BBC Good Food Show Winter - Birmingham NEC 28 November - 1 December 2019

For the first time at any garden show, Paul Stone's incredible feature garden showcases a vintage steam engine and Pullman railway carriage - all within the scenic garden setting of a wildflower embankment, station cottage garden with prize allotment, and more.

Celebrating the industrial heritage of the West Midlands, this show-stopping garden will represent Birmingham at the heart of the national railway network. The Pullman Dining Carriage, named ‘Eagle’, is part of the beautifully restored fleet at Vintage Trains, coming to The NEC from their Tyseley works.

Recognising Birmingham’s contribution to agriculture and horticulture throughout the Black Country, the scene features a typical railway embankment allotment plot packed with the finest produce together with a stunning cut flower garden alongside the station platform. All flowers will be grown by volunteers from the MIND group in Knowle supported by Flowers from the Farm.

A field of barley surrounds the station signal box with hops growing along the railway siding fences to acknowledge Birmingham’s beer brewing industry from microbreweries to major brewers such as Davenports, and visitors will be able to view memorabilia from Davenports brewing past.

Gold Foods will be exhibiting Blue Star Crab Meat at the the BBC Good Food show, the biggest Summer food festival in the Midlands. From the 14th to the 17th of June the NEC Birmingham will be packed with the U.K.'s finest seasonal produce, with the UK’s top chefs cooking up fresh recipes live on the numerous stages. Visit us on Stand F371 to sample our delicious and nutritious Blue Star crabmeat for yourself and take home a pack or two along with our free recipe cards, ideal for your Summer al-fresco entertaining.

Chris Bavin is so full of character he was born to be on TV. After a TV production company first stumbled across him in 2011 he has gone from strength to strength and is currently co-presenting his fourth series of BBC1’s hugely successful series Eat Well For Less? With Gregg Wallace. The show has had incredible ratings across its first three series with the next two to be aired later on this year.

Extremely creative, productive and with a unique perspective on life, landscape design, gardening, art history and disability, Mark Lane has led a remarkable life. He has gained recognition as a first-class landscape designer, being the UK’s first garden designer in a wheelchair, as well as the first BBC gardening presenter in a wheelchair.

As a broadcaster he is a presenter of the award winning BBC Gardeners’ World, as well a presenter for BBC Gardeners’ World Live and the Royal Horticultural Society’s Flower Shows – Chelsea, Hampton Court Palace, Tatton. BBC Gardeners’ World is one of the handful of factual TV programmes with a long pedigree of 50 years, viewed by a staggering 3 million people on a weekly basis, in the UK alone. Says Mark: “I’m here in a wheelchair and I can do these things. First and foremost I am a presenter, who just happens to be in a chair, but if I can be an inspiration to other people, then all the better for it.”

One of gardening’s most influential designers, Diarmuid Gavin, will be challenging budding landscapers to turn his visions into reality and scoop the inaugural Young Landscapers Award at this year’s BBC Gardeners’ World Live.

Four finalists under the age of 28 will be announced on 16th March, who will be put in pairs to create two different Show Gardens designed by the television gardening personality. The blueprints will incorporate all aspects of landscaping and test the next generation landscapers to display a wide variety of skills to the utmost precision.

The two teams will have the same demanding timeframe as the professional Show Garden designers and contractors at BBC Gardeners’ World Live but also the added pressure of being assessed by World Skills UK judges, to millimetre tolerances. The winning pair will be announced on Wednesday 13th June, the day before the show opens to the public, where both gardens will be on show at the NEC to ticketholders, along with a host of other show gardens, extensive floral marquee, experts and hundreds of exhibitors.

Adam will share his expert advice in the BBC Gardeners' World Live Theatre on Sunday 17 June 2018 plus live interviews on other stages around the Show.

Adam Frost, seven-time Chelsea gold medallist, started his career building Geoff Hamilton’s gardens for the BBC at Barnsdale. In 2013, he helped set up the Homebase Garden Academy and in 2014 became an RHS Ambassador to raise the profile of horticulture and encourage secondary schools to embrace gardening. Recently, he wrote and published his own book ‘Real Gardens’ which tells the journey of his award winning Chelsea gardens.

Barney is the Food Editor at looking after recipes and interviewing the chefs and producers we feature. Before becoming a food writer Barney worked as a chef in England, France and Australia. On weekends he can be found in his kitchen cooking with his children, aged 12 and 8.

Lee Connelly (Skinny Jean Gardener) is hosting the Gardeners Unplugged stage.

He will also be at BBC Gardeners' World Live on Thursday 14 June 2018, with a dedicated session in the BBC Gardeners' World Live Theatre for school groups.

Packed with energy and enthusiasm, this session will leave the teachers as inspired as the kids!

The school group session is completely free, but should be booked at the same time as booking tickets for your outing.

While many of us are both happy and competent to plan the interior of our homes the ideas often dry up or become downright difficult once we move outside.

In part it’s those long Latin names and seemingly endless choice of plants. Where should I position them, how big do they get, what kind of soil do they like? Added to this is a wealth of materials, paving, walling, pergolas, pools, garden buildings and ornaments. It’s no wonder our gardens often become confused, awkward and difficult to maintain.

With this in mind Wyevale have created a ‘solutions’ garden that sets out to solve such difficulties in a thoroughly practical, easy to understand and elegant way. Each area of this crisply contemporary composition is given over to a different problem, whether it be soil, situation or choice of materials which in turn is clearly explained by the correct choice and relationship of both plants and the overall elements that bring the garden alive.

Tom is a great character with amazing presence, obvious warmth and an infectious laugh, so it wasn’t a surprise when Tom landed his own TV show. The brilliantly popular BBC2 series Proper Pub Food became a huge overnight success with excellent ratings with Tom’s fan base growing weekly as the 6 part series went on. Accompanying the show Tom wrote his first book of the same title which fast became a best seller. Most recently, Tom has been presenting BBC2’s new series Bake Off Crème De La Crème which saw some of the country’s top pastry chefs compete, creating elaborate pastries and desserts. Tom is also part of the team on BBC2’s The Food Detectives, helping people improve their cooking skills.

In 2014, Tom presented his second series, Best Ever Dishes which again proved extremely popular, along with his bestselling book of the same title. Tom also took on the challenge of opening another restaurant, The Coach, which is also in Marlow. The Coach is a relaxed modern pub, open all day, every day serving breakfast, lunch, dinner and pub snacks. The Coach has a no reservations policy and has enabled more visitors than ever to taste Tom’s incredible take on traditional pub food.

Tom also took on hosting BBC2’s flagship cookery show Food and Drink. Tom cooked alongside other TV heavyweight chefs, championing seasonable produce and creating dishes accessible to everyone at home every Friday night on BBC2.

In 2015, Tom’s latest book, Toms Table was published and topped the best seller charts. It also inspired a special pop-up ‘Toms Table’ restaurant at Harrods Food Hall which saw Tom cooking dishes from the new book as well as favourites from both his restaurants, the pop-up sold out and was a huge success.

Prior to having his own show, Tom appeared on shows such as Market Kitchen, MasterChef the Professionals, Saturday Kitchen and has competed and won the main course twice on BBC2’s Great British Menu. No-one else has ever won twice!

Tom’s first catering job was a stint as commis chef at Calcot Manor in Gloucestershire. He also worked for Stephen Bull and Gary Rhodes before joining Odette’s in Primrose Hill. After a spell at Monsieur Max in Hampton he moved to Norwich to take over running the Michelin starred restaurant Adlards.

He then decided it was time to find his own place taking over a run down pub in Marlow called the Hand and Flowers. The rest is history…