A FEAST FOR THE SENSES
Taken from this month’s Cotswold Life magazine
Food and entertaining go hand in hand, and none more so than at Gifford Circus’s new winter show…
You may only just be recovering from Christmas and the ensuing madness, but it’s always a great example of how food, sociability and entertaining are inextricably linked. Imagine a Christmas without the combination of food, drink and festivities and, well, it would probably be a bit take it or leave it. Other milestone events are similar - it’s the food - alongside the entertainment - that we tend to remember long after the event is over.
All of this we know to be true, but nothing could have prepared me for the new Giffords Winter Show I had the pleasure of witnessing in December – it really was next level entertainment, with food to match. Fire dancers so close to my table I could feel the heat from their flames, acrobats flying literally above my head - but none of it too distracting that I couldn't enjoy the incredible food that was served up seamlessly throughout the performance.
I’m a massive Giffords Circus fan at the best of times - I can’t tell you the number of summers I've spent with my children in the Giffords big top at Sudley Castle or Little Barrington, invariably either enduring blustering winds and rain or blisteringly hot heatwaves. In fact, I can probably name all the different shows according to the ages of my kids… but, as I’ve discovered, you don’t need children to enjoy the Giffords magic.
Now that the children are older, it’s the food at Giffords that appeals to me as much as the performance. And in particular, Circus Sauce, the circus’s dining tent, described by the Daily Telegraph as ‘the most sought-after supper club’ - so achingly popular, it sells out every year.
The premise behind Circus Sauce is simple - to expand the magic of Giffords beyond the ring by creating a space where people can come together and share food. Like so many of the best things in life, it all started quite by accident - in the early days of the circus, Nell and Toti Gifford would cook breakfast for the troops from their wagon during the build. As the circus got bigger, so did the number of people they were feeding, so they built a dedicated dining space, the first version of what is now known as Circus Sauce.
But this isn’t any old dining - even when you look beyond the Emma Bridgewater crockery and shabby chic artistry, this is genuinely fantastic cooking that you'd be hard pressed to find in some of the best restaurants in the country. Head chef Eva Maddison (who has previously worked at the celebrated Petersham Nurseries in Richmond-upon-Thames) is a champion of local, seasonal produce. As the circus tours the Cotswolds, menus are written around what is growing seasonally at the time. Eva works with local producers in the area, grows produce on her family farm, and even forages in the grounds of some of the venues, to create dishes that reflect the landscape and her passion for good, honest, locally sourced food.
Since 2000, Giffords Circus has entertained over a million visitors. They have fed visitors from Stroud to Cirencester; from Barrington to Blenheim. And just when you thought they couldn’t up their game any further, they go and launch the new Winter Shows. Get your diary out now - and you might just be able to book a date for the most popular supper club in the country!