Festivals of food and a Scotch egg challenge

Will said his goodbyes at the Ludlow Food Festival, where he featured on the Chef Demonstration stage.

There were a few drinks afterwards and I don't mind admitting that on Monday I felt a bit fresh. I'm sorry to see my good friend go because he's been a real force for good not just in Shropshire, but across the West Midlands.

He's shone the spotlight on his home town of Ludlow and helped to raise the profile of our beautiful county. After six years of chef-patron at La Becasse, however, he's decided to seek new challenges. As one door closes, another opens and I have no doubt he'll be a terrific success in his new venture.

I'll miss him, of course. I've known Will for several years and even completed a stage in his kitchen at one point.

Though Will grabbed many of the headlines, there were plenty of other highlights at last weekend's Ludlow Food Festival. I completed demonstrations on the main stage and they were great fun. People seem to really respond at Ludlow: I think that's because the festival was the first of its kind and has such a great reputation.

Ludlow Food Festival is an event for serious foodies and the people who attend are passionate about great food. They love the demonstrations because it gives them a chance to meet us.

They also get the chance to learn how to create restaurant-style dishes in their own home.

The food festival is the last of the big events in Shropshire – it started with Ludlow's Spring Festival, continued with the highly-successful Shrewsbury Food Festival and that's it for another year. But there are plenty of other events to look forward to in coming months.

Once the dust had settled on the event, my thoughts turned to the national Scotch Egg Challenge, which takes place each year at The Ship, in Wandsworth. This year's final took place on Tuesday.

A huge number of people from around the UK entered and I made it through to the final 22. Scotch eggs have been something of a signature dish for me for many years. For a long time, we received a steady supply of eggs from our family, who keep chickens. Now that we're based at the Brompton Cookery School, in Attingham, near Shrewsbury, we keep our own.

That means we have a daily supply of fresh, golden eggs from free range hens that are able to roam the grounds. The flavour of the eggs is immense and they have a rich, deep, satisfying golden colour.

I travelled to London on Tuesday to take part and found myself up against competitors from restaurants, pubs, cafes and food shops. The Scotch Egg Challenge has been going for three years and last year the Bladebone Inn in Berkshire was victorious with its creative entry made with duck egg, a truffle layer, and a potato and Parma ham breadcrumb. It's incredible that people put so much effort into such an apparently humble dish. The days of egg-sausagemeat-breadcrumb have well and truly gone.

The Ship announced a line-up of 22 finalists and we contested a cook-off on Tuesday. The final judgement lay in the hands of a panel of food experts who cast their votes for the best entries following a blind tasting.

Last year's challenge featured entries from such varied and illustrious establishments as Heston Blumenthal's Hinds Head in Bray, Peyton & Byrne, Opera Tavern, Fino, Duck & Waffle, The Drapers Arms in Islington, along with individual competitors such as street food trader Sean Lawson, a.k.a. 'Egg Boss'.

This year, the 2013 challenge teamed up with humanitarian charity Action Against Hunger and we managed to generate funds for the valuable work the charity does in some of the world's poorest countries.