Like WA, Leeds has much to celebrate in terms of its food. There are countless festivals and events that pay homage to Leeds’ fantastic food and drink scene, with the biggest on its calendar coming up in just a few weeks – Leeds Loves Food. This year, Leeds Loves Food is a two week extravaganza, with many foodie events taking place between 24 May and 9 June, culminating with the Yorkshire Food and Drink show at Millennium Square.
Leeds is a city characterised by the amazing collaborative spirit of its independents, a spirit that is wonderfully demonstrated by some of the more exciting fringe events taking place during Leeds Loves Food. We’d be here for weeks if I talked about every single interesting event that’s taking place, so I’m putting my focus on just two, both of which are taking place at venues new to me with incredibly inspiring stories to tell. Full Circle Leeds and The Arch Café.
Full Circle Leeds
Full Circle Leeds is pretty special. Located in a converted warehouse on Kirkstall Road, Full Circle is a multi-purpose arts venue created from scratch by its owner and director, Anthony Thomas. The realisation of a dream Anthony has had for over 20 years, he used his wealth of experience as a Fine Art and Photography graduate, sculptor, interior designer and VJ amongst MANY other things to convert a disused warehouse into an arts venue and café. Anthony’s vision was to have a space where everybody worked together as one creative source, a vision that has well and truly come into fruition.
As well as being a venue for gigs, open mic, art exhibitions and even Star Wars conventions, Full Circle focuses on excellent food cooked using the best quality, local ingredients that Anthony can get his hands on. The Sunday Roasts have become something of a Leeds’ legend, attracting around 120 covers each Sunday who come in search of perfect roast potatoes, monster home-made Yorkshire puddings and the finest quality meats and vegetables.
As part of Leeds Loves Food, Full Circle is hosting Dub Emporium on Saturday 25 May, a full day event where all of the legendary big sound systems of Leeds will come together to play through one system. Included in the line-up are High Pressure, Symbiosis, Exodus, Inspirational Sound, Big Toes HIFI and Lion Paw, with more to be announced soon. A celebration of dub roots and culture, the live music will be accompanied by the now legendary Indian street food served up by Manjit’s Kitchen and a full barbecue from Full Circle. As Anthony put it, live music, lovely food and happy vibes. Sounds pretty good to me. You can find out more about Dub Emporium on Facebook.
The Arch Café
Housed in a beautiful Grade II listed building in the centre of Leeds is The Arch Café, a social enterprise café owned by Age UK Leeds that puts all of its proceeds back into the charity. The Arch opened just a year ago and has an ethos of supporting positive living for older people, with a strong ethical and social dimension also running through all of its food. Everything is baked and freshly prepared on-site (with the exception of its brownies, which are supplied by the mouth-watering Hash Brownies), and the café has a commitment to locally and ethically sourcing its food, using free-range eggs and chicken, outdoor reared pork and rainforest alliance tea and coffee.
The Arch is the bearer of excellent news for Leeds’ cake lovers this June for Leeds Loves Food. On 8 June, Age UK Leeds and the Arch Café are collaborating with Clandestine Cake Club and its founder Lynn Hill, to bring The Great Leeds Bake Off.
A fundraiser for Age UK Leeds with all proceeds from the £5 entry going to the charity, the competition combines the spirit of Clandestine Cake Club with the element of competition – and the good news is you don’t have to be an expert baker! Open to all ages, aspiring bakers are invited to bring a whole cake inspired by one of three categories – ‘Leeds Loves Food’, ‘Vintage/Retro’ and ‘International’. The cakes will be judged on how they taste and the baker’s take on the theme, creating a level playing field that The Arch’s Catering Manager, Fiona, hopes will inspire lots of people to get involved and enter. All cakes will then be shared out after the winners have been announced, so it’s advised that you bring a big appetite with you! If you don’t want to compete but would still like to get involved then that’s also ok – you can bring along a cake just to share without entering it into the competition, or you can just come along and eat cake! If cake wasn’t enough of an incentive, there will also be all-you-can-drink tea on offer from Yorkshire Tea, so there really is no reason not to come along.
The collaboration transpired from The Arch’s long-standing association with Clandestine Cake Club. The Arch’s Fiona and Clandestine Cake Club’s Lynn both share a mutual love of baking, and The Arch has hosted previous Clandestine Cake Clubs as well as baking a different cake from the Clandestine Cake Club recipe book each week ever since it was launched.
Full details are to be revealed soon, but with Lynn Hill on the judging panel and the promise of some truly exceptional prizes, I’d recommend flexing your baking skills and having a go! It’s for charity, after all. You can book your place for The Great Leeds Bake Off here.
The Arch will also be hosting a chocolate making demonstration from Mike Wallis (@Nalsa) on 25 May, and potentially another exciting collaboration during Leeds Loves Food, so keep checking The Arch Café’s website for more details.
Full Circle Leeds and The Arch Café’s events are just two of the very many events planned during Leeds Loves Food, with more events are being announced all of the time. To whet your appetite and plan your two weeks, visit the Leeds Loves Food website.