This year’s Christchurch Food & Wine Festival, running from 7 to 16 May, will welcome the renowned Indian chef Cyrus Todiwala who will be giving two cookery demonstrations on Sunday 9 May.

In addition, the cookery demonstrations, held in the marquee in Saxon Square from Friday 7 to Sunday 9 May, will feature three ‘CookaFun’ sessions which will pit chefs against each other to see who can come up with the most imaginative dishes from the same ingredients.

Cyrus Todiwala was born and brought up in Bombay where he studied hotel administration and food technology and started his career as a chef, rising to become Corporate Executive Chef of the Taj Group’s Taj Holiday Village, The Fort Aguada Beach Resort and The Aguada Hermitage in Goa.

He left India for Australia in 1991, but at the behest of one of his old friends decided to come to London to run the Namaste restaurant where he developed his hallmark style of blending traditional Indian culinary techniques and flavours with more unexpected ingredients.

Today, Cyrus runs the award-winning Cafe Spice Namaste on the border of the City of London and Cafe ‘t’ in New Cavendish Street. Cafe Spice Namaste incorporates the best of Indian dishes with influences from all over Asia, often with a European twist. He cooks with organic ingredients and fully supports British produce wherever possible.

In 2000, Cyrus was awarded an MBE in recognition of his contribution to education and training and for raising the general profile of the industry. He has just been awarded an OBE in the New Year Honours list in recognition of his tireless work to encourage skills acquisition and training within the catering industry.

Cyrus regularly appears as chef and commentator on television and radio programmes. His credits include Food & Drink, Saturday Kitchen, MasterChef, Great Food Live, Big Breakfast, Light Lunch, The Paul O’Grady Show, Talk Radio, Radio 5 Live. He is currently the resident Indian chef for UKTV Food’s Market Kitchen programme.

Cyrus has written three cook books: Cafe Spice Namaste, India (part of the International Cuisine Series) and his latest book is Indian Summer.

The Festival’s patron, TV chef Lesley Waters, will be appearing on Friday 7 May, when she will judge the Junior Cook of the Year competition as well as do two cookery demonstrations of her own. She will also join Twynham Girl Guides for a unique session, called ‘cooking in a cardboard box’, to celebrate 100 years of the Girl Guide movement.

Lesley will be back on Saturday 8 May for a cookery demonstration in the morning and, in the afternoon, to join Mike Jennings, the head chef from Rhodes South, for a ‘CookaFun’ competition to see who makes the most of the same ingredients.

Other ‘Cookafun’ sessions will feature the Mussell brothers, chefs at The Boat House and Soho, on Saturday 8 May and Andrew Gault from The Captain’s Club against James Ruskin from East Close Hotel on Sunday 9 May.

Further sessions in the marquee include Sue Spooner from Spooner’s Catering Company, chefs from Masala Bay, Christchurch’s newest Indian restaurant, Paul Putt from Splinters, Simon Hallam from The Crooked Beam and the return of the popular Bar Wars featuring cocktail barman Ady Hough who will select two teams to battle against each other to create cocktails.

This year’s Festival promises to be even bigger and better than ever, with a wide range of stalls already booked for the International Food Market in the High Street on 8 and 9 May and a whole host of events in cafes, tea rooms and restaurants throughout the Borough during the fortnight.

The Festival programme is currently being put together and details of all events will appear on the Festival’s website at www.christchurchfoodfest.co.uk.