Top North East chef David Kennedy is to host a pop-up restaurant after teaming up with the region’s newest food festival.

The unique dining experience will see David temporarily locating his acclaimed Newcastle-based Food Social fine dining outlet to Tynemouth’s King’s School for three nights.

The former North East Chef of the Year will show off his kitchen skills and serve signature dishes between May 9-11 as part of the inaugural Tynemouth Food Festival.

David K @ Café K will give festival-goers the chance to taste the food served at one of the region’s top eateries and enjoy dishes inspired by the best local produce the North East has to offer.

This is the first time that David – who last year opened his well-received River Café on North Shields Fish Quay and first made his name a decade ago at his award-winning stand-alone restaurant, Black Door, on Newcastle’s Clayton Street - has taken his food on the road and hosted a pop-up dining outlet.

He said: “I want people who may not have yet had the chance to taste the high quality cuisine we serve at Food Social to be able to enjoy the experience.

“This is the first time I have ever attempted anything like this, and the whole Food Social team is very excited to be teaming up with Tynemouth Food Festival and King’s School for this one-off venture.

“The food festival promises to be a great event and we are delighted to be part of it and looking forward to serving up some fantastic local food using the very best regional ingredients given our own unique Food Social twist.

“The temporary nature of pop-up restaurants makes this a very exciting project and offers us a unique chance to be involved with the food festival.”

The pop-up - which will be restricted to 80 diners a night - will spring open in the stylish King’s School canteen, known as Café K, and serve three different menus over the three nights.

Opening night on May 9 will see David’s distinctive take on Spanish Tapas using the finest Northumbrian ingredients, followed on May 10 by a spring menu and finishing on May 11 with a five course tasting experience offering well balanced but unpretentious food featuring locally reared meat and daily catches of the day from North Shields Fish Quay.

Prices will come in at £15.95 a head for the tapas including a free glass of wine; £19.95 a head for the spring menu offering three courses and a glass of champagne and £39.50 a head for the five-course tasting experience with three glasses of wine to complement the food.

The pop-ups are not David Kennedy’s only involvement with the first ever Tynemouth Food Festival, which takes place across the coastal village on the weekend of May 12-13.

He is also one of a dozen well known chefs who will be demonstrating their culinary skills in a state of the art mobile kitchen on the Saturday and Sunday.

Other names include former MasterChef: The Professionals finalist John Calton from the Harbour Lights in South Shields; Graeme Cuthell, chef-proprietor of Irvins on North Shields Fish Quay; John Wiegmann, head chef at David Kennedy’s River Café; Rhian Cradock from the multi-award winning The Feathers Inn at Hedley-on-the-Hill near Stocksfield, and Adam Hegarty, executive chef at Six Restaurant at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead.

David K @ Café K will kick-off a week of other food and drink celebrations in Tynemouth. These will include a farmers’ market on May 12-13 with around 40 stalls in the village’s Queen Victoria Park opposite King’s School; a beer festival featuring around 50 real ales at the Cumberland Arms between May 10-17; a cake decorating competition open to primary school pupils in the area with winning entries being displayed in shop windows; a Junior MasterChef-style competition for 13-15 year olds organised by the Grand Hotel with the winning team having the chance to recreate their dish live alongside one of the celebrity chefs on the demo kitchen on the Saturday, and chocolate workshops and tasting sessions courtesy of Gareth James Chocolatier.

Other foodie events will see cocktail making sessions, wine and cheese and beer and food pairings, a celebration of homemade cakes and a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party.

Many of Tynemouth’s cafes, pubs and take-away venues will also be offering food deals over the festival weekend.

The food festival has been organised by Tynemouth Business Forum. A free to attend gastronomic extravaganza of all that’s good about North East food and drink, residents and businesses have joined forces to ensure the festival serves up lots of tasty treats.

David Kennedy - who in 2008 took third place in the Knorr National Chef of the Year contest – said: “Our collaboration is set to be the pinnacle in a year that will witness a number of other exciting things taking place at Food Social.

“The menus at the pop-up will represent the very best of what Food Social has become justifiably famous for.”

Ed Wesson, head teacher at King’s School, added: “We are delighted to be supporting the food festival and thrilled that David Kennedy has chosen us to host his first ever pop-up restaurant.

“He runs a great restaurant and I’m sure the three evenings will be a memorable experience for all concerned.”

Tickets for David K @ Café K are available from David Kennedy’s Food Social and River Café outlets and The Cumberland Arms, Children of the Revolution and The Deli Around The Corner, all in Tynemouth. Tickets must be bought in advance for all three nights.

For more information on David K @ Café K visit www.foodsocial.co.uk or call 0191 260 5411.

To fine our more about Tynemouth Food Festival go to www.tynemouthfoodfestival.co.uk.
 

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