Alnwick's theatre, The Playhouse, will be kitted out with a display kitchen by Outlook Home Enhancement Centre to host shows during the 2008 Alnwick Food Festival.

In the previous three years, the venue has also hosted the Young Chef of the Year and the Ready, Steady Cook-style competitions. This year's programme, organised by Alnwick Rotary Club, will be posted here when available.

The Young Chef of the Year competition sees two budding chefs from Duchess' Community High School, Alnwick, and Coquet High School, Amble, going head-to-head in a cook-off. The judges are John Blackmore, of Blackmore's of Alnwick, and Jimmy Dodds, chef at RAF Boulmer.
The winner receives £300 of vouchers donated by Geoff Proudlock, of House and Home, Alnwick. The runner-up receives £200 of House and Home vouchers.
The competition has also been sponsored by sanofi-aventis, Alnwick, in the past.


Previous winners: Adam North, of Coquet High School, Amble, won the 2006 Young Chef of the Year, and Daniel Wayman, of the Duchess' High, was crowned Young Chef of the Year 2005. Click here for the full story.

The Playhouse

Alnwick Playhouse started life as a cinema seating 700 people. The magnificent building in Bondgate Without (the street outside the Bondgate Tower which serves as the main gateway to Alnwick) was built in 1925. It also acted as a music hall in its spare time until a decline in audiences saw its closure in 1979.

The professional touring group, Northumberland Theatre Company, now known as the NTC Touring Theatre Company, rescued the building from the bulldozers and the ground floor was converted into a rehearsal base.

The Alnwick District Playhouse Trust, an independent charity, raised half a million pounds to convert the derelict balcony of the former cinema into a new arts venue, which opened in December 1990.

An adjoining building was acquired by the Trust in 1994 and the theatre now boasts an impressive frontage, box office and disabled access.