I'll bid a fond farewell to town at this year's festival

I set up La Bécasse restaurant six and a half years ago – and after this weekend I'm moving on.

Six months ago, I took the decision to leave the restaurant here in Ludlow so that I could find a new challenge. So this is my grand finale, my last hurrah – I expect I may be slightly the worse for wear on Monday.

When I made the decision to leave, I decided I wanted to stay for one final Ludlow Food Festival. Signing off during the weekend of that event seemed like the best thing to do.

The festival has been very important to me and I had heard about it long before I arrived in Ludlow.

I remember my first chef demonstration in the town. It was very surreal. I went on stage after Shaun Hill, who was a figurehead for Ludlow's gastronomic scene and who ran The Merchant House restaurant, in Lower Corve Street.

Shaun was a local legend and he was a tough act to follow. When I gave my demonstration, I'd only been in the town for a couple of months.

I'd opened in the July and by September I was up on stage.

I knew about the food festival's big reputation and thankfully my demonstration went well. From then on, I have been very lucky to be a part of the festival.

A huge amount of work always goes into the event: it is planned for 12 months to make it bigger and better each year.

It's a huge event for the town. La Bécasse is always fully booked for the weekend a year in advance and all of the local B&Bs and campsites are also booked up.

It'll be a crazy weekend because i'll be working in the restaurant and at the festival.

Yesterday, I hosted a day of chef demonstrations and judged the young chefs' competition. Today I'm judging the sausage trail and I'm presenting a Slow Food workshop which involves serving 50 guests a seven course menu. Tomorrow I'll be demonstrating on the main stage and it will be my farewell demonstration.

It's will be my way of saying farewell and thank you to Ludlow.

* Will Holland is one of the UK's most successful young chefs. He earned a Michelin star before the age of 30, was named as one of the 10 most influential chefs for the present decade and was the chef-patron of La Becasse, in Ludlow.