THE kitchen magician known as "the nation's favourite French chef", Jean-Christophe Novelli, will headline the Worcester Foodie Festival, in August.

The Michelin award-winning chef will take centre stage by running free cookery demonstrations on the main stage, on Saturday, August 1.

Festival spokesman, Nadja von Dahlen said: "Who doesn’t want to leave the cooking and washing up to someone else - and get the chance to see Jean-Christophe Novelli sharing his chef secrets with us?

The festival will include 50 stalls offering delicious food and drink from local businesses and selected specialist producers, food and drink matching sessions, cookery demonstrations and master class workshops by a variety of well-established chefs.

Live music, street entertainment, competitions, free face painting and fun activities will make sure that there is something for all the family at this celebration of all things tasty. The event will be taking place throughout the pedestrianised city centre, on Saturday August 1 and Sunday August 2, and admission will be free.

A brand new event this year, set to get taste buds going, will be Worcester Foodie Fortnight, and this will take place in Worcester city centre from July 27 to August 9 .

An event spokesman said: "Local and regional ‘foodies’ can enjoy two weeks of taste next month by exploring Worcester’s fantastic food and drink offer at quality local restaurants, cosy cafés, stylish bars and traditional pubs. Special £5 and £10 taster menus, a food and drink trail, sampling activities, breakfast club offers, competitions and more will be on the plate for the avid foodie."

Further information is available on www.worcesterbid.com/foodie, on @WorcFoodieFest on Twitter, or on www.facebook.com/WorcesterFoodie.