Food lovers salivated over sumptuous street food and tucked into a range of tasty treats as the Bishop Auckland Food Festival made a wet start today (Saturday April 2022).

The persistent precipitation did not deter the crowds from flocking to the County Durham market town which has become a foodie-haven for the weekend

Before festival-goers reached the array of street stalls dotted around Bondgate and the Market Place the aroma of culinary delights from all corners of the globe wafted over the busy approach roads as crowds made their way to the town centre.

Foods and drink to suit all tastes were on offer at 140 stalls, with demonstrations and ‘have a go’ workshops in the Town Hall, led by catering chefs at Bishop Auckland College.

Read more: Bishop Auckland Food Festival: Celebrity times, park and ride & more

Taking centre stage in the cookery theatre open-air kitchen were well known faces from tv cookery programmes, plying their trade in front of rain-soaked onlookers in the audience.

Janusz Domagala, of Great British Bake-Off fame, opened the programme of live cookery performances, baking a chocolate cake containing soy sauce and ginger, with spiced butter cream from his native Poland.

Irish kitchen queen Rachel Allen was next on stage amid a brief lull in the downpour.

The cookery writer and tv chef is a teacher by day at the highly-acclaimed Ballymaloe Cookery School, in County Cork, where she, herself, studied and honed her skills from her teenage years.

She told the stage host Chris Bavin, a tv regular himself, that it was her first live demonstration since she appeared at a food festival in Qatar on the fringe of the desert.

“Being from Ireland, I even took the rain there as well,” she told the assembled rain-bedraggled audience.

Her choice of dish for the day was also of the sweet variety, an upside-down rhubarb cake, which she prepared with perfection while chatting to the presenter.

Despite jokingly urging the audience to look away, she managed the final flip-over flourish without blemish, leaving a luscious-looking purple patisserie ready for the plate.

Another celebrated tv chef, Michelin-starred chef and author, Phil Vickery, completed the stage line-up, with a raw salmon dish, made with everyday supermarket-bought ingredients.

Read more: Bishop Auckland Food Festival 2023: Everything you need to know

The ITV This Morning mainstay said he last gave a cookery demonstration in the 26C heat of Jersey in midweek, before dropping down by quite a few degrees, to rain-sodden Bishop Auckland.

Janusz returned to the stage to cook up a savoury follow-up to his earlier sweet cake treat and will be back on stage on day two of the festival tomorrow (Sunday April 23).

Read next:

* Bishop Auckland Food Festival 2023 Comp: Prizes up for grabs

* Bishop Auckland food festival announces MasterChef and Bake Off chefs

* Bishop Auckland Food Festival 2023 includes Bake Off guests

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He will be joined by MasterChef 2018 winner Kenny Tutt and Great British Bake-Off runner-up in 2022, Sandro Farmhouse, again hosted by Chris Bavin.

Stalls will be serving from 10am to 4pm, with live demonstrations phased between 10.30am and 3pm.

Further information is available via bishopaucklandfoodfestival.co.uk, the event website.