Category: Food Festivals/Events

Chocolate & Cocktail matching at Le Méridien

I thought it was bad planning to have both Cocktail Week and Chocolate Week at the same time, but  it does present the opportunity to match cocktails with specific chocolates.  Chocolate Ecstasy Tours organised such an event in the new cocktail bar (Longitude 0°8′) in Le Méridien Piccadilly.

The matching was a bit hit and miss, but on the whole good fun and an excellent concept.  We had a total of 7 cocktails and lots of canapes, which made this a very good deal. There was also the goodie bag with  a selection of chocolate samples from Melt, Chocolate and Love and Paul A Young (who was among the Chocolatiers in attendance).

Chocablog, who were lucky enough to be involved in “helping out” during the preparation stage for this event, have a great post on it – love the photographs, see :-

 

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Bermondsey Street Festival – Who let the dogs out?

The weather was good again for the Bermondsey Street Festival.  This annual festival definitely had more stalls this year.  Hopefully it will keep growing, as Bermondsey Street is well positioned for this type of event, with the small farmers market in the square at the top of the street and the park in the middle.

As well as the stalls showcasing the area and selling food and drink, there is the Fashion Show  (Zandra Rhodes Fashion & Textile Museum is located on Bermondsey Street). It is also a good day out for the areas dogs, who get to show off at the Dog Show.

The other advantage of this festival, is that it gives you a chance to try out some of the restaurants in the area, see

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Tapas Fantasticas – Hotter than Spain!

Glorious sunny day at Tapas Fantasticas in Potters Fields Park.  This is my second year attending this food and drink festival, last year it was in a more cramped location in Brick Lane.  I really like the new site, nestled in between landmark buildings like Tower Bridge and City Hall, it is a stunning setting.  The festival which is organised by Wines from Rioja seems to be very lucky with the weather – it was on during a heat wave last year as well.   It is such a civilized day out,  entrance is free and there are no real queues for any of the stands which sell reasonably priced wine by the glass and off course some rather good Tapas.

There are also organised wine tastings, we booked a session with Iron Chefs Olly Smith, who is always good value and guaranteed entertainment.

However my favourite wine of the day wasn’t at the tasting, but was from the El Coto de Rioja stand. It was a really smooth Coto de Imaz Reserva.

I also tried a couple of Tapas dishes – Salt cod fried in batter, and some blue cheese and ham croquettes, both delicious.

Next years festival will be in my diary too, weather permitting off course.

 

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Toast – Food, Wine, Music and Polo!

Made the trek out to Ham Polo Club, to attend the 10th Anniversary Toast New Zealand Event.  It was a trek, 20 minutes on a very busy train to Richmond from Waterloo, another 20 minutes on a packed local bus – seemed like all the Kiwi’s in London were heading for the event. Then a long walk to get to the ticket office to pick up our complementary tickets (longer because we were wrongly directed to go to the VIP entrance).  We eventually got in, pretty much as the England v New Zealand Polo match was finishing.

There were just two rows of stalls, laid out in the best possible way to cause congestion. I would have been horrified if I had paid for my ticket – ticket  prices were between £20 and £150.   However there was live music and the weather was good.  We stayed for about two and a half hours, which was two hours longer than we would have, if we had not been lucky enough to grab a couple of seats at one of the tables next to the stands and have a few glasses of a rather lovely Pinot Noir from the Saveé Sea Vineyards.

The highlight of the day was actually the walk back from Ham to Richmond.  Next time I will just bring a picnic and find a good spot by the river.

This was a special one off Toast event, so not 100% typical, but based on my experience at this event and my friends experience at past Toast events.  I would not recommend them if you are seriously into Food and Wine.  Toast is really just somewhere to socialise with a group of friends and listen to the music, more a concert than a food event.

 

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Foodies Festival @ Hampton Court

Spent most of bank holiday Sunday at the Foodies Festival in Hampton Court.  They are set up at  different locations throughout the year.  There is going to be one in Edinburgh for example during the Edinburgh Festival in August. Foodies focuses on seasonal food and drink, specialty and local produce and local restaurant talent.

The weather was good, always a real bonus at this type of event. The show itself is not as big or as well attended as Taste, but I have to admit I prefer this one. Very few queues,  space to see what you want to see, easy access to tables and chairs.

We attended several sessions at the Chefs Theatre, including  the one from Gary Lee of The Ivy, who made a real point of stating that he was not a celebrity chef.  The highlight here though, had to be Katie & Giancarlo Caldesi of Caffe Caldesi. Katie had been on Saturday Kitchen the previous day and there was some hilarity as she compared cooking with James Martin to cooking with her husband. The BBC missed a trick not having them both on together. They are a great double act.

There were unfortunately not too many top restaurant stands.  Benares was the most high profile one. However there were some very good small stands.  They included Lauden, one of my favorite chocolatiers, Doughmasters who made lovely club sandwiches using bread that was baked while you wait (not something you see often) and a stand selling Whoopie Pies – the trend following on from Cup Cakes,  I had a maple syrup one, delicious.

On the drinks front, Joe Wadsack at the Cordorniu wine presentation was very good. He is a real raconteur. The El Dorado Rum tasting was fun and the champagne supplied by Eminent Wines (pictured), much to my surprise, really cut through a spicy Jamaican Pattie I had just eaten. So yes maybe good Champagne does go with everything.

Will definitely try and do this event again next year.

 

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The Wapping Project – Hardens Reporter evening

Attended the Hardens Reporter evening at the Wapping Project, one of my favorite venues.

The atmosphere was very relaxed and informal. We were in excellent company, indeed I think I talked more than I ate.

The evenings  program included :-

Canapés prepared by Philippe Saint Romas (former pastry chef to Jacques Chirac and from the world renowned kitchens Les Ambassadeurs, Le Crillon and L’Ambroisie ) accompanied by an apéritif of Rémy Martin Coeur de Cognac

A two course ‘eat together’ menu of fresh seasonal food and wine from Wapping’s head chef Cameron Emirali.  The starter, an Octopus salad was particularly delicious.

Dessert by Philippe Saint Romas served with a digestif of Rémy Martin Coeur de Cognac. The dessert (pictured) was very interesting, like a deconstructed key lime pie.  I also had far more than my share of the lovely chewy nougat served with the coffee.

An opportunity to meet Philippe Saint Romas – he sat at the head of table and happily answered questions throughout the evening with the help of his translator.

An opportunity to view the current Wapping Project installation ‘A French Picture Show’, introduced by Dr. Jules Wright (curator/director of The Wapping Project) – who also explained the Wapping Projects relationship with Rémy Martin.

For more on the Wapping Project, see our earlier post:-

Wapping Project at the Hydraulic Power Station

UPDATE : Restaurant Closed

 

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