As an avid cheese enthusiast, I was already excited for the  “The Guild of Cheesemakers” annual tasting at Summerhall, even if just to eat some artisan cheeses and learn a little of what I’d forgotten from my childhood summer job at a local Yorkshire cheese factory. What I got was so much more.

Foodies Festival is back in Edinburgh this August, and with new features, new faces and a new venue at Inverleith Park, this promises to be the biggest and best year ever. Words Caroline Whitham

It is just six years since Foodies Festival first opened its gates to hungry Edinburgh gourmets and Fringe-goers, and the event has certainly gone from strength to strength, having expanded to no less than seven sites across the UK this summer. The festival’s heart still belongs to Edinburgh, however, and this year Foodies, sponsored by Scottish Power and jamie magazine, moves to a new, bigger site, the beautiful Inverleith Park in the New Town for the first time.

On 13, 14 and 15 August, local and global visitors can enjoy t

Top end

21212

3 Royal Terrace
TEL: 0845 22 21212
www.21212restaurant.co.uk
NEAR Five minutes from the Playhouse

Having opened in May 2009, Paul Kitching’s opulent restaurant was awarded a Michelin star the following January. The contemporary dining room and open kitchen are housed in an elegant Georgian townhouse but the food is cutting edge modern. Expect the unexpected from the daily changing menu with many of the dishes featuring head-spinning numbers of ingredients all carefully balanced. A typical dish might be the starter of white crab claw slaw: a creamy gourmet mushroom risotto with six types of mushrooms including shitake, shimeji, button, morel, truffle and chestnut; cucumber wafers, smoked duck and pak choi with a morel mushroom, Madeira and white truffle oil sauce. It’s bold, adventurous, sometimes baffling and a unique experience, though Kitching claims to have calmed his more extravagant tendencies of late.

AMBER RESTAURANT
Scotch Whisky Experience
354 Castlehill
TEL: 0131 477 8477
www.amberrestaurant.co.uk
NEAR Two minutes from the Tattoo

With 300 malts on hand, this restaurant café at the top of the Royal Mile will put a smile on the face of any whisky fan. During the day, the café menu includes dishes such as Scottish tapas, stovies or sweet cure roll mop herring with apple mayo. In the evening, the candles come out and the operation kicks up a couple of gears with options such as sirloin steak with roasted thyme potatoes and a whisky butter. Real whisky heads can ask the sommelier to match malts to each course of their meal. If you want to push the boat out, try private dining in the spectacular vault housing the Diageo Claive Vidiz Scotch Whisky Collection.

No matter how many shows you manage to pack into your visit to the Festival, you’re going to need to stop and eat occasionally. Jonathan Trew tucks in at the top table.

TOP END

21212
3 Royal Terrace
Tel: 0845 22 21212
www.21212restaurant.co.uk
NEAR: 5 minutes from the Playhouse

Having opened in May 2009, Paul Kitching’s opulent restaurant was awarded a Michelin star the following January. The contemporary dining room and open kitchen are housed in an elegant Georgian townhouse but the food is cutting edge modern. Expect the unexpected from the daily changing menu. Chinese style fish was the deceptively straightforward description of a complex dish from a recent menu. It’s bold, adventurous, sometimes baffling and a unique experience although Kitching claims to have calmed his more extravagant tendencies of late.

Eat, drink and be merry

Stephen K Amos is all about the good things in life – that’s why he’s bringing a mixture of comedy and cooking to this year’s Foodies at the Festival.

Cooking up a storm

Hardeep Singh Kohli really lays himself bare in his latest show all about his love of food.

Time to tuck in

Along with the Fringe comes Edinburgh’s best food event, Foodies at the Festival, which this year moves to an exciting new venue.