Chef to represent UK

1:23pm Monday 18th August 2008

The head chef at one of Wiltshire's pioneering fine food pubs has been chosen to represent the UK at an international gathering for foodies.

The Slow Food world convivium, which is taking place in Turin in October, will host thousands of participants from around the world.

All the delegates have one thing in common; they all subscribe to the 80,000 strong movement's key aims to retain the diverse heritage of regional food and drink and protect it from globalisation.

And it is British produce that Jasper Ayckroyd, the head chef at The Royal Oak pub in Bishopstone, will be championing when he visits the event.

"Food is fundamental to all people," Mr Ayckroyd said.

"Yet, in the West especially, how many of our children and our peers do not even know how to make bread?

"Indeed, how many people can even choose good bread from bad, having only ever known an industrial product made so cheaply that the packaging and transport cost more than the bread itself?

"It doesn't have to be like this and with organisations like the Slow Food movement we can afford to be optimistic.

"Most grandmothers in the UK have an old cooking book with recipes, notes, and advice. Scrawled in pencil in the margin of this book, amongst scraps of paper, old vouchers and magazine clippings is knowledge we need today, but risk losing.

"So meet The Royal Oak challenge and unearth those old recipes."