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View Synopsis ROSIE TURNER, FESTIVAL DIRECTOR, CANTERBURY FESTIVAL 2010: The Canterbury Festival

View Synopsis JESSICA SWINFEN, RIVERFORD FIELD KITCHEN, TALKS TO DIGITAL KENT'S AMANDA FISHER:
About five years ago Riverford's founder Guy Watson decided that he wanted to help people to use the vegetables in their veg boxesand wanted to inspire people to cook with local, seasonal, fresh and organic produce, and he set up the field kitchen restaurant at our farm in Devon. And I think it would be about a year ago that Guy felt it would be nice to take that concept slightly further afield and to customers around the country and at the same time we had a Riverford staff summer party and we hired a Yurt from the farm next door to us which makes them. And he thought it would be a great idea to do a travelling field restaurant in a Yurt - and here we are!
Kent has just got so much really lovely local seasonal fresh produce that we really wanted to cook with, so here at Mole End Farm we're taking apples and plums directly from the farm, you know, we're in an amazing orchard. I think that's inspired us to come to Kent .
The essence of the travelling field kitchen is I think taking that experience and putting it in the farm where some of that produce has been grown - that just brings it to life even more for people.
We seat 80 people for each sitting, both for lunch and dinner.
People can just expect a feast from the fields, so freshly cooked dishes prepared every day using the best of what's in the fields. They've really enjoyed cooking with the Kent produce.
We've had some absolutely amazing bookings in Kent, and I think we're really reasonably priced. It's £17.50 for a two-course lunch, and £22.50 a three-course dinner.
Portions are really generous - people leave absolutely stuffed and think it's great value for money, yes.
I think people are just delighted to see local seasonal ingredients being cooked in a way that's just all about the vegetables, you know, we haven't done too much to them so people can you know still appreciate the vegetables as they are and I think they feel inspired that they can go home and have a go at those dishes as well and get vegetables to taste that good.
I think people are always a bit fascinated to see how you cook such amazing food in the middle of a field. Quite often they'll nip out the back to have a look at the kitchen which is in a trailer and have a chat to the chefs out the back and try and get some recipes from them.
The Yurt really brings it together, so part of our restaurant concept is that everybody sits down together, and we believe that great food tastes even better when you share it with others. So I think having the circular Yurt, which is a Kurdish tent, it's got the beautiful ribbing and trelliss work and it sort of encompasses everybody and brings them together and people sit at share communal tables, we bring all the dishes to the table, everyone shares and passes them up and down and I think that is a central part of what we do.
Also Yurts are brilliant. If it's hot and sunny, we can takes the sides off and you have quite an al fresco dining experience, and if it's a bit miserable, a bit grey, or raining, we can put the wood-burning stove on and make it really atmospheric.
So I think it's an absolutely brilliant structure, and it's been perfect for what we're doing.
We've had some absolutel amazing comments from people who have come down to eat with us. People have really raved about it and said it's the best meal they've ever had. We have had a lot of requests from the people of Kent to actually set up a permanent restaurant in Kent, or make sure we come back next year - it absolutely could be something that's successful here.
WOMAN DINER: Absolutely delicious, really, really enjoyed it. Scrummy! I'd love to come again but they're probably fully booked.
WOMAN DINER: It was a lot of fun and everybody mixed really well together and the food was superb.