We were delighted to sponsor the EAT Cambridge festival again this year as we have from the start, it’s fantastic for the local food scene and means 2 weeks of interesting food events in the city- one our highlights of the year!
This year we hosted 2 fringe events in collaboration (the theme of this years festival) with Guerilla Kitchen. We held seasonal supper clubs in The Shack and on the closing day served up a sharing roast at Sunday Best. We also took the Gogs to town for the Main Event at the Corn Exchange.

Sunday Best at Gog Magog Farm Shop with Guerilla Kitchen

By Lisa Durbin, taken from her blog, Blog From A Broad

I had neither the time nor calorie allowance to go to any of the Eat Cambridge events this year with one exception: Sunday Best at Gog Magog Farm Shop. I couldn’t pass up the chance to have food cooked by one of my favorite chefs, and Sunday roast is one of the best things I’ve discovered since moving to England! It’s also one of the trickiest meals to do for mass catering. Jay Scrimshaw not only managed to feed us all with a couple of Big Green Eggs and his truck, he gave us one of the best Sunday lunches I’ve ever had…

I first heard about Jay in 2009 when he and his wife Taffeta ran The Pheasant in Keyston, shortly before their appearance on Gordon Ramsay’s The F Word, where they came in second place overall. I went with a couple of friends to check it out before it got hugely popular from their TV appearance, and we loved it. The Scrimshaws eventually moved on, focusing on pop-ups. I spoke to Taffeta about it for an article and had the chance to enjoy Jay’s food again at two subsequent pop-ups. Jay now brings his food (specifically, his incredible steamed buns) to Cambridge via his food truck Myrtle and did a special one-off roast dinner as part of the Eat Cambridge food festival.

There are so many things I love about a Sunday roast: the gathering of family around the table after a week of speed eating and uncoordinated meal times, crispy roast potatoes, big hunks of meat, the excuse to have wine in the afternoon. Although I do love making a weekly roast for our family, it’s very, very nice when someone else does the job for me every now and then.

We sat in tables of six (or in our case, four adults, two children, and one 5-year-old diva who demanded a scotch egg) in ‘The Shack’, a covered outdoor area next to the cafe. We started with Charred Leeks with Romesco Sauce, a dish we devoured at one of Jay’s pop-ups a little while ago. There’s no photo because we hoovered it all up in minutes. It came with a massive salad with apple, hazelnut, and blue cheese dressing.

The main course was pure heaven. Meat. Lots and lots and lots of meat! Even better, meat with perfectly cooked side dishes: beetroot, apple, and fennel slaw (no filter needed), roast potato cooked in dripping, crispy asparagus, and Yorkshire puddings. But the meat. We need to talk about the meat. LOOK AT THIS MOTHER LOVIN’ MEAT.

Lamb shoulder and pork belly that had a beautifully smoky taste that you can only get with charcoal cooking. I ate way too much meat. I had to go have a little walk outside for a few minutes before I could contemplate dessert.

The sun came out, the kids ran in the fields, and I finished my glass of Sauvignon Blanc listening to some chilled vintage (i.e. songs by people who were alive when I was a kid) tunes. The stress and chaos of a very hectic week melted away. If there weren’t other people around who could see me, I probably would have had a little nap.

By the time the Pavolva came out, I was actually ready and able to cram a bit more into my stomach. It was like a giant marshmallow slathered in whipped cream and fresh, flavoursome strawberries I’ve been waiting for since last summer. We all had a huge slice. Then Isla wanted more. And Grandad wanted more. And Jack wanted more. And Isla started to have a hissy fit so Grandad shared his piece with Isla.

This was a wonderfully perfect Sunday and as an added bonus, we came home with a bag full of leftovers*. Thanks Jay and the lovely people at Gog Magog. I will happily let you take the Sunday roast shift for our family again anytime!

By Lisa Durbin, taken from her blog, Blog From A Broad. Read the full article here.

Supper Club at Gog Magog

EAT Cambridge at The Cambridge Corn Exchange

After last year’s success we were excited to once more bring the best of our cheese counter to the Corn Exchange. Our stand included a whole Comté and four Montgomery’s Cheddars (the not-so-secret ingredient in our famous cheese scones!) along with a range of others. This year we were lucky enough to be joined by both Gabi from Neal’s Yard Dairy (our main cheese supplier) and Jonny Crickmore, maker of our new favourite cheese: Baron Bigod. This Sussex-made Brie-style cheese proved to be such a big hit on the day that we were worried we might sell out!

As well as a full-on day of cheese selling, Charles and Jonny did a talk about collaboration between artisan cheese makers in the UK, with Jonny able to share his personal experience developing and making cheese from his raw Montbeliarde cows milk – the only traditional raw milk Brie-de-Meaux style cheese produced in the UK!

Backstage at the Corn Exchange, Gog Magog butchers Miles and Matt hosted a secret pop-up butchery: demonstrating how to breakdown a lamb its prime cuts. This proved to be so popular that they had to put on a second demonstration later in the day!

We would like to thank EAT Cambridge for putting on such a great event. We are already looking forward to and planning for next year. See you then!