Toast Festival: Meeting John Torode.
Monday, June 29th, 2009, posted in: Cookbooks, photo grids, photography
by Kang L.On Twitter, I said...
- Ahem, I went to my mate's wedding last weekend, took some pictures, and would like to share them with you. Susan & Jon http://bit.ly/dtvXZO 9 hrs ago
- @supercharz @sugarbardiva ohh I want..! in reply to supercharz 11 hrs ago
- Dammit, zeiss finally unveil the 35mm f1.4 ZF2. I love the nikon ais version, but think this might be the one lens to end it all, in f mount 14 hrs ago
- Canon develops a 12inch sensor. That's 40x 35mm! Dawn of large format digital photography? http://bit.ly/bEYJBs 14 hrs ago
- @GarsonByer another excellent exposure. in reply to GarsonByer 14 hrs ago
- More updates...
Posting tweet...
Lately, you said...
- great pictures didnt really see anything that stood out as the "WOW" factor
- some of these are on my list to try. Thanks!Have tried Sakura and I think that they are just aver...
- thanks for acknowledging. love your site and loved that piece just felt that point should have cr...
- Very beautifully photographed and well written and very exhaustive, however as per previous comme...
- Excellent way to sum up your sushi experiences! Will have to follow up on a few of the places I h...
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Let me start by saying John is alot better looking in person than on masterchef. Here’s me, reporting on the relevant action which took place at the Toast Festival – Australia Day.

“Its that bloke from Masterchef….check it out.”
As you can probably tell, I am completely a fan. I handed my super swish, hulk of a NEW camera (yes I am now a D700 owner now) to my better half for some keepers.

Yes, please make that out to ‘Kang’. He’s signing a copy of his beefcyclopedia entitled ‘BEEF’. I wrote a review on it several moons ago here, and really thought his book was great. I love beef, and one can really tell that it was written by a beeflover too. It was all too appropriate to find Mr Torode grilling meat on a ‘hot’ Sunday afternoon in a park in Saarf London.
Don’t be shy John, get some grease on yer book, come on.

Yup, I got it, a very cool autograph, made with a waterproof marker, also courtesy of the special one. So John wrote: ‘Kang, Enjoy Bij La, John’. Am I reading it wrong? What the heck is ‘Bij La’ ? Anybody?

Naturally, I ate from SOS; this is John’s Dog. £5. The bread was the highlight, very soft, almost marshmallow like. As for the dog itself, I thought it needed just a tad more oommph, but John cooked in on the barbie and putting my fan-hat on; it tasted great.

All in all, a pleasant afternoon. There were mainly stalls which did food & wine, and lots of chairs and tables about for people laze around, which for a Sunday afternoon, was rather perfect. I managed a shot of the concert area too, it wasn’t overpacked, which was a good thing for myself, and about the only thing I missed out on – because of the massive queues – was this free wine tasting event they had on in a few of the tents.
Just want to send shouts to Rebecca for the free tickets, and also to you guys who went, I didn’t bump into anyone but I hope you had a good time there as well.
And here are some more pictures from the event:


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Posted in: Cookbooks, photo grids, photography








Oh my goodness – bizarro! that concert shot, that was EXACTLY where i was sitting (next to the girl with the white dress)! You must have got that shot just when I went to get a drink or something! Hehe.. I thought the festival was soso. I got some good ol’ aussie treats though, so am happy with that, and Sneaky Sound System rawked
nice work kang! we just recently had John as a special guest on Masterchef Australia.
Howard’s last blog post..Fifteen, Melbourne
You do look quite happy with your signed book! Bij La = Big love?
Wow, amazing moody skies.
The Graphic Foodie’s last blog post..Fizziwigg’s Sweet Shop
Signing books doesn’t get any tougher than this!!
Somebody looks like a happy bunny
oh and congratulations on the autograph!!
You do look like a happy bunny
catty’s last blog post..I pity the fool who wears a tight belt: degustating at Sketch
Wonderful shots. Absolutely stunning photography.
Just Cook It’s last blog post..What’s in a name?
Loving that second picture of you pointing at John!
Total fandom! Gotta just relax and be a fan sometimes, right?
No idea on the bij la!
kavey’s last blog post..One for Me… One for You…
Catty – Bizzaro indeed !! So we could have met…but didnt, better luck next time I am supposing
Howard – thanks, hows the knee doing?
Graphic Foodie -ahhh that’s probably what it was, yes Big Love to you too John
Toasted Special – I always get a rush getting autographs!
r khooks – oh so very happy indeed!
Just Cook it – thank you
its a new camera!!
Kavey – oh I am so totally a fan, and yes, have to sit back and just enjoy it sometimes
heh the knee, let’s just say I won’t be doing any Chris Paul cross overs anytime soon!
Howard’s last blog post..Cookshow&tell, French
Brilliant!
[...] crossing that bridge is almost like going into Europe, the last time I was in Clapham Common, I went to a festival, to get John Torode’s autograph, and that was well over a year ago. And then I was at the Taste of London event more recently where [...]