The British Food Fortnight (BFF) tagline is to “take a backseat” as the event is moved to coincide with the Olympics next year.
The two-week celebration of home-produced food is to be moved from its September and October to 27 July to 12 August next year and be branded Love British Food.
The event, which ends this weekend, has seen strong support from some flagship venues in London including St Paul’s Cathedral, Harrods, St Pancras, Wembley Stadium and Downing Street.
BFF organiser Alexia Robinson told delegates at an event at New Covent Garden on Thursday that foodservice businesses had provided the “bedrock” for everything the promotion had achieved in the last town years.
“The British Food Fortnight message will be more subliminal next year, the Love British Food banner will be upfront and we will try and get 40,000 shops, hotels, restaurants and businesses on board,” she said.
Robinson said despite political pressure from sponsors, BFF has “unofficial endorsement” from Olympic organisational body LOCOG and the Olympics would form the centrepiece to the celebrations.
At the same event, celebrity chef Michael Caines MBE, who runs the Gidleigh Park Michelin-starred restaurant in Devon said that restaurateurs and foodservice businesses need to talk to producers about the exact specification that make business sense.
He said: “Hospitality is one of largest employers in the UK. You need to make sure you talk to producers and get what you optimally want.”
Caines said it would be “immoral” and “obscene” not to source locally where possible.
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