Here are some of the chefs and demonstrators who will be appearing at the 2008 Alnwick Food Festival.

RICHARD SIM

Richard is a local chef who is really making a name for himself. He was born in Alnwick and trained as a chef at Ashington Technical College, where even at that early stage of his career his potential was recognised with the Young Chef of the Year award.

He served his apprenticeship in the Berkeley Hotel, and Le Meridian Piccadilly in London, but returned home to work in several restaurants and hotels in Newcastle before opening his own restaurant in Alnwick.

After six years, and with a young family to consider Richard decided to return to working for someone else. He started work for STR Enterprises, and after two years became executive chef at Tiger Tiger in Newcastle. Recently, he was delighted to receive the Chef of the Year accolade in the Newcastle and Gateshead Buzz Awards.

Richard recently stood down as the executive chef at The Alnwick Garden, where he was at the forefront of a policy of attracting and encouraging local producers.

MARTIN CHARLTON

Martin was born in Southampton in the 1960s, and started cooking at his aunt's hotel in Stokesly, North Yorkshire, in the early '80s.

He has cooked in restaurants throughout Europe and the UK for the best part of 21 years. Martin is the father of two young children, and since their arrival, has tried to balance his family life with the catering trade. With this in mind, he decided to go to night school and has gained a Certificate in Education, which enabled him to become a lecturer at Tyne Metropolitan College last year.

Martin has a long-standing interest in wild fungi, and has supplied handpicked wild mushrooms for the various restaurants where he has worked. Latterly his interest has broadened to include local plants, fruit, seaweed and shellfish.

MARTIN HUTTON

"Never trust a skinny chef or a young pilot"! An old Irish kitchen porter who had just brought me a cup of tea on my first day as a chef in London imparted these words of wisdom on me. I was on onion-peeling duty as the sous chef had just sent me in the fridge for Stilton and I had come out with Parma ham ... well when I was brought up in Stakeford I thought the only cheese was made by Primula!

This started my voyage into food. Along the way I have seen trends come and go, met thousands of gastronaughts and hit upon my proverb of: "If it looks like a fish, smells like a fish, don't then make it look like a dog's dinner!"

Twelve years older and with the glittering lights of London fading, I came home (well as far as Ramside where John McGinnity had persuaded me work). It was here that we butchered, filleted, chopped and prepared some of the best food I have ever produced. We even built our own smoke house to cure and smoke our own salmon meat, cheese, chicken and not forgetting chillies (you don't want to know about the smoked chilli vodka!). Here I was introduced to suppliers turning up and off-loading their shoot or catch (before today's legislation came into place) hence allowing flexibility and very interesting conversations about what to do with the produce.

At this time, I met Maureen (Moo to our friends) the love of my life and I realised that I had found my true passion and decided to leave cooking and become a rep in food service. While there, I met many local suppliers who were producing fabulous products and had a real passion for food and an empathy to the enviroment.

It was then that I realised that the North East is blessed with a wealth of produce and suppliers who are passionate about their wares. It is my pleasure to take fantastic raw ingredients and convert them into tasty morsels that can be enjoyed by all.

What's next ... well, who knows but watch this space.

TOM and EMILY SILLAR

After a hectic lifestyle in London, Tom and Emily Sillar, of Alnwick, decided to move back to their roots and set up shop in the North East.

The couple wanted to offer only the best locally-produced food, which is plentiful in Northumberland. In 2004, Tom and Emily launched their thriving business, The Comfort Food Company in Newcastle's Pudding Chare, and after spending six months visiting various farms across the region, directly source their ingredients from within the region.

In July 2007, they opened another restaurant, Comfort @Meldon Park in Morpeth, Northumberland.

Food Demonstrator

MARK TURNBULL

Mark was born in Alnwick in 1971, and joined the family butchers business as a 16-year-old apprentice in 1987. Mark was the fifth generation of the Turnbull family to enter the business, started by his great-great-grandfather, Roger Turnbull in Clayport Street, Alnwick, in 1880.

Turnbull’s of Alnwick has won a large number of national and international awards within the meat industry. It has won more than 30 gold certificates in UK competitions since 1998. Major accolades include a gold medal from Slavatko in Holland, for its locally smoked bacon, National BBQ Champions in 2002 and 2003 and, recently, champion of the ready meals category of the BPEX awards 2004, for its Northumbrian lamb casserole.

Mark started doing meat cookery demonstrations in 1996, when the meat industry was having an extremely rough time. Mark decided it was no good sitting round complaining about all the bad press that the industry was receiving and decided to take a positive approach and start talking the industry up.

Mark says: "I really enjoy showing people interesting and innovative ways in which they can use meat in the kitchen. I was asked to do more and more demos and the whole thing built from there. I enjoy doing them and always manage to have a lot of fun and a bit of a laugh!"