Audio tour is a 'snapshot of town's culinary past'

Delicious Caribbean food was eaten at a workshop held as part of the project

An audio tour created for a town full of Italian, Caribbean, Indian, Pakistani and Polish communities is a "snapshot of its culinary past".

Co-creator Alex Levene, from WordSetFree, said the Tastes Like Home trail aims to explore how Bedford has "shaped our palates".

It takes about 90 minutes to complete but "if you stop wherever you could eat, it would take you about five days", he added.

The trail is set to run until June next year.

Alex Levene said "we’ve uncovered so much, and we hope that this trail will be a brilliant starting point for visitors"

It features recorded interviews that are full of "delicious memories of food and drink ingrained in the tastebuds of Bedford and its residents".

It is available through an app and alongside Echo Chamber Audio, a hub for storytelling.

Mr Levene said: "It's for anyone who wants to explore more stories of the heritage of Bedford and hear ways in which people came to live in the town that shaped our landscape and palates.

"It's a real snapshot of its culinary past."

Radhika Aggarwal, who delivered creative writing workshops, said the town "has the highest concentration of Italian population outside of Italy, after New York".

Hazel Fattorusso, a Bedford-based playwright and project participant, said the project brought up "strong memories of restaurants, shops and cafes I visited as a child".

Mr Levene said: "There used to be 16 butchers in the town, but on the route we've chosen you can walk past two that still exist.

"It appeals to the independent spirit of the town. There are still so many shops and restaurants catering for all kinds of people and all kinds of tastes that people still flock to."

The Tastes Like Home audio tour takes people around Bedford

Guided meet-ups will take place on 8, 15 and 29 June, between 12:00 BST and 13:30 BST.

Funding came from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Historic England’s Bedford High Street Heritage Action Zone, and Bedford Creative Arts.

The trail beings at La Piazza on St Paul's Square, in the centre of Bedford