Chef News: Celebrity Chef Novelli returning to Whitehaven

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Celebrity chef Novelli returning to Whitehaven

 Thursday, 05 March 2009

Top celebrity chef and heart-throb Jean Christophe Novelli is returning to Whitehaven.


The five AA Rosette and Michelin award-winning chef will be the star attraction at Whitehaven Festival, it was announced yesterday.

It has received sponsorship of £100,000 from Nuclear Management Partners (NMP) and is expected to attract tens of thousands of people.

The event, taking place on August 8 and 9, will be replacing the biannual Maritime Festival which last came to the town in 2007.

It will be featuring comedy events and celebrity chefs.

Organisers – Whitehaven Festival Company – have also approached Ainsley Harriott, well-known star of BBC 2’s Ready Steady Cook.

The event will feature more than 50 Made in Cumbria stalls, street theatre, fireworks and hopefully some air displays.

There could also be an outdoor theatre production, as well as plenty of fun and comedy.

Lowther Street may be closed or part closed to accommodate the festival. Parts of the harbour may also be used but the main focus this year will be on the town centre.

TV celebrity Jean Christophe, who has a world famous cookery school, will be giving displays in St Nicholas’ Gardens, along with, hopefully, other celebrity chefs.

“It will be a new town festival,” said organiser Gerard Richardson. “We need to go back to basics and start afresh. It will be a celebration of the town involving food, crafts, street theatre, fireworks and hopefully some air shows.

“We have been under pressure to re-do the Maritime Festival but the reality is that we can’t because of the cost, the scale and the works which are going on at the harbour.

“We need to move on now,” said Gerard.

Charlie Anderson, general manager of NMP, the parent body for Sellafield Ltd, said: “We know just how important the Maritime Festival was to the people of Whitehaven and I am sure that the new event will be even bigger as it builds on the successes of the Maritime.”