People / In Their Own Words
In Their Own Words: Josh Eggleton
Acclaimed chef and restaurateur Josh Eggleton is the co-founder of Foda, a new “festival of food ideas” at the Arnolfini on September 27 and 28.
Foda will feature an outdoor producer village and a symposium of panel talks inside Arnolfini chaired by food writer Xanthe Clay and Sharpham Park owner Roger Saul.
Josh will feature on the lineup of expert speakers in the symposium which also include Margot Henderson, Simon Rogan, Gurdeep Loyal, Tom Herbert and Kalpna Woolf.
is needed now More than ever
“Bristol has a real lack of a community-based food festival that represents localism”
“Take it back 22 years ago and I was at the Olive Shed as a head chef. The Organic Food Festival used to take place around the harbour and it was such a great event. It was a representation of the organic revolution and for me, the key part of it was that it felt very intrinsic to community. They ended up having to close down the harbour because thousands of people came. I’m no adversary to commercialism – we have to be commercial to make these things work – but I do think Bristol has a real lack of a community-based food festival that represents localism.”
“I want to celebrate a positive food culture”
“I’ve always been involved in creating food festivals, like the recent Bristol Seafood Week. For me, what’s important is that I love food, I want to celebrate local food and I want to celebrate a positive food culture. Foda is an expression of that. It needs to have a feel of the city we live in but we don’t want to create an echo chamber. I want to be talking about food ideas that we can span across the country and we can also look at food ideas that are being implemented elsewhere for us to learn from. But of course it’s also a great thing that we’re based in Bristol because this is where we are from; we have put together a series of events and a series of projects like the Anti-Banquet or the Pony Farm Bus to try and create a positive food culture but to also represent alternative economies; new ways of working to incite localism and positive food culture.”
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“Foda is a representation of localism”
“Foda began as a conversation about local produce, getting together in Wogan and learning from my peers and from my suppliers. We did that for three years, a bit guerrilla. We had really good conversations so I wanted to take that idea and put all those producers on the quayside. We’re representing our supply chain in Bristol. This is a representation of localism. But the event is evolving so we will have a free food market that represents localism on the quay outside the Arnolfini as well as the paid-for symposiums inside.”
“Food can bring us so much joy”
“What I want to find out is how can I educate myself to be better and then get the general public to get involved with that and be better together. Food can bring us so much joy. We need it for sustenance but we also need it to make the world go round. We live in a globalised food system and there is greed through capitalism which is a big problem. But we’ve got to start somewhere to combat that so that’s why Foda has now evolved.”
“I want people to come away feeling stimulated”
“We’re calling it a festival of food ideas; not just about positive food ideas as we need to make sure on these panel discussions we have different points of view. Like I have already said, we don’t want it to be an echo chamber or say that it’s all wonderful and aren’t we all great in Bristol. No, I want to have a stimulating conversation, with different points of view, maybe arguments, about the best way forward. How can we solve this? I want people to come away feeling stimulated, feeling positive about changing a food future together. And to continue to ask questions. You’re not going to come away with answers; you’re going to come away with more questions!”
Brother and sister duo Josh and Holly Eggleton in the garden of the Pony – photo: The Pony
“We can use our business to give back”
“I’d love to see Foda evolve into a citywide food festival that has massive accessibility. I work in the restaurant industry. Going to eat in a restaurant is a privilege. Breaking down those barriers is something that we are working a lot on that at the Pony where there are multiple ways that you don’t have to just turn up and eat in the restaurant. We run volunteer garden days. We have community-based projects that intersect with it. You can just come to walk around the garden for free. We’ll make you a cup of tea, give you a biscuit. I want to apply that logic to everything we do and that’s why we are involved in a huge amount of community projects in the city, where we can use the natural resource of our business to give back. Part of that is this festival: you can just turn up, try some cheese, learn about it. I know not everybody will be able to afford it but it is there and you will be able to have some sort of interaction with it.”
“I’m trying to make something that is for the people”
“It always comes down to money. We see things come and go and that is unfortunately another symptom of capitalism. With Foda, I’m trying to make something that is sustainable, that can work and is for the people. Why has Bristol never had a food festival that has stood the test of time? We’re approaching 20 years of the Pony in March and I want to be sitting here in another 20 years if I’m still here talking about Foda and talking about the Pony, which at that point will be a foundation based on food education growing practices, and it’ll be for everyone.”
For more information about Foda, visit www.fodafestival.com
Main photo: Martin Booth
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