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| Charlotte White |
Held over three days from 5 - 7 August 2022 at Inverleith Park in Arboretum Place, Foodies Festival is a star-studded event centred around the best food and drink, which offers visitors the chance to broaden their palates, watch culinary masterclasses from TV chefs, enjoy street food whilst drinks flow, along with live music from some great acts.
Sponsored by LittlePod vanilla, the Cake & Desserts Theatre has a full schedule of live demonstrations set to thrill baking fans. Bringing her passion for real vanilla to life on stage, Charlotte White from Restoration Cake is a remarkable host and worth seeking out at the Foodies Festival.
Not only is she a creative baker who has appeared on shows like ITVs Lorraine, she is also a well respected historian. “I've always been interested in the world of King Charles II and the people who inhabited it,” she reveals.
Regularly contributing to Inside History Magazine and history podcast History Hack, she obviously enjoys talking and writing about 17th century history and classic Hollywood.
Believing cakes should tantalise and tease the taste buds, Charlotte White has published two cake decorating recipe books in her unique show stopping style - Burlesque Baking and Deliciously Decorated. As a LittlePod ambassador for the use of real vanilla, Charlotte demonstrates creative baking and cake decorating skills at Foodies Festivals across the nation.
“I am host and curator of the Cake & Desserts Theatre at the Foodies Festival - and I get to travel the UK presenting live cookery demonstrations, interviewing chefs - and all whilst wearing heels!” she laughs.
With both her historian and chef hats on, Charlotte really does know her stuff when it comes to the story of vanilla and is highly aware of the fact that 97 percent of all the items sold as 'vanilla flavoured' do not contain a single genuine molecule gleaned from the pod of this much celebrated tropical flower.
“I find that fact extraordinary and it is something that drew me to Janet Sawyer [LittlePod's MD] and her company. LittlePod is doing so much to get real vanilla being used once again around the globe,” she says. “I first came across Janet and LittlePod a decade ago - and I fell in love with what Janet was trying to do in promoting the use of real vanilla.
“So that is what I do - I take the LittlePod products around the country to festivals and demonstrations and put them in front of people who love food with a great story. It's a privilege to be able to tell the world about real vanilla - and in that way I see myself more as an evangelist than a saleswoman. I'm not there to sell, but explain why. And I tell people that what's important is to spend money on real quality vanilla. Which sounds like a tough message to deliver when everything is getting more and more expensive - but the truth is that this is a win-win situation.
“Real vanilla is so amazingly delicious and, added to that, when you are buying the LittlePod products you are sourcing your ingredients responsibly and sustainably. Yes, it's true that in the past vanilla was not a very ethical product - so when you get someone like Janet working with real vanilla farmers and knowing them individually by name, then you know the product is the real deal.”
Delving into her favourite world of culinary history, Charlotte admits that vanilla was once a product that seemed to signal the unadventurous and mundane. “I remember a time when vanilla flavour was basically regarded as the most boring thing you could order - probably because it was an industrial product that had nothing to do with an orchid growing in a tropical rainforest.
“But when you taste the real thing, it is anything but boring! And at the moment, that is the message I'm taking around the country,” says Charlotte, who describes herself as a 'travelling showgirl chef'.
So what's her favourite thing to make when she's showing people the deliciousness of real vanilla?
“I've been making an amazing tiramisu,” she smiles, describing a rather complex but fabulous vanilla-cocoa-and-coffee flavoured version of the classic Italian dish. “It's a plant-based tiramisu, so a bit different. There's no egg or butter, so the vanilla sings through because nothing competes with it. It also features in the cream - it's a kind of Chantilly cream and you have the flecks of vanilla sitting alongside coffee and cocoa - two crops which of course grow in close association with vanilla. I love it because I agree with that old adage in food which says: what grows together goes together…”
“So much of what I do is about stories from the past,” adds Charlotte. “The nostalgia thing comes from my love of old Hollywood movies. I loved them so much I ended up with a film degree. I am also an historian - my business Restoration Cake is named after Charles II. So, working with LittlePod fits in nicely - because the history of vanilla is absolutely fascinating when you start looking into it.
“Elizabeth I, for example, was obsessed with vanilla - and the moment she tasted it she immediately demanded that it should be in everything she ate! Which was a very expensive demand, when you think of what it took back then to bring vanilla from the Tropics. It must have been like putting gold leaf on everything!
“Few other ingredients have such stories,” mused Charlotte. “And I love being able to tell people about them in my role with LittlePod as an ambassador for real vanilla.”
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