TV Chef Brian Turner – who is overseeing the street food menu at Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre in York this summer – has carried out a food tasting at Malton Cookery School.

He spent a day sampling a wide range of Yorkshire produce and has selected the ‘very best’ for the Shakespearean Village outside the theatre, said James Cundall, CEO of Lunchbox Theatrical Productions, which is behind the theatre project.

“To have the expertise of Brian Turner – a Yorkshire living legend and a connoisseur of all things culinary – is a fantastic bonus for Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre,” he said.

“Visitors will be able to enjoy free Elizabethan entertainment while feasting on fine food and drinks from the region.”

Brian, star of Ready Steady Cook, Saturday Kitchen and A Taste of Britain, is creating a special street food menu with leading Yorkshire street food vendors, showcasing some of the best fare the county has to offer.

He said: “What a privilege to be involved in such an exciting project.

“We’ve scoured Yorkshire for the best food and drinks this great county has to offer and I am very excited about the culinary delights we have put together for Shakespeare’s Village – I can’t wait for opening night.”

Europe’s first ever pop-up Shakespearean Theatre is to be installed in the Castle Car Park near Clifford’s Tower for a summer of performances of four of William Shakespeare’s most popular plays - Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, and Richard III

It will house an audience of 950, with 600 seated on three tiered balconies around an open-roofed courtyard and standing room for 350 ‘groundlings.’