‘Arts’ has been added to this popular festival, and Rosemary Shrager is joining the impressive line-up of chefs in the demo kitchen this June

With an emphasis on 'real food' Highcliffe Food Festival, sponsored by Hoburne Holidays, now includes Arts in its name and line-up. Alongside it legendary range of stalls selling mouth-watering artisan food and drink will be several new 'arts' initiatives. These include a craft marquee selling beautiful jewellery, pebble art, pottery, driftwood pictures, textiles and fused glassware all made by local artists and hosted by The Little Craft Shack - a Dorset-based online company started by friends Loz Waters and Katya Benedetto.

Popular TV chef and author Rosemary Shrager will be cooking recipes from her book Rosemary Shrager's Cookery Course in the demonstration theatre on Saturday 1 June. She will also be giving a talk at the Lunch with Rosemary Shrager event at the Lord Bute Restaurant.

Other chefs who will be cooking up a storm over the weekend include Neal Jepson, head chef of Christchurch Harbour Hotel, Alex Aitken from The Jetty restaurant, Luke Philips of the Chewton Glen, Colin Nash of the Three Tuns and a team of chefs from Hoburne Holiday Parks. Ian Gibbs, head chef at Gordleton Mill will be creating something delicious with a catch of the day from local fisherman Russell Murphy. And finally award-winning chocolatier Kerry Witt will give a chocolate masterclass.

On Sunday there will be a distinctly international flavour to the cuisine with demonstrations on Korean cooking by Young Joo Shin, and Indian chef and author Sarah Ali Choudhury. After establishing herself as one of the youngest Asian females to manage an Indian restaurant in the UK, Sarah has built a reputation for delivering delicious Indian recipes that are easy to do. She takes a great delight in teaching people recipes from all over the world.

New for this year is The Sheep Show - a humorous educational stage show about sheep and wool which includes a live sheep-shearing demonstration. There's also a Mad Hatter's tea-party, a treasure hunt, Chefs on Stilts and a Grow your Own event where children learn about growing vegetables. Meanwhile the Kids Kitchen will be finding out what makes bread rise, how butter is churned and making chocolate lollipops.

Highcliffe Food & Arts Festival runs 1 - 2 June in Highcliffe Village along Lymington Road and in the Recreation Ground.

Meet Rosemary Shrager

Rosemary's professional career includes working under Pierre Hoffmann at the internationally famous Tante Claire restaurant in London, and working for Jean-Christophe Novelli. Her cooking skills came to the fore in the ITV series I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here, where she proved she could cook just about anything, anywhere. Rosemary shares her skills at events across the country and abroad, and at her cookery school in Kent. rosemaryshrager.com

For regular updates please see highcliffefoodandartsfestival.co.uk.