Food in Newcastle will reach new heights at this year’s third Eat! festival (May 2-17) when a dining platform is suspended from a crane 50 metres above ground at the same level as the never-opened rooftop restaurant that featured in the classic film Get Carter.

Eat! Carter is the first “dining in the sky” event in Britain and will test the nerve of some of the North-East’s stellar chefs and foodies. Among the down-to-earth chefs cooking at such giddy heights is Terry Laybourne, owner of Café 21 and Jesmond Dene House, two of Newcastle’s best loved dining destinations.

A true food pioneer, Laybourne, who held the North-East’s only Michelin star for 21 Queen Street before it closed in 2001, is perhaps best placed to reflect on the “democratisation” of the local dining scene since he first opened a restaurant here in the late 1980s.

“There has been a monumental change in terms of quality and variety of food in the North-East in the past 15 years, especially at the higher end of dining out,” says Laybourne.

“People used to eat out only on special occasions but now it’s an accepted part of everyday life. The atmosphere is more relaxed in good restaurants and people less intimidated by wines and menus.”

Laybourne plugged into the local food network long before it became trendy to do so. For years, he’s been on first name terms with the cream of Northumbria’s suppliers, from Anthony and Lucy of Carroll’s Heritage Potatoes to Mark Robertson, who makes prize-winning Northumberland cheeses.

Despite the depth in quality of regional produce, and a few typical home favourites such as stotties (giant white baps), eaten with pease pudding, ham and chips, and suet-based leek pudding, Laybourne claims that “there is no such thing as North-Eastern cuisine”.

“Historically it was food designed for miners and agricultural labourers. But we have a fairly healthy larder of good regional produce from which any cook with a brain can create great cuisine.”

Laybourne is modestly referring to the likes of Northumbrian blackfaced lamb (fed on hill heather), wild garlic and mushrooms, Lindisfarne oysters and other luxury seafood such as coldwater turbot, halibut, lobster and monkfish landed daily by a fleet of boats from Sunderland.

“In terms of volume, the fishing industry is knackered,” says Laybourne “but the quality is outstanding.” On the menu at Café 21 are Neil Robson’s Craster kippers and oak-smoked salmon, deemed so good that it’s served without fuss or adornment.

One of the best ways to plot the source of the food on your plate is to take a table at Blackfriars restaurant, a cosy former monastery refectory no more than a Steve Harper kick away from St James’ Park, Newcastle United’s football ground.

Owner Andy Hook has created a table mat that features a hand-drawn map of more than 50 of the North-East’s best producers. The region’s lamb, beef, cheese, honey and seafood is “as good as it gets”, according to Hook. “The restaurant is a base to discover and serve the most delicious local food. But our USP is hospitality as much as anything. Geordies like to welcome strangers.”