Nigel Barden This year we are delighted to be joined by Nigel Barden who will be the host for our talks and celebratory dinner. Nigel is no stranger to the show, as he has also been a judge for our cider competition and he will once again be joining drinks expert Melissa Cole to judge this year’s entries. Nigel Barden is a food and drink broadcaster, who works on the Simon Mayo Drivetime Show on Greatest Hits Radio and previously on Scala Radio. He was also on air with Simon and Chris Evans, on their Sony Gold award winning BBC Radio 2 shows for 12 years and he’s worked with Robert Elms on BBC Radio London for 27 years. He specialises in promoting British ingredients and artisan producers, particularly in his role as chairman of judges for The Great Taste Awards, Farm Shop & Deli Awards, World Cheese Awards, British Cookery School Awards, Deliciously Yorkshire, and host of The North West Family Business Awards, National Fish & Chip and Ice Cream Alliance Awards. Nigel hosts the Chef Demo Stages at Tom Kerridge’s ‘Pub in the Park’ festivals throughout England. His own radio show “Barden’s Soundbites” was on Scala Radio and saw Nigel playing music inspired by food & drink. On TV “Nigel Barden’s Drivetime Dishes” airs on Amazon Prime and Simply Good Food TV. His first podcast was “A Grand Hotel by Corinthia”, a three part series featuring chef Tom Kerridge and the Corinthia Hotel and he’s currently championing artisan food and drink producers in his podcast for Britannia Living.
60 seconds with Nigel Barden
During lock-down Nigel presented live tastings for the British Cheese Weekender, highlighting the plight of the artisan cheese making community and hosted the Virtual Cheese Awards over the past two years, a six hour live event. He fronts the UCFF (Universal Cookery Food Festival) monthly ‘Chefs Banter’ and sat on the industry panel debates for Sodexo Foods. Nigel was the voice of the ‘Sea For Yourself’ radio campaign for Seafish, the public body supporting the seafood industry and was filmed cooking in his own kitchen. He interviewed numerous producers online for the Food & Drink Wales Cluster.
football video game, for which he’s the commentator. In a former life Nigel was a director of Yorkshire Fine Wines. He grew up on a farm in Lancashire, studied land agency at the Royal Agricultural College and worked in Yorkshire as a land agent. Nigel’s also a BBC rugby commentator and trained as an actor. His wife is from Sicily and they have three boys under 24.
Nigel hosted the cocktail hour, to close eight hours of the National Fruit Show, which was held virtually for the first time in 87 years in 2020 and is an eager judge of the NFS cider and perry categories. He also regularly hosts online cheese and wine tastings, often linking up with tasters abroad and during lockdown, footage of ‘Cooking with the Barden Boys’ with Nigel and his three sons was posted on Instagram and twitter @NigelBarden. For the dishes he cooks weekly on Greatest Hits Radio, check out www.NigelBarden.com. He is currently recording a new
Bonanza Prize 2023 •
A day trip on the Thames for four people departing from Windsor Race Course Marina on a 43ft motor cruiser named Good Idea during the summer of 2024.
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Lunch and refreshments will be provided on board followed by an evening meal in the marina restaurant.
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Horse racing is also an option should dates coincide. The race course is next door to the Marina. 25
