FOOD festival favourite James Martin says the transformation of the event has been amazing — as he returned for his seventh appearance in Bolton.

The Saturday Kitchen star arrived in Bolton to give his cookery demonstration to be met with the seven foot elephant cake, which has been the talk of the town.

He cut a piece of the cake with the help of its creator, Rose Dummer, and it was cut up and given out to visitors who had a slice of the action.

James said: “I didn’t think it was a cake until I cut into it! It is pretty special, I have not had a piece of it yet!”

The 43-year-old was at the first food festival in Bolton, and he has seen the event grow over the years.

He said: “It has been amazing to see the festival grow. I remember from the first one I did, it wasn’t in Victoria Square, and it certainly wasn’t in a marquee like that.

“To see it grow, with 180 stands this year, it is amazing.”

James, who how has a restaurant in Manchester city centre, said the festival is of benefit the whole town, not just the stallholders.

He said: “It draws in everybody from the area as well. When I first came I didn’t have a restaurant in Manchester, and now you see food festivals popping up all over the place.

“It benefits not just the stallholders and the people who work in the town, but the shops around it as well, so it’s a double edged sword.

“It is good to see the town appreciate the amount of work that goes into something like this, which you can see by the amount of people that come, it wouldn’t have been running for as long, and it wouldn’t have these thousands of people turning up.”

James, who divides his time between his TV work, his cooking and attending food festivals, says he enjoys being in the kitchen the most.

He said: “I enjoy working in a restaurant more than anything else, because I can get away from everything.

“It sounds daft, but when you are in a restaurant you are doing something that you have trained all your life to do, and the busier you are, the less chance you have to do the stuff that you have been waiting to do all of your life.

“I enjoy the process of it, but it is also nice to get out and about and go to events like this.”

Were you out enjoying the food and drink festival over the bank holiday weekend? Send your photographs to pictures@theboltonnews.co.uk