On Saturday March 10th, over 60 people squeezed into the Backspace, the community room behind the Angel Café on Fair Green for a gourmet meal as part of the start of the Diss Food Network. The consensus was that it was a really good event. People loved the food, which is a great credit to the suppliers: Jan from the Angel Café, Frederick, the Michelin Star chef from Frederick’s Fine Foods, and Keith from Castles. And all agreed that the Lizzie Smith band gave a great performance. The space was cramped, but that also made it very social, with everyone getting to know the strangers on their tables.

Gary Alexander, who organised the event for the Diss Community Partnership, said “It is clear that we have found a good formula: excellent food, mostly local and good entertainment. We could have sold twice as many tickets had we enough room. We will do it again. We’ve learned a lot about starting the Food Network too.” He is currently looking for volunteers to help with future events like this one and also to help create a directory and website listings of good suppliers of local food. Contact him on 07766-711999 on at g.r.alexander@open.ac.uk.