FORGET tuning into TV’s Saturday Kitchen, as the real thing will be taking place on the streets of Christchurch tomorrow morning.

Everything is set for another exciting Christchurch Food & Wine Festival, which runs from May 11-20 with TV celebrities James Martin and Lesley Waters headlining the programme.

The popular International Food Market kicks off this weekend when the High Street will be closed to traffic and lined with dozens of stalls selling a tempting array of food and drink – everything from olives to oysters and cheeses to champagne. The market opens at 10am on Saturday with Lesley Waters joining the Mayor of Christchurch, Cllr Sue Spittle. A full programme of cookery demonstrations is on offer, with TV favourite James ‘baby face’ Martin showing off his culinary skills on Sunday.

The Festival’s patron, TV chef Lesley Waters, is always a firm favourite and she will be appearing on Saturday doing cookery demonstrations and answering questions from the audience. Chefs from a number of local restaurants will complete the programme.

This year the demonstration theatre will be in a new venue in the top Wick Lane car park behind the Regent Centre.

Monday sees the finals of the Junior Cook of the Year at 9.30am, when representatives from the three secondary schools in Christchurch cook against each other. At noon, James Golding, head chef at The Pig in Brockenhurst will do a session about gardening, foraging and cooking, while at 2.30pm the finalists of the Young Professional Chef of the Year, Brian Lewis from Splinters and Zak Boudreaux from The Lord Bute, have a cook-off to see who wins the title.

A new event is taking place on the second Saturday of the Festival, when a marquee on the Quomps at Christchurch Quay will be transformed into a vintage tea room for the Great Christchurch Bake Day and Fete. Mary Reader, President of the Food Festival, said: “The Food Festival has grown and grown since we first started 13 years ago and there’s sure to be something of interest for everyone.

“I know that many restaurants and other establishments are planning some great events to complement the CookSchool and Kids Kitchen events we plan ourselves so we would urge everyone to come along and see for themselves what a great event this is.”

• The full programme is available from Christchurch Information Centre (Tel: 01202 471780) with full details on www.christchurchfoodfest.co.uk.