LOCAL food organisation Tastes of Anglia is set to sharpen its focus this year as its main annual showcase reverts to a trade-only event.

Feast East is due to take place on February 13 and 14 as part of the Norfolk Expo, a new trade-only hospitality and catering event at Norfolk Showground. Feast East will occupy about a quarter of the stands.

For many years, Feast East was hosted by Chilford Hall at Linton in Cambridgeshire, but the venue was hit by a devastating fire last year.

Tastes of Anglia has undergone some major changes over the last few months, with the appointment of Andrew Bullard as commercial director. A new chairman is due to be installed at its annual general meeting on Tuesday.

Robert Gunn, a sales and marketing consultant and founder of Burnt Oak Consulting in Brentwood, has volunteered to take on the role, subject to votes at the AGM.

Previous chairman John Cousins, stepped down in November 2011, and Claire Martinsen agreed to become acting chair until a replacement was found.

Mr Bullard said the board and management had decided that it was important for Feast East to concentrate on trade as this was what Tastes of Anglia was all about.

“It’s a new event,” he said of Norfolk Expo. “The main thing is it’s a trade show. It hits the right target areas and it was something we could do fairly promptly.”

He felt that Feast East had “lost its way a bit” by opening up to the public, as Tastes of Anglia was based purely on sales to the trade.

“It’s ensuring our suppliers get to deal with the right people,” he said.

4 Hospitality Marketing Limited, which is organising the Expo, will be staging two days of demonstrations on stage, opening with TV chef Jean Christophe Novelli.

He will also do a demonstration on the main stage. The line-up for day one includes Michelin starred Chefs Galton Blackiston and Mark Poynton and local 3 Rossette chef Roger Hickman. Day two features more top local chefs who will concentrate on the food produced locally.

4 Hospitality Marketing Limited marketing director Mark Carr said: “ This is the first major trade show of this type locally for some time and we want it to develop in to a celebration of both the great quality produce that the region produces and an acknowledgement of the value of tourism and hospitality in the area”

For more information and to register for your free ticket, go to www.norfolkexpo.co.uk.