Dressed crab….how a famous Aussie chef made the Shaldon Water Festival the best ever!

Dressed crab with an Australian twist was very much on the menu this year for the highly successful Shaldon Water Festival in South Devon at the weekend. The famous Australian chef Bill Grainger was dressed as a crab as part of the water carnival’s procession to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the event. Visit South Devon, which helped to organise the event, says that the Festival has enjoyed its most successful year on record with more than a thousand people turning out across the day to enjoy a much loved community festival. Bill Grainger was filming the Festival as part of a documentary series when he decided to enter the spirit of the carnival by dressing as a crab for the highlight of the day, the procession of decorated boats. “The Let’s get Cracking” campaign to promote South Devon crab was a big part of the Festival with competitions and demonstrations organised by renowned local chef Tim Bouget from the Ode restaurant. Tim and local crab fisherman Rob Simmonds were interviewed by Bill Grainger for a documentary series called Bill’s Secret Weekends which will be shown on the Good Food Channel sometime next year. Rob Simmonds took Bill out crab fishing and he says that the Australian chef was really impressed by the local catch. He said, “Being Australian, Bill Grainger was really convinced that Australian mud crabs were the best in the world until he tried our wonderful South Devon variety. He was very impressed by both the crabs and the beauty and drama of our South Devon coastline.” Bill also interviewed local sand eel fishermen and he also spent some of his time cooking the local delicacy of sand eels at the Kingswear Castle where he and his TV crew had been staying. The Marketing Manager for Visit South Devon, Sarah Streeter says that the Shaldon Water Festival was the perfect event to showcase the area’s fine local food and restaurants as well as the wonderful community spirit: “This year’s event was a resounding success and it was a real bonus to have Bill Grainger there to film it all. He was left in no doubt about the fantastic sea food we have like South Devon crab and the amazing chefs and local fishermen who make the area what it is. The Festival will be able to build on this for a more spectacular event next year.” Notes for Editor: About Visit South Devon Visit South Devon is the area tourism partnership responsible for promoting South Devon to national and regional audiences. The main aim of the company is to increase the number of visitors to South Devon for the benefit of the local tourism economy. Visit South Devon works with Visit Devon the Destination Management Organization for Devon. Visit South Devon is a Community Interest Company existing solely for the benefit of the local tourism community. It is a public-private company limited by guarantee and not for profit – ensuring all revenue is put back into marketing initiatives for the area. The company operates a membership scheme for local tourism businesses who want to gain national exposure. Visit South Devon is funded through membership and South Hams and Teignbridge District Councils but aims to be fully self-financing within 5 years.

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