A menu of mega feasts and morals as Leeds Indie Food gets underway

Al-fresco dining at its finest for Leeds Indie Food. Picture Tom Joy.

When the organiser of a festival spends so much of his own money on tickets - it suggests you are in for a treat.

The Leeds Indie Food festival is under way this weekend for the fourth year and in his new role as festival director, Simon Fogal has been busy eyeing up events he will be going to this year as well as organising the programme and promoting it.

ILikePress is behind this year’s event, which has just shy of 90 events taking place over 19 days where you can eat, drink and also get involved yourself.

The vast variety of events ranges from a scotch egg collaboration menu at Leeds oldest pub, Whitelock’s with Bundobust and Ox Club; an interactive chef’s table event at Leeds Cookery School; a dine-along experience of the ultimate foodie movie Chef; a pizza and prosecco festival at Water Lane Boathouse; a dining experience dedicated to parmos; a chocolate-making class with Tyto Leodis; a tasting wine dinner curated by Chris Hill from Latitude Wine and the head chef at Laynes Espresso; a creative talk with local independent food vendors, curated by Glug Leeds and the fourth Brewers Market Beer Festival at Canal Mills.

Water Lane Boathouse is the place to be for pizza and prosecco.

There are some new activities and menus for this year and some old faces returning with special events.

Mr Fogal said: “A lot has happened in the last two months since we took over. We have tried to contact all the venues but there are so many. A lot of new people are taking part and some have come back in and some didn’t take part last year or the year before such as Greedy Pig.”

They were part of the launch event held at the Belgrave last month where there was a debate about sustainability within the food and drink industry and that is a key theme for this year’s event.

A Pay as You Feel supermarket is being held in conjunction with LIF where food otherwise earmarked for landfill is being sold off cheap and the reusable ‘Leeds Cup’ is in the making for those who need a frequent caffeine hit.

Mr Fogal explains: “We helped to bring the supermarket and it is really important to us. Food waste is a big issue and this is about learning as much as taking home cheap food.“We want to create a Leeds Cup and have branded re-useable cups. We are hoping that all the cafes in Leeds will offer a discount to people using them. If it goes well we will look at doing a bigger run of Leeds cups, places will sell them and money goes back into the festival.”

There were some events that ‘just had to be’ included in this year’s festival. One was the Chef’s Experience at The Belgrave which sells out each time and the Whitelock’s Scotch egg collaboration.

Whitelock's famous Scotch Eggs

Before the last mouthful has even been digested plans will be in the making for 2019.

Mr Fogal said: “The first two years it was a hard sell but now it is established it is much easier and given time I think it could be much bigger. Leeds Indie Food Fest can be as big as we want it to be and we are quite ambitious with it.”

In the meantime, though, if you are looking for the man behind it all you will find him at Find A Forest.

He said: “I have spent quite a lot of money on tickets. The one I am excited about is Find A Forest, it was my favourite last year and this year I was almost begging them to put it on.”