BiteBack Festival which took place at Wylam Brewery, Newcastle, raised a whopping £72,063 for Cancer Research UK.
The event, by Sian Byerley, co-owner of Restaurant Pine, Northumberland, saw a line-up of fifteen chefs from some of the UK’s leading restaurants, with 19 Michelin stars and Green stars between them.
On the day, each individual chef and their teams served up 500 portions of their refined street food creations to eager foodies who’d ordered online tokens before the event to secure dishes from their chosen food heroes.
The free event saw thousands gather to help raise much needed cash to help Cancer Research UK.
Online bidding for food treats
The vibrant atmosphere saw revellers tuck into their chosen foodie treats, sample the drinks offering from Wylam Brewery and the Northumberland Coffee Co and enjoy live music from a range of DJ’s including Ben Scott and Charlie Younger.
Online bidders got stuck into securing their chosen lots from the 50+ available foodie and overnight experiences in the silent auction. All provided by supportive restaurateurs and hospitality businesses from across the region and further afield, including foodie icon Simon Rogan, who generously donated a full Day at Our Farm Experience for two people, at his farm in the Lake District, Si King and Terry Laybourne who both generously donated their time to cook a private dinner in the successful bidders own home for up to 10 people, Grace and Savour, Solihull, who donated a dine and stay experience for two at their Michelin starred restaurant and Restaurant 22, Cambridge who donated a tasting menu and discovery wine flight experience for two.
Speciality dishes
The specially created dishes included:
- BBQ Herdwick belly on flatbread by Paul Leonard,
- Desperate Dan’s cow pie by Tom Sheperd,
- Beetroot & Doddington cheddar by Ian Waller,
- Potted shrimp with spiced cauliflower apple velouté by Ryan Blackburn,
- BBQ chicken, preserved garlic, and seaweed potatoes by Nathan Davies,
- James’ giant peach and game set & match by Cal Byerley,
- Craister kipper stottie by Kenny Atkinson,
- Ancient grain flatbread and slow cooked pork shoulder by Josh Overington,
- BBQ carrot with anise and pumpkin seed by Pam Brunton,
- Herdwick sausage roll with Pickled Red Cabbage and Garlic Aioli by Kevin Tickle,
- Pork skewer and chimichurri by Alex Nietsvuori,
- Jamón croquetas by Nieves Barragan,
- ”Heston’s Meat Fruit” by Kevin Brown,
- Chicken Rhug with green asparagus, Our Miso, chicken wing garum and butter emulsion by David Taylor,
- Herdwick lamb kofta, steak ragu filled cruffin, mentalista flatbread with crispy ears and burnt Lettuce emulsion by Tommy Banks, Will Lockwood & Callum Leslie.
Siân Byerley
Siân Byerley, co-owner of Pine said: ”We want to thank everyone who has been involved in this year’s event. It’s only been made possible by the generosity and hard work of absolutely everyone who has been involved. What we’ve all achieved is amazing! We’d hope that we might be able to raise £60,000 but to totally smash that total and raise over £72,000 is out of this world.”
”We’d like to thank the 15 incredible chefs who’ve all volunteered their time for this amazing cause, as well as the amazing folks at Wylam Brewery for providing the venue, the amazing suppliers like Wellocks, Wilde Farm, Crosby’s, R & J Butchers, Hodgson’s Fish, Sous Vide Tools, VMS, A7 Media, Beyond Design and many more, who have all been massively generous providing support for the event itself, as well as those businesses that have very kindly donated auction prizes to help the event raise more funds for Cancer Research UK.”
”What started out as a tentative conversation in 2023 has rapidly grown into something pretty wonderful and indescribable and that’s down to Ian Waller. Who like many of us up and down the country has personal reasons for wanting to support the work of Cancer Research UK. It’s been a long journey to get to this point but every second has been worth it. Now for a well-earned rest for us all and then we’ll have a think about what comes next for 2025…”
