Chocolate York Minster is star of city food festival back after two-year gap

Chef Ashley McCarthy will demonstrate how the ornate York Minster sculpture was created during the four-day festival

A chocolate sculpture of York Minster is the highlight of the city's Chocolate Festival which is taking place again after a two-year gap.

The usually annual event celebrating the city's historic connection with chocolate was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The minster sculpture was created in just a week by chef Ashley McCarthy.

How the sculpture was made will feature on BBC One's The One Show at 19:30 BST on Thursday and on the iPlayer.

Mr McCarthy, who has appeared on Channel 4's Extreme Chocolate Makers, said filming demands meant time to produce the sculpture was limited.

"Realistically, something like this would have been a month's work, so we've had to cut it down and take decisions about how we can make it look like the minster, but give it justice in the time.

"We literally had a week to do it," he said.

Mr McCarthy, who is chef proprietor of Ye Old Sun Inn at Colton, in Tadcaster, said the completed confection was "100% edible".

The process of creating the chocolate minster sculpture has been filmed for the BBC's One Show

Festival director Michael Hjort said it was good for the four-day event to be back "bigger and better" after the enforced two-year pause due to the pandemic.

"Covid started just before we were going to do the 2020 festival, so it certainly scuppered that and we missed two years."

Among the more unusual items on show and for sale at the festival are chocolate pork pies.

Mr Hjort said: "People forget chocolate was originally a savoury product."

The Chocolate Festival includes stalls from artisan chocolate producers from across the North

York's Chocolate Festival has returned to the city after a two-year gap due to the Covid pandemic

York's connection with chocolate dates back to the founding of Terry's of York in the late 18th Century and Rowntrees, which was founded in the 1860s.

Nestle, which acquired Rowntrees in the 1980s, still produces chocolate in the city.

Mr McCarthy said: "In my eyes, York is one of the founding fathers for chocolate in England."

The festival, in York's Parliament Street, runs until Monday 18 April.

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