BOLTON Food and Drink Festival would not be what it is without the celebrity and regional chefs that come and get involved in the fantastic event.

New for this year, the event has the added punch of some of the best wine tasting experts around.

Here is the lowdown on the 20 celebrity chefs, TV celebrity wine experts and regional chefs you can see at the event between Friday and Bank Holiday Monday.

Celebrity chefs

Michael Caines

Festival Ambassador Michael Caines is one of the country’s leading chefs. His two Michelin-starred Gidleigh Park restaurant in Devon, won the Remy Martin XO Excellence Award for the UK’s best all-round restaurant, in the Harden’s Restaurant Survey 2011. Michael, who lost his right arm in a car accident 15 years ago, was the protégé of renowned chef Raymond Blanc and he was awarded an MBE for services to the hospitality industry in 2006.

John Torode

John is best known as co-host of BBC’s MasterChef and for helping introduce Australasian food to the UK. In 1992 he joined Le Pont de la Tour and after working as sous chef for the Conran Group he became Head Chef at Mezzo in 1995. Teaming up with Greg Wallace in 2004, he quickly became a TV favourite with his hard hitting feedback to hopefuls aiming to be crowned BBC’s MasterChef.

Nadiya Hussain

Since winning GBBO Nadiya has been busier than ever, with 2016 proving to be an exciting year for her. Her first cookbook, Nadiya’s Kitchen was published in June, and her children’s book, Bake Me A Story is ready for publication in September! Nadiya is also a columnist for The Times and Essentials and is now a regular reporter for The One Show on BBC and also features on ITV’s Loose Women. Her series, The Chronicles of Nadiya, will be on BBC 1 later this year. On Bake Off, we watched her create amazing bakes, with enthusiasm, wit and warmth and we can’t wait to see what she cooks up at the Festival.

James Martin

Hailing from Yorkshire, James has a passion for proper British food and fast cars. He worked in professional kitchens from the age of 10 and at the age of 11, he cooked for the Queen Mother. At 16, fellow chef Antony Worrall Thompson noticed his work and gave him a job at his London restaurant, 190 Queensgate. In September 2013 James opened ‘James Martin Manchester’ at the Manchester235 casino.

TV Celebrity wine experts

Oz Clarke

Oz is headlining Bolton’s extra-special wine tasting events this year. With his extensive wine knowledge, no-nonsense approach and open and captivating manner he is Britain’s best-loved authority on wine. Oz’s tasting skills have won him international recognition among fellow wine experts and is acknowledged as having one of the finest palates of anyone writing about wine today.

Kate Goodman

Kate, an award winning wine merchant who regularly features in the national press and media, joins Oz for the special wine tasting events to share some great tips. After working with top chefs as the drinks expert on BBC’s Food & Drink, she’s ideally placed to advise on matching food with great wine — something perfectly suited to our festival!

Regional chefs

Sean Wilson

Sean is a chef, has cooked in several Michelin starred restaurants and is also a cheesemaker, with his own cheese company. His book, ‘The Great Northern Cookbook’ was published in 2012, the accompanying TV series was shown on Channel 5.

Luis Troyano

Luis shot to fame on the popular TV programme The Great British Bake Off, and aside from keeping his own bees in 8 hives…he runs his own baking courses, published his first book in August 2015 and opened his own bakery ‘ The Hive’ in spring 2016!

Andrew Nutter

Andrew is one of the most innovative of the new breed of celebrity chefs. He opened his own restaurant “Nutters” at the age of 21, which sits on the site of an 18th century manor house near Rochdale, and goes from strength to strength.

Michael Harrison

Local chef Michael Harrison is Lancashire born and bred, Bolton-trained and has over 20 years cooking experience. He was nominated for the Manchester Food and Drink Festival ‘Chef of the Year’ award in 2005

Jon Jones

Jon has held prestigious positions at Manchester hotels and restaurants. He then opened his own pub, The Farmers Arms in Bolton, serving a mixture of classic pub foods and modern interpretations of classic dishes. He has since moved on. 

Alain Job

Local chef Alain runs Nkono food stall at Bolton Market. He won the Innovative Catering Business with the Guardian/O2 and the first Nottingham Dragon’s Den prize for small businesses.

Nick Cullen

Nick’s restaurant - Nick established Nick’s Restaurant in 2001, bringing culinary flair and metropolitan flavour to a small corner of Bolton. Following initial success he went on to open his second restaurant ‘Nicks at Chequerbent’ in January 2012 with head chef Andrew Higson.

Simon Wood

2015 MasterChef Champion, Simon wowed the judges with his menu inspired by classic flavour combinations. Simon is now executive chef of Oldham Athletic FC, where he’s created a Simon Wood Menu, he also hosts regular culinary events at the Events Centre and hosts bi-monthly bespoke menus for ‘Dining with Simon Wood’

Robert Owen Brown

Robert creates dishes from his imaginative use of the finest local produce. His career began at Manchester’s iconic Midland hotel and after completing his apprenticeship at the renowned Grosvenor Hotel in Chester he worked in Scotland, France and Italy before returning to Manchester. He is currently Executive Head Chef at The Mark Addy and has numerous TV appearances.

Aiden Byrne

Aiden was raised in Merseyside and has worked in many Michelin-starred establishments. After spending time in London mastering his skills and focusing his passion he moved closer to home with his family and opened the critically acclaimed Manchester House with Living Ventures.

Rosie Dummer

Rosie, aka Rosie Cake-Diva, had an unconventional start to her baking career. A former Army helicopter pilot, she was the first female pilot in the British Forces, flying Lynx Anti- Tank helicopters with the Army Air Corps. After leaving to raise a family, she started making cakes for her children, a hobby which developed into a full time career! A former winner of Cake Masters Magazine Wedding Cake of the year, her show-stopping skills created our full sized baby elephant cake in 2015!

Sweet Mandarin

The northwest’s only Chinese restaurant with an AA rosette, Sweet Mandarin in Manchester’s Northern Quarter, is owned and run by three Chinese sisters. Winner of Gordon Ramsay’s Best Local Chinese Restaurant on the F Word, the team beat off competition from 10,000 other restaurants!

Andrew George

Andrew is one of the founders of the Icky Sticky Cake Company where they pride themselves on making the most decadent cakes that are packed full of flavour and taste, but yet are gluten free.

In Truffle We Trust

Jessica is a Dublin-born, Manchester-raised pastry chef with a passion for all things chocolate. Working in restaurants such as Michelin starred The Chester Grosvenor and with Michael Caines at Abode, her passion for all things sweet flourished and she was captivated. Using the skills gained from arduous development, Jessica’s creation of ‘In Truffle We Trust’ was born.