The RSC’s Rooftop Restaurant and Bar will be taking a leading role in this year’s food festival, with a range of activity taking place on site and in the restaurant. On their stand, they will be joined by some of their key suppliers – cheese from Paxton and Whitfield and award-winning wine from The Ridgeview Estate in East Sussex. Their Festival Menu will be served in the restaurant, they’ll be hosting a wine tasting and Head Chef Nick Funnell will be doing a demonstration.

Proceedings will be overseen by chef, author and TV presenter, Alan Coxon who is the festival's ambassador this year.

Kitchen specialists Lakeland will be returning this year to demonstrate some of the latest gadgets and equipment from their extensive range.

Two minutes walk from Shakespeare's Birthplace, The One Elm is a Victorian pub with a bustling bar, a pretty sheltered courtyard & a relaxed but high quality restaurant. They will again this year be a prime sponsor of the festival providing a wide range of beers and wines.

Pull up a stool at the bar and enjoy a perfectly pulled pint of UBU from Warwickshire's own Purity Brewing Company.

Peter Seville, a top ten contestant in MasterChef 2011 will be sharing his experiences and demonstrating his favourite dishes.

Ben Bartlett is one of the UK’s foremost chefs and will talk on Beer and Cheese Matching. He is a fellow of the British Institute of Innkeeping and a Master Craftsman of the Guild of Chefs. He was the first winner of Britain’s Best BBQ’er and last year was made a Food Champion in the Courvoisier The Future 500.

Ben will be giving a BBQ Masterclass at the bandstand.

Some of Ben's recipes can be found here

You can visit Ben's website here

The Lazy Cow, who are demonstrating at this year's festival, are famous for their regional and internationally influenced dishes with inspirations taken straight out of New York City all gracefully executed by their head chef, Ben Rathbone.

WI Lite Stratford – one of a growing number of ‘next generation’ WI groups – will be launching its unique charity cookbook at the Stratford Food Festival.

The cookbook, Inspired Entertaining, showcases a series of three course dinner party recipes from some of Stratford-upon-Avon’s finest eateries, as well as a special contribution from the WI's own cookery school at Denman College.  There's even a cocktail section to help dinner parties get off to a flying start. Read more

Win meals or stays at local restaurants and gastro pubs in the WI Lite's Grand Draw. More information on our website.