all the lovely Nantwich people again.”

Nantwich’s St Martha’s restaurant regularly encourages their head chef to demonstrate for us and Festival 2026 is no exception; Karen says “We are all delighted to see Spyros Vrakas return to share his expertise in creating great Greek dishes – we eat at his restaurant, we know his food is amazing, so we can’t wait to see him demonstrating again!”

Jill Weatherburn finishes the line-up of high quality chef demos on Festival Friday; Jill is kept busy, creating and writing recipes, and supporting TV chefs. However she doesn’t only work behind the scenes, but is highly skilled at presenting to live audiences as she does each year at Nantwich and other high quality food festivals.

Following Lisa Faulkner’s 2nd Festival Saturday demonstration, we will be treated to a demo by Luke Richardson, Head Chef of Sticky Walnut, Chester. Luke tells us “I’ve been cooking for over 20 years but my true passion is French classics and modern bistro food. They kind of meld into the Neo-Bistro style of food that I love to cook. Think lots of creamy and buttery sauces, but with the very best of British seasonal produce. I picked up a love of working like this during my time living and working in Paris.”

Luke – we look forward to seeing you in action!

Then to finish Festival Saturday in the Food Theatre, Andrew Soddy, Head Chef at Crewe Hall’s Brasserie will join us. Andrew’s background cooking on luxury cruise liners and high end restaurants means that we are in for a real treat. We’re looking forward to him cooking his own take on menus that use seasonal ingredients with an international flair.

More Festival greats follow on Sunday with Jon Watts demonstrating twice, a return by Nigel Brown, a cake baking competition plus the final local, talented demonstrator to mention is Harry Walker of Nantwich’s own Deuce, based in Hospital St; Harry’s take on life is to produce tasty goodies for us that are nutrient dense, using premium contents.

The Nantwich Food Awards now and a reminder about your role in ensuring that your favourite eateries have a chance at winning one of the 8 wonderful Nantwich Food Awards; these range from Bar Stars to Best Newcomer, and from Best Restaurant to Best Food Producer/Retailer plus more award categories too.

Voting via the Festival website is now open, so this is the perfect time for you to vote for your favourites. All award categories now have a raft of nominations, so just head to the Festival website, and click on each drop down list to place your votes https://www.nantwichfoodfestival.co.uk/food-awards/

Finally, The Festival Team is keen to advise us that Volunteers will host a stall at the Farmers Market in Nantwich Town Square on both Saturday 26th July and 29th August and also at Societies Day on August 1st.

They will be on hand to answer any Festival related queries and to welcome anyone who may wish to join them as volunteers for the 2026 Nantwich Food Festival.