Sarah McCready from Bicester’s article about her journey since being on Masterchef and what people can expect from the street feast event at Heyford Park on 27th and hew new bistro.

"As my Nanna always said, if you’re Italian, food is in your blood. Cooking isn’t a taught art, it is something in your veins, and you’ve either got it or you don’t. Whilst I’d like to tell myself this logic will get me through the next few months as I make the transition from amateur cook to street food vendor and professional restaurateur, the steep learning curve I have already experienced tells me I’m going to need a bit more than mere genetics to get me through.

"Having almost made it to the finals on last year’s Masterchef, I can say that I’ve had some of the amateur forcibly knocked out of me, but even so, it is incredibly daunting to know my food will soon be available for mass consumption.

"It has been a strange old year since I hung up my Masterchef apron, but I have been able to spend that time planning, plotting researching, writing and travelling in order to develop.

"Whilst the final stages of Masterchef taught me I could turn my fun and colourful Mexican and American Soul Food into something more refined, a recent road trip around the Mississippi Delta also showed me there is nothing wrong with unpretentious food, generously served from the side of the road.

"Thus, a year on, it is overwhelming to be able to say I will soon get the opportunity to do both of the above. Yes, I am in fact launching a brasserie in 2017, which will give me the opportunity to mess around with nice crockery and micro herbs and other Cheffy flares and flourishes, but in the meantime, I will be dishing out some street food where all the sweet, smoky, spicy and salty flavours I love will take centre stage.

Part of the attraction, as well as the fear, when it comes to street food is just how accessible you are to the paying public. If something is not up to scratch, I’ve only got a hand-crafted plywood food cart to hide behind, yet if it all goes fabulously, which it of course will do - Italian genes remember, it will be so satisfying to directly see the joy these indulgent little platters can give people.

The food cart will be called Baton, as will the restaurant, so my little Baton-mobile should act as a great pre-cursor to the brasserie and will give local people the opportunity to taste test what will hopefully become their favourite local haunt.

Baton: The Tasting Station will get her maiden voyage on Saturday August 27 at the Heyford Park Street Feast, a fun and free family event hosted by Dorchester Living, the developer behind the development of the former military airbase at Upper Heyford.

As Heyford Park is the community where the eventual brasserie will be located, the Street Feast really does feel like a proper launch for what I hope will be what gets me out of bed for the rest of my working life.

As well as a dog show, rodeo bull, archery competition, dance performances and other fete activities, Dorchester Living has invited other street food vendors to attend the Street Feast with the intention of establishing the area as a foodie hub for North Oxfordshire.

With Baton plating up pulled chicken lettuce tacos and Mac-and-chini balls, Mr Jerk serving traditional Jamaican goat curry and rum punch, and Viva La Toastie doling out pimped up grilled cheese sandwiches, the food on offer attests to the carefree frivolity that makes the street food scene so stimulating.

I’m hoping the reception that Baton receives will be as warm as the Salsa Roja I’ll be ladling out on the day, and that my food with a Southern accent will bring people from pastures afar to Heyford Park. However, before I can get too excited by any of that, I’ve got *a lot* of Mac and Cheese to make."