Simon Rimmer at The Cornmill

Written on: 05 April 2011

TV chef shows off his culinary skills on a busy weekend in Darlington...

The first Sunday in April saw a flurry of activity at shopping centres around the UK as retailer and mall promotions sought to cash in on Mothers Day which always sees Clintons, Thorntons, M&S and florists doing particularly well. The late timing of Mothers Day should give the April sales figures a welcome early boost.

At The Cornmill in Darlington our Centre Manager Susan Young had BBC's Celebrity Chef Simon Rimmer cooking up a storm in the malls which proved very popular with the shoppers over the weekend. He was demonstrating a variety of delicious dishes and handing out recipe cards for customers to try them out for themselves at home. Ingredients were recommended to be from one of the Cornmill tenants, Tesco.

Capitol and The Ridings also treated Mum to a pamper sessions and a Mother Earth statue respectively so there was no excuse to forget to pick good old Mum up a treat.

April actually sees a flurry of mall activity with Easter and the Royal Wedding giving plenty of opportunity to entertain and entice shoppers to spend in the malls. It is going to be interesting to see how footfall holds up and whether this is matched by spend as the effect of the Budget and increased NI contributions start to bite and the uncertainty in the job market continues. Hopefully Will and Kate's happy day will lift the mood and with some expected increased temperatures for April, the gloom of the International news of last few weeks will hopefully start to lift. Here's to an optimistic April!

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