Last updated 05:39, Friday, 15 August 2008

“If you love good food, Cumbria has a real treat in store with a richly-stocked larder bursting with meat, game, fish, fresh fruit and vegetables.

Celebrity support: Hairy Bikers Dave Myers and Si King add their names to the campaign, joined by farmer Peter Gott and John Anderson from Made In Cumbria

“The area has enormous potential with the climate, the purity, the lamb, the cheese, the cream – everything – it’s fantastic stuff, its quality, its flavour, and its taste.”

Jean Christophe Novelli, star of the reality cookery television show Hell’s Kitchen and a regular visitor to the county.

“Cumbria has to be one of the most gastronomically aware counties in the whole of Great Britain. The passion for food in this place is absolutely staggering.

“Not only is the passion there but the produce is there – we have wild mushrooms in the woods, we have game, we have of course the classic Cumbrian lamb, we have wonderful bacon, and we have the wonderful beef, good vegetables – we have everything here.”

Godfather of TV chefs Keith Floyd who now provides regular cookery tutorials at Linthwaite House hotel.

Clarissa Dickson Wright, of Two Fat Ladies fame has described Cumbria as “England’s finest food county".

She regularly crosses the border from her home in Scotland to “feast on Morecambe Bay shrimps and cockles; to buy beautiful wild boar pancetta, salt marsh lamb, Herdwick Mutton, great sausage and so much more.

“The phoenix Cumbria has raised from the ashes of foot and mouth and is an inspiration to every farming community and a source of pride to those of us who love both courage and good food.”

“We’ve had some very good trips here. It is one of those areas full of small producers of excellent food.”

Food Heroes champion Rick Stein.