With the Padstow Christmas festival just around the corner, featured chefs James Martin and Mark Hix give us an insight into their preparation for this year’s event and what we can expect from them, both at the festival and in the near future.

This year will mark the eighth time the Padstow Christmas Festival has showcased the finest food and drink available.

With a focus on culinary delights sourced from the surrounding area, alongside forty star TV chefs, a fireworks display and a visit from Father Christmas in a horse drawn Victorian bus, the four-day event promises to be stuffed like a festive turkey with fun for the whole family.

Celebrity chefs James Martin and Mark Hix took a minute out of their hectic schedules to give us an exclusive sneak-peek into what to expect from them when they feature at the Festival.

For James Martin, the eighth year of the event will in fact be his first: “I don’t know what I’m venturing into,” the Saturday Kitchen star explains “I’ve heard great things about it, and a friend of mine has a restaurant down there, Paul Ainsworth Number Six, so I’m going to support him”. It just goes to show that even fellow celebrity chefs are flocking to Padstow in order to catch a glimpse of the culinary demonstrations that are at the heart of the Festival’s attraction. Understandably, both Hix and Martin are pulling out all the stops to get down to Padstow in order to sample the varied delights – whilst Martin will be getting up at 3am “to do Saturday Kitchen and then go straight to Padstow”, Hix will be circumnavigating the globe in a journey that will take him “from Miami to Padstow” in order to make his appearance with celebrated seafood aficionado Mitch Tonks, creator of The Seahorse and Rockfish restaurants, on the Sunday.

Afterwards, Hix will be mingling with the tens of thousands of visitors enjoying the hearty atmosphere, live music, craft workshops and maybe a cheeky mug of mulled wine, or a taste of what Festival sponsor Sharpe’s Brewery has to offer. The Festival marks the end of the culinary year and the start of the proper Christmas period, and as “all the other festivals have been and gone”, Padstow represents “a Christmas warm-up” for Mark before he’s due in the kitchen to prepare the festive Hix family feast.

After Padstow, Martin will be looking forward to his next big project, his first ever UK tour, named Plates, Mates and Automobiles, which kicks off on February 22nd of the New Year.

Martin promises us that this will be “the biggest thing” he’s done in his entire, two-decade-long television career, and represents “a culmination of everything” he’s learned as one of the nation’s favourite celebrity chefs. So will James be relaxing over the holiday period? Yes, and dreaming of Father Christmas paying him a long overdue visit with a “Ferrari 250 SWB” in his bulging sack of goodies.

 Padstow Christmas Festival takes place 3-6 December 2015 www.padstowchristmasfestival.co.uk