OUR PRIMARY Festival PARTNERS

Hosted by barbecue chef extraordinaire Shane McBagley See chefs and barbecue experts cooking amazing barbecue dishes up close at our demo stage sponsored by Weber. See what and how they cook and you may even get a sample or two.

Shane is an American Le Cordon Bleu trained chef and barbecue expert who moved to the UK to be with his wife. He has spent much of the last decade teaching barbecue and live fire cooking , doing cookery demonstrations and hosting barbecue pop ups. Along with his wife, amazing chef Maisie, they came third in the live fire category of The World Food Championships in Texas. 

Adam spent six years working in restaurants around Europe including Sula in Madrid and Texture in London. He set down some roots and opened his own restaurant, The Beluga in Cleethorps which he ran for five years. He has now spent seventeen years in product development working with retailers as well as travelling around The States learning the art of traditional low and slow barbecue.

Starting life as a pastry chef at The Savoy Hotel in London, before moving on to Wentworth golf club, Sopwell House and Luton Hoo Hotels. He is now the group head of innovation for Cranswick PLC. An experienced culinary competitor, Simon has won numerous gold medals as the prestigious Hotelmania competition. Having also competed at Memphis in May and The SCA World Championships in Texas, he is also a member of Hog and Beyond Barbecue Team , the reigning Grand Champions from Malton Smoke and Fire Festival.

After training at Westminster Kingsway College Ben went on to work at Michelin starred restaurants Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley in London and Purnells in Birmingham. He then joined Cranswick in 2016 as an Innovation Chef, during that time making up part of the team that competed at legendary barbecue contest Memphis in May, the SCA World Championships in Texas and the Grand Champion BBQ team from last years Smoke and Fire Festival.