STAR foodies will feature at the first ever New Forest Food and Drink Festival this autumn.

Celebrity chef and Sunday Brunch presenter Simon Rimmer will host a celebration of vegetarian food, the headline event for the festival’s Vegetarian Forest Feast theme.

Simon started his veggie restaurant, Greens, in 1990 and has since gone onto run a second restaurant, Earle, with his wife, Ali, and footballers Jason McAteer and Jason Koumas.

More recently, he has launched two gastropubs in Liverpool – The Elephant and The Viking, along with an American-style brasserie, the Liberty Tavern.

Over the next few months, he will be designing a four-course menu for the event at Burley Manor, as well as preparing a 30-minute talk on his adventures in cookery.

The week-long festival, which starts on October 31, is taking place at various New Forest venues, restaurants, and pubs.

BBC Masterchef presenter Gregg Wallace will be appearing at Rhinefield House Hotel, near Brockenhurst, on November 3.

Gregg, who started his career as a Covent Garden greengrocer, will be sharing the best stories from his Peckham childhood – he left school at 14 to start his career in fruit and veg – as well as giving the inside track on what it’s like to be a TV star.

Festival organisers say the evening has been arranged so that Gregg can meet as many of his guests as possible, starting off with a welcome drinks reception and an opportunity to chat to him, and then a four-course dinner.

The 51-year-old will discuss the course as it is served and answer any questions throughout the meal before taking questions and posing for photos.

The festival has 15 themes in total with ‘Heritage’, ‘Artisan’, and ‘Charcuterie’ meals at the Lime Wood boutique hotel, near Lyndhurst, on October 31, with each featuring home-cured and smoked meats or salmon from the hotel’s own smokehouse.

“There’s not much that Angela Hartnett and Luke Holder don’t know about meat and fish and how to cure it; whether it’s loin of pork cured with lavender, or salmon prepared in their very own smokehouse,” a festival spokesperson said.

Also in the line-up is a cheese tasting session, an evening with the Fullers’ head brewer at The White Buck, and a Mad Hatter’s afternoon tea party.

For more information and to book tickets visit thenewforest.co.uk/newforestfoodfest.