Queen’s College was at Blenheim Palace over the weekend to join some of the biggest names in food including many top TV celebrity chefs teaching how to prepare Game and champion Game cooking.

For three days Mr Mann, Head of Art, Design and Food and our Food Teacher represented Queen’s College at the 2024 Game Fair. Established at the stately home of Blenheim Palace in 1958, and attracting over 125,000 visitors, this huge national event features fieldsports, farming and of course food.

Queen’s was kindly invited to support show sponsor BASC (British Association for Shooting and Conservation) in their ‘Wild Food Kitchen Theatre’ and ‘Taster Tepee’ as the winners earlier this year of the ‘Game Champion of Champions 2024’ at the ultimate accolade at the prestigious annual national BASC Eat Game Awards.

Mr Mann was lucky enough to be invited to co-host a number of cookery demonstrations at the BASC ‘Taster Tepee’ for three days as special guest to BASC’s Game Chef Amy Thompson preparing top-notch Game cuisine for the visitors. In addition, he co-hosted at the BASC ‘Wild Food Theatre’ stage for a game cookery demonstration as a special guest to Lincolnshire’s award-winning, TV celebrity Chef Rachel Green.

It was a busy schedule of live cookery demonstrations across the 2,100-acre site meeting some of Britain’s top chefs and educating visitors on the provenance of food and sustainability at the same time an opportunity to share stories of how we champion Game with our pupils at Queen’s College back in Somerset.

Mr Mann met renowned TV celebrity chef James Martin, famous for his cookery show ‘James Martin’s Saturday Morning’ every Saturday on ITV and his various other ITV food shows ‘James Martin’s French Adventures’, ‘James Martin’s British Adventures’, ‘Islands to Highlands’ who hosted the VIP Enclosure at The Game Fair.

On Sunday Mr Mann met James Martin’s own special guests the ‘Escape To The Chateau’ TV foodie stars Dick and Angel Strawbridge who cooked up some tasty game with their children Arthur and Dorothy. While Mr Mann heard how Dick’s love for food led to him being a finalist in BBC’s Celebrity MasterChef and how Angel founded her Vintage Patisserie company.

Back at the BASC ‘Wild Food Theatre’ stage, Mr Mann spoke with TV celebrity chef Cyrus Todiwala the first Indian Chef awarded both the MBE and the OBE for his services to UK Cuisine, and backstage Mr Mann met with chart-topping JLS singing star turned successful farmer, celebrity TV foodie, and food campaigner JB Gill.

Throughout the long weekend there were opportunities to talk with Britain’s top game chefs about all that we do at Queen’s with Game like Rachel Green and Amy Thompson but also front of stage with award-winning top game Chef, Chef for the House of Commons turned Senior Chef Lecturer at the famous Westminster Kingsway College and awarded The Craft Guild of Chefs ‘Chef Lecturer of the Year,’ José Souto. This amazing chef, food author, and food presenter has offered for a few of our lucky pupils from Queen’s the opportunity to join him for a cookery masterclass later this academic year at Westminster Kingsway College in London (the UK’s first and premier chef school of culinary arts).

Finally, there cannot be food without drink and Mr Mann each day met with TV celebrity First Dates Bartender from Channel Four Merlin Griffiths at the BASC ‘Wild Food Kitchen Theatre’ stage where amount other things he taught how to make plant based botanical mocktails perfect for a hot summers day.

“I was honoured and privileged to attend the Game Fair 2024, it was a truly wonderful weekend of live cookery demonstrations to share Game cooking secrets and food preparation skills while at the same time share what we do to champion Game at Queen’s College with a much wider audience”, said Mr Mann, “visitors came away not just educated about how best to champion game with new recipes and foodie ideas but also how we successfully do this in our classes at Queen’s College.”