A LEGENDARY TV chef has come to Malton - “Yorkshire’s Food Capital” - to prepare for his role creating a menu for this summer’s Shakespeare extravaganza in York.

Yorkshire-born Brian Turner, a regular on the BBC’s Ready Steady Cook and other cookery programmes, came to the town’s cookery school last Tuesday to test recipes.

Mr Turner will be creating a street food menu for the Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre - a pop-up theatre and associated village, which are set to be built near Clifford’s Tower in the heart of York.

James Cundall, CEO of Lunchbox Theatrical Productions, which is creating the theatrical event, said: “To have the expertise of Brian Turner – a Yorkshire living legend and a connoisseur of all things culinary – is a fantastic bonus for Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre.

“At a food tasting with Brian at the wonderful Malton Cookery School, we spent a day sampling a wide range of Yorkshire produce and have selected the very best for our Shakespearean Village outside the theatre.

“Visitors will be able to enjoy free Elizabethan entertainment while feasting on fine food and drinks from the region.”

The Shakespearean village is set to include oak-framed, reed-thatched food and drink huts, an Elizabethan garden designed by award-winning Yorkshire garden designer Sally Tierney, and performers for a regular schedule of “wagon entertainment” with speeches, sonnets and medieval music, as well as juggling jesters.

Brian Turner added: “What a privilege to be involved in such an exciting project.

“We’ve scoured Yorkshire for the best food and drinks this great county has to offer and I am very excited about the culinary delights we have put together for Shakespeare’s Village – I can’t wait for opening night.”

Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre will run from June to September.