The Brighton Spring Harvest Festival (yeah I know, reminded me of bringing in gift wrapped tins of beans to school too) ended last weekend with the Brighton Chocolate festival. Throughout we had various events including spaghetti eating contests, cooking masterclasses at the Chilli Pickle and the city's first, and very welcome, Whiskey Festival.

It's becoming quite common for the New Road area and the redeveloped Jubilee Road to be full of stalls selling tasty treats for various foodie festivals. The Chocolate Festival was as busy as any of them in the glorious weather and there was some good stuff to be seen and eaten.



Most popular was the churros and chocolate stand. The queue was huge and those who waited were rewarded with a cup of doughy goodness.



Despite a few very fancy stalls including Damian Allsop, Paul Wayne Gregory, and the very good William Curley, the majority of them (remembering we are in Brighton) seemed to focus on raw chocolate and gluten, dairy, wheat and blah, blah free treats. Some were good and some were, er, not good but if you have a penchant for gritty truffles there were plenty to choose from.

Quite a few of the food related festivals down here are in their second and third year and are getting better and bigger. This was the first chocolate festival and if it returns next year it would be good to see a wider variety of stalls, maybe more savoury foods using chocolate? Just a thought. The off shoot events looked great, mainly the three course chocolate themed dinner and masterclass at Table.



But the best thing I tried by far was the brownie from the Choc Star Van. I had heard so much about these brownies and they are most certainly worth the hype. Amazingly light, meltingly gooey and rich... yum! I have to admit I was going to share it with a friend but snarfed the lot (sorry Rach). Looking forward to seeing Petra and her van at the artsy Brighton Festival and Fringe Festival this summer for one of her sundaes.



As for future foodie events, the main food festival for Brighton is throughout September this year with open house dining, food trails, various markets and the popular chilli festival (18 - 19th). For the latest news visit www.brightonfoodfestival.co.uk and hopefully I'll see you there!