BiteBack Festival, which took place at Wylam Brewery in Newcastle on Sunday June 9, raised £82,000 for Cancer Research UK.
The event – the brainchild of Siân Byerley, co-owner of Restaurant Pine – saw a stellar line-up of 15 chefs from some of the UK’s leading restaurants, with 19 Michelin stars and green stars between them, cook at the pop-up event. Each chef served up 500 portions of their refined street food creations to foodies who had devoured online tokens in record time. There was also drinks from Wylam Brewery and the Northumberland Coffee Co, and live music from a range of DJs including Ben Scott and Charlie Younger.
Online bidders also got stuck into securing more than 50 foodie and overnight experiences in the silent auction. The lots were provided by restaurateurs and hospitality businesses from across the region and further afield, including foodie icon Simon Rogan, who donated a full Day at Our Farm Experience for two people at his farm in the Lake District; Si King and Terry Laybourne, who both donated their time to cook a private dinner in the successful bidders own home for up to 10 people; Grace and Savour, Solihull, who donated a dine and stay experience for two at their Michelin-starred restaurant; and the team at Restaurant 22, Cambridge who donated a tasting menu and discovery wine flight experience for two.
The dishes at the event included: BBQ Herdwick belly on flatbread by Paul Leonard; Desperate Dan’s cow pie by Tom Sheperd; beetroot & Doddington cheddar by Ian Waller; potted shrimp with spiced cauliflower apple velouté by Ryan Blackburn, BBQ chicken, preserved garlic, and seaweed potatoes by Nathan Davies; James’ giant peach and game set & match by Cal Byerley; Craster kipper stottie by Kenny Atkinson; Ancient grain flatbread and slow cooked pork shoulder by Josh Overington; BBQ carrot with anise and pumpkin seed by Pam Brunton; Herdwick sausage roll with pickled red cabbage and garlic aioli by Kevin Tickle; Pork skewer and chimichurri by Alex Nietsvuori; Jamón croquetas by Nieves Barragan; Heston’s Meat Fruit by Kevin Brown; Chicken rhug with green asparagus, our miso, chicken wing garum and butter emulsion by David Taylor; and Herdwick lamb kofta, steak ragu filled cruffin, mentalista flatbread with crispy ears and burnt Lettuce emulsion by Tommy Banks, Will Lockwood and Callum Leslie.
“We want to thank everyone who has been involved in this year’s event,” said Siân. “It’s only been made possible by the generosity and hard work of absolutely everyone who has been involved. What we’ve all achieved is amazing! We’d hope that we might be able to raise £60,000, but to totally smash that total and raise £82,000 is out of this world.
“We’d like to thank the 15 incredible chefs who’ve all volunteered their time for this amazing cause, as well as the amazing folks at Wylam Brewery for providing the venue; the suppliers like Wellocks, Wilde Farm, Crosby’s, R & J Butchers, Hodgson’s Fish, Sous Vide Tools, VMS, A7 Media, Beyond Design and many more who have all been massively generous providing support for the event itself; and the businesses that have very kindly donated auction prizes to help the event raise more funds for Cancer Research UK.
“What started out as a tentative conversation in 2023 has rapidly grown into something pretty wonderful and indescribable and that’s down to Ian Waller – who, like many of us up and down the country, has personal reasons for wanting to support the work of Cancer Research UK. It’s been a long journey to get to this point but every second has been worth it. Now for a well-earned rest for us all and then we’ll have a think about what comes next for 2025.”
For more information about future events visit www.bitebackfestival.co.uk and follow @biteback_fest on Instagram.
