Yes, the food festival that features some of London’s more famous and not-so-famous restaurants, popped up this weekend at Regent’s Park under rather dreary skies. Of course I was there. I spent 100 crowns, that’s fifty quid. Oh yeah baby. Lots of photographs after the jump.
Switch to Fullscreen Slideshow Mode.
It was a case of scoffing, sleb chef spotting and getting our hands on as many free hand outs as we could. The event was to celebrate and showcase our capital’s dining scene, there were many instantly recognizable names and abit like cherry picking vineyards to visit in wine country. With my ‘roving editor’ Marcus, we circled out the restaurant stands which we wanted to try. I’ll keep the chatter minimal on this one…
(if you are reading this before the 20th of June, there are still tickets floating about[1. Taste of London Official website]…)
£10 buys you a book of 20 crowns at the Taste Bank, follow the green jeans…
Fino
The first stop was to Fino for their Cochifrito suckling pig, judged[2. 2nd best of Taste goes to Fino] to be the 2nd best dish of the event.
14 crowns. We agreed. Fatty, melty, a cracking crackling, smothered by a thick and syrupy sauce with hints of mint. Fino is on my list now.
Smiles..
Laduree macarons.
Le Gavroche
Oh yeah, Gastronomical Royalty. Michel Roux Jr (chef) and Silvano Giraldin (manager), the leadership of two michelin starred Le Gav[3. Le Gavroche Official website].
40 crowns or twenty squids: Lobster cocktail, with summer truffle and tomato jelly. Entirely indulgent, four large slices, lots of chunky lobster meat, iceberg lettuce, the jelly was a little bitter… in hindsight this felt like a waste of money, there wasn’t real invention involved, and I could’ve done with some hot buttered brioche. Still, can’t go wrong with fresh lobster and truffle. Le Gav is still very high on my list.
Checking the Taste map.
Feeding the missus.
The Sake no Hana stand…. Alan Yau’s showing I suppose, nothing really caught my eye. The Japanese presence which intrigued me was Dinings.
Vic – Coffee Maestro, oh he really is. He’s all over town, a coffee consultant (if my info is accurate), he is in and out of Tapped and Packed alot right now, he knows his brew, if you ever spot him, tell him Mark said hello.
Dinings
You might recall me raving about Dinings[4. My review of Dinings] last year, a Japanese restaurant opened by ex-Nobu talent Tomonari Chiba. Naturally I was excited to visit their stand at this event.
Seabass carpaccio with ponzu jelly and truffle, 8 crowns. Yeah this hit the spot, peppery, citrusy, the fragrance of truffle, the oiliness of fish and an explosion of flavours. Their ponzu-truffle jelly is Dinings’ USP. They put it on their seared wagyu nigiri at the restaurant and it is equally amazing. Shades of Nobu, but mybe just a tad sexier in my humble opinion.
Seared Wagyu sushi with foie gras. 12 Crowns. The wagyu gently blowtorched, cut very thick, with a syrupy soya sauce concoction drizzled over it. I know some say foie gras doesn’t work with rice, but I thought it was masterfully executed here. The brawny wagyu, fragrantly bovine, a real wow-factor, it tasted lively and the sweet soya sauce managing to balance against the potency of the foie gras. Loved it too.
I think a revisit to Dinings is imminent. Not everything at the restaurant is spot-on, but their truffle-ponzu sushi are really out of this world.
The Patara stand.
Girls of British Airways. Yeah…black and white.
L’Anima
Here we are, super heavyweight Italian outfit, L’Anima[5. L'Anima official website]. I am overdue a visit, and what a slick operation, one could almost sense the jive from the kitchen team. Theirs must be one of the hottest tables in London right now. They are shutting for expansion works in August, and re-opening a month after, I think I might visit in July.
Rabbit Siciliana, 8 Crowns.
Wahey, and that’s the man himself, Francesco Mazzei with iron chef Judy Joo…! She is radiant by the way…we couldn’t take our eyes off her… Note the well-positioned halos.
Odette’s
You know Bryn Williams[6. Bryn William's restaurant Odette's] right? His turbot, oxtail, cockles and samphire dish (representative of Wales) was the winning dish from the 1st GBM series and became one of the dishes for the Queen’s birthday bash a few years ago. He did have it on the Taste menu, but we were ten minutes late, it was served at 1.30pm, and they sold out…
…so I went for the mint, pea and Welsh rack of Lamb instead, 8 crowns. It was superb. Delicate sweet peas, and an equally delicately cooked lamb chop, juicy. Bryn trained at Le Gav, was last at Galvin at Windows and now owns Odette’s. Oh yeah definitely on my list. The turbot will not elude for much longer.
Ansley working his magic…
Modern Pantry
I must say, I know very little about Modern Pantry save for that its head chef Anna Hansen[8. Anna Hansen of The Modern Pantry] trained under the eponymous Fergus Henderson. Her chermoula baked trout, quinoa, tomatillo,preserved lemon salad was judged to be the 3rd best of the event. No doubt after this event, I have placed Modern Pantry on my list, will visit the restaurant in the coming weeks.
I was intrigued by the items on show at Taste, I can’t even place the style of cuisine, which appears to be a kind of super fusion, the best of around the world foods. Tamarind marinated miso onglet steak, tumeric, and curry leaf besan chips, 10 crowns. I’m not sure about this one, the hanger steak, rare, was excellent but the rest of the spices left it a tad too bitter. I appreciated the spiciness however, but I couldn’t say it impressed.
Still, I am intrigued by her food, it reads very well indeed, and would be interesting to see how it translates in a restaurant.
Trinity
This south London restaurant[9. Trinity] has a cult-like following, whilst the restaurant itself keeps a pretty low profile, Adam Byatt’s name is whispered by food lovers regularly, and I am quite embarrassed to say that I have yet to visit Trinity. That will soon change, of course.
Pig’s trotters, toasted poilane, fried quail egg, sauce gribiche and crackling, 12 crowns. Judged to be the best of the event, and I can see why it won, I thought it was exquisite. A whippy, mustardy white sauce, superiorly intense crackling and sweet onion tasting trotters. With a milky yolk on the toast, it was a superb congealing mess that felt abit like breakfast. Apart from the Fino suckling pig, this was definitely the most memorable from the event. It definitely wowed. Pickled gherkings (I think) helped to cut through the strength of the dish. Sweet, flossy, salty creamy. Trinity is definitely on my list now. I really want to go.
Bea’s of Bloomsbury
Introducing the new face of Bea’s… just kidding that’s Tehbus[7. Who is Tehbus].
This is Bea[7. Bea's of Bloomsbury].
And these are her awesome cupcakes. The cakes are moist and spongy, the icing buttery and decadent. I am way overdue a visit, and I keep promising to show up for tea and cakes but I keep missing out. I will make it there before 2010 is over…
Finally then, Mark indulging…
….and here’s my favourite snap of the event.
We also had Gary Rhodes’ baked egg tart but I didn’t think it was worth highlighting. The raisin sauce was good, but the tart was too cold, no Marcus Wareing.
Yeah it was fun, how could it not be? An afternoon’s worth of eating, drinking and people watching. There were some great food on show, I have been alerted to certain restaurants I previously didn’t think too much about, and I believe most restaurants will have come away enhancing their reputation after this event.
See you again in Taste 2011.
See the fullscreen slideshow for further highlights or view the full set of photographs on flickr.
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Tags: 2010, food, london, regent's park, restaurants, taste of london
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Kang, Dino Joannides, UK Food Blogs, Chris Titley, PostGlow and others. PostGlow said: From @LondonEater Highlights from Taste of London 2010: Yes, the food festival that features some of London’s more… http://bit.ly/b2UfAG [...]
[...] To see what some other food bloggers thought, check out Kang’s review of Taste, and Mark’s photo set on [...]
Great pictures…! brings back the memory (and shows me that I have missed some great dishes..) I went on Friday and got seriously rained on, but that did not dampen the pleasure. My winner dish was the Seabass carpaccio from dinings. absolutely gorgeous.
Ute
Thoroughly enjoyed the event. A day and a half of indulging there and i’m still at it with all the great food and drink I bought, got free and now have at home.
Don’t forget the producers and exhibitors that were there too enhancing the experience on top of all that great food. Gorgeous sea salted caramel & rosemary & thyme chocolate, cornish crab from seafoodandeatit.co.uk, Taste of Argentina wine and all the wonderful cheese and meat producers. Bon Maman and Laduree macaroons were melt in the mouth divine. For those that didn’t find it the blackmothvodka which is black truffle infused is already on the menu at El Bulli and the Fat Duck. What’s going on Noma?
The braised suckling Pig was best at Almeida but only available on thursday and friday so weekend voters may have missed out on that one. I am hoping to recreate this experience with the rice deboned and retied rack from Allen’s of Mayfair. It was cooked and presented with perfection. I was asked by others where I got it from, the fragrance alone got them salivating, upon sighting they wanted it.
Will definitely make time for it next year also.
Sorry not to have seen you at Food Bloggers Connect. Enjoy your blog very much. Just wanted to ask: was the taste of London enjoyable? Or is it so crowded that you have to wait half an hour at each stall to be served/
Vitoria – Yeah sorry to have missed FBC10 as well, from the coverage, it looked like a smashingly successful event. I went Friday afternooon, while it was packed out, service was fairly breezy, while there were alot of people at all the stalls, the staff and kitchen released dishes fairly quickly. I don’t think I waited more than five minutes at each stand.
Also, I think that since we all have books of crowns on us, instead of paying by legal tender or card, that it helped push things along.
Wow I missed such a great event!
It was sure fun!
[...] of Bryn Williams’ talent after I had a quick sampling of his minty lamb & peas at Taste of London earlier this year. What I wanted to try was his winning turbot dish, but that sold out within [...]
Loved the taste of London this year, definitely a step up every year. That pigs trotter was amazing. Must try and get my restaurant there next year.
Please follow my blog to find out what we’re creating:
http://fishfoodandlife.blogspot.com/
David
[...] 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 Trinity’s stall was the ubiquitous darling of the event, his excellent [...]
great pictures didnt really see anything that stood out as the “WOW” factor
Looks absolutely delicious the crackling, and what a presentation of pictures and story, would love to have some of those foods right now…really would.
I attended the 2011 Taste of London festival on Saturday, June 18, between 18.30 and 21.30. My friend and I had travelled into the city from Hertfordshire for the primary purpose of spending the evening at Regent’s Park, blissfully unaware that we were in for a very disappointing experience indeed.
When we arrived at the venue, we went straight to the ticket office and paid the entry fee of £26. Then, as now, I had absolutely no idea what we were supposed to get in return for our hard-earned money, but this sense of uncertainty was only to be the start of my frustrations.
In addition to the entry fee, the ticket officer eventually persuaded me to purchase £10 worth of “Crowns” up-front, claiming that she couldn’t guarantee their availability inside and adding that we would definitely need them in order to purchase both food and drink. I was made to feel quite uncomfortable during this hard sell, especially as I’d stated on numerous occasions that I would prefer to wait and see before making a non-refundable commitment, but she ignored my evident displeasure and I eventually capitulated.
True to my expectations, there proved to be an abundance of people selling Crowns on every corner inside the event. Moreover, I didn’t see a single queue for them during the entire night and I felt quite cheated that I had been persuaded to buy in advance, a tactic which only served to deny me the opportunity of seeing what was on offer before making a decision. Adding to my frustrations, I soon found out that you could pay in Sterling at every single stall, a fact which rendered the Crowns completely unnecessary; in my view, the whole concept represented nothing more than another way of fleecing customers and preying upon their naiveté.
Last, but by no means least, the weather on Saturday was very poor indeed. Although I understand that you can’t do much about the inclement conditions, there are things you could have done to prepare for them, and one only needed to glimpse at a five-day forecast in order to ascertain that it was going to rain heavily that day. As a result, the venue was a total mud-bath. After speaking to a gentleman who owned one of the stalls, I found out that the organisers had only laid down wooden boarding late in the afternoon, thereby adversely affecting his trade. Layering insult upon injury, some of your staff members (dressed in reflective ‘safety gear’) were tasked with standing on the boards and guiding the public off the solid ground, around several large cameras and back into the mud!
Unfortunately, I feel very much ripped-off as a result of the above and have been left both frustrated and disappointed by the entire ordeal.
And their official response:
“Hi james,
Thanks for your email. Not 100% sure what you are expecting compensation for?
Is it the weather (which sadly I cannot control and did effect over 50,000 visitors over the 4 days of the event) or the £10 worth of crowns that you would have surely spent at one of the restaurants the show (I say this because the restaurants only accept crowns and not sterling).
I apologise if the weather put a dampner on your day, but like most outdoor events (including Glastonbury) – this is a risk we all take and a fustration we the team share with you.
Many thanks,
Lupe Prada
Head of Marketing UK – Taste Festivals”