Taste of London 2009
Jun 20th, 2009 by admin
After enjoying some unexpectedly good dishes (small and pricey portions, but nevertheless high quality) at last year’s Taste of London restaurant and food festival in Regents Park, I was looking forward to returning this year. However, this outing was somewhat marred by Taste of London’s attitude towards us London food bloggers.
Two months ago, some of us were asked by the PR company to promote Taste of London on our blogs, with prizes of tickets for readers, in return for…nothing. We may only be food bloggers when compared to professional food writers, but our combined readership isn’t something to be discounted. When I requested two free tickets and crowns (the currency used at the festival to buy food and drink) in return for advertising the event on my blog, I was offered only the tickets. As a result, few bloggers publicised Taste of London.
Some colleagues decided instead to take part in the Guardian Word of Mouth’s Taste Fringe event today, which involved attending Taste of London and tweeting their experiences for the Guardian. I’m still not happy with the PR company’s attitude, but as the friend I went with last year wanted to visit Taste of London again, I thought I’d return with her. Admittedly the tickets are expensive and the ‘crowns’ with which you pay for food don’t stretch very far at all, however it does provide a good opportunity to try many dishes from some of the top restaurants in the capital.
So between us, armed with the 40 crowns (£20) each that were included with our tickets, we went to locate our chosen dishes (last year we only discovered the menus when we arrived at Taste, but this year, I found them online here and so we planned our strategy in advance). I was also determined not to buy any extra crowns on the day, as I was weak last year and succumbed in the face of overwhelming temptation. However, I ended up spending exactly 50 crowns again.
- Dinings – three pieces of maki sushi – foie gras with sweet soy; tuna with creamy wasabi sauce; king crab wth spicy taramo sauce (8 crowns). Tiny rolls, but delicious. LondonEater raves about Dinings, so it’s moved to the top of my restaurant wishlist
- Fino – lamb cutlet with Ajo blanco (10 crowns) – a tiny but heavenly lamb cutlet, tender, full of flavour and accompanied by the most delectable (and garlicky) Ajo blanco, an almond and garlic cold soup from Andalusia. I love eating at sister eaterie tapas bar Barrafina, but have yet to visit the original Fino
- Salt Yard – smoked swordfish with crushed potatoes and orange vinaigrette (8 crowns). For some reason Salt Yard fell off my wishlist at some point, but this dish made me put it back on immediately. I had intended to try the meatballs but changed my mind at the last minute
- Tom’s Kitchen – seven hour braised Daylesford organic lamb shoulder with balsamic onions and mash (10 crowns) – I had this dish at Taste last year, but didn’t remember this when selecting this year’s dishes, until I re-read my old post. It was apparently the most popular dish at Taste on Friday and well worth the wait. The lamb was meltingly tender and as good as last year’s version
- Launceston Place – rhubarb and custard ice cream crumble (8 crowns) – somehow I was expecting a crumble, but instead was handed an ice cream cone! There was a miniscule sprinkle of something on top, and after I ate my way to the bottom of the cone, there were some crunchy sweet bits. An interesting pudding!
- Tom’s Kitchen – vanilla and raspberry mousse with raspberry jelly (6 crowns). My last six crowns was spent on a second pudding. It was lovely and refreshing and not too sweet either, though I don’t remember tasting any jelly…but I do remember my pudding being handed over by Tom Aikens. As I started talking about the lamb shoulder and Twitter (he had asked me earlier on Twitter to let him know what I thought of the dish), I could see he was looking terribly confused. Then a Tom’s Kitchen employee kindly put us both out of our misery by cheerfully announcing ‘This is Rob!’ (Tom’s identical twin brother). Tom tweeted afterwards from the restaurant kitchen that it happens all the time and thought it very funny!
Taste is expensive and I always dread the scrum in front of the more popular restaurant stalls when everyone wants to be served at the same time, but I did enjoy the dishes that I tried. And a free passionfruit cupcake from Bea’s of Bloomsbury (thank you Bea!) helped fill me up. Next year, I’m determined to attend more of the other events rather than simply eat 50 crowns worth of food. During the few hours I was there, I could have watched live demonstrations by Jun Tanaka (from Pearl Restaurant), Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Tristan Welch (from Launceston Place), to name but a few. We did manage though to visit most of the food and drink stalls to sample their products, and I’ve discovered more restaurants to add to my ever-growing wishlist.
The set of Taste of London photos can be viewed here.
You’ve taken some incredible photos. Wow. Seriously impressive.
I can second Kang’s recommendation of Dinings – it’s really very good. Very interested in hearing what you think about it.
Beautiful photos!
My Dear Foodie,
Awesome if it was not for you bloggers it would just not be the same, i have been amazed at the amount of you there are out there.
Its great to see such enthusiastic foodies who just love great food,
Brilliant !!
Tom Aikens
Going to Dinings later this week and can’t wait! Re: Taste of London, I find it so neat that each of us constructs our own little taste adventure. The only item I had that you had was the raspberry crumble ice cream. I thought it was a fun little treat.
Great photos, as always.
You even avoided mentioning that the Rhubard & custard ice cream was featured on GBM this year.
make that rhubarb crumble! oops.
Jonathan – thanks! My new camera did all the hard work. I’m really looking forward to trying Dinings!
MyLastBite – thank you…
Tom Aikens – food bloggers really are quite mad about food! We spend so much eating, photographing and writing about it in our spare time…
Krista – ooh exciting. I agree, each of us has had a unique little experience at Taste. You were right – rhubarb and ice cream custard crumble!
gen.u.ine.ness – if I’d watched GBM this year, I’d have possibly mentioned it, but I didn’t.
Helen Yuet Ling
I’ve experienced this from both sides: as a ‘restauranteur’ and as a blogger. For me food bloggers have enormous passion for their subject and are thorough in their research when covering the underground restaurant, far more so than most ‘professional’ food writers.
As a food blogger, I was lucky enough to get a pass for Taste of London but not an invitation to the reception or any crowns. I visited Thursday night. While I understand that it is an expensive operation for the restaurants involved, the set up ect, I was dismayed by the prices.
It personifies what I dislike most about the food scene in Britain; a culinary class division.
Rich people, and lets face it, only they can go to Taste of London, get a chance to eat amazing food. Poor people go to chain restaurants and fast food.
Echoing Jonathan – excellent photos Helen
Indeed, the taste of london PR dealt with alot of foodbloggers with quite a brash attitude. The shirty emails that were sent around really rubbed me the wrong way. Essentially, they wanted nearly free publicity in exchange for a couple of tickets. I would have loved to have gone, but alas I’ve avoided ToL this year completely what with the way the PR guys ‘handled’ me.
Indeed, they shouldn’t disregard foodbloggers just because we don’t write for glamorous newspaper houses, although more crucially, if they’re going to ill treat us foodbloggers, why bother with the promotions to begin with?
Sorry for my rambling, just adding a viewpoint to this, hope it is ok to do so Helen
Sounds like you had a great day out at Taste Helen as I did as well. Yes it is expensive (and I did not have free tickets or anything free at all) but if you love food I think it is worth it.
Interesting point of view, Helen. Like Gourmet Chick, I didn’t receive any freebies for Taste of London, but that’s not why I failed to “publicise” the event (and actually, they seemed to get plenty of publicity without bloggers talking about it).
I also see Ms. Marmite Lover’s point, but I do think the beauty of London’s large restaurant scene is that there’s a lot of great food to be had even at low prices (just as much as there’s crappy food at high prices for rich people).
I didn’t go to Taste because the costs seemed overly high for the chance to try nibbles from restaurants that either I’ve already been to or for which I’ve had little interest in visiting (e.g., how odd that the participants listed on the Taste website didn’t include any Gordon Ramsay places). I figure I’d rather spend my 50 quid per person on trying out a restaurant, but I can see why Taste is a fun thing to do on a nice day. It does sound like you, Krista, Kara and others had a good time, so maybe next year I’ll try it out.
I agree with all the comments on the photos, they’re wonderful. Is this the new camera at work? =) We just had a big food event here, and its funny but the same complaints I see here were echoed at the other food event. I’m not sure how much of it is the economy talking but price and elitism were key points as well.
However, I have to say I am intrigue by some of the food I see in your photos.
I must say, I thought that foie gras roll was pretty horrible, but I shared the plate so I didn’t get to try the other two – that roll itself knocked Dinings out of my ‘must-visit’ list. Foie gras and rice is not a combination I’ll be revisiting in a hurry! Launceston Place’s dessert looks delicious.
(An American in London – Ramsey’s Boxwood Cafe was there, and served a lovely salmon dish).
Lovely pictures – glad to hear the new camera is working out!
Were the portions as big as they appear in these photos? Nevertheless, they do look delicious, particularly the second photo (was that the Fino lamb cutlet?) and the puddings!
I’m rather amazed at how snotty the PR firm was toward you and your fellow London Bloggers; I’d say it would have been money well spent for them to have offered tix and crowns. If there is a perception that such an event is rather exclusive and elite, then reviews by bloggers might help in dispelling it. I no longer attend Taste of . . . events for the same reason state by American in London – the money might be better spent on one incredible meal instead of nibbles and bites of various dishes.
MsMarmitelover – it sounds like it was your first time to visit Taste! Yes, it’s pricey and I suppose does prohibit less well-off people from attending. I’m neither poor nor rich, but I think the festival does offer some people a chance to sample dishes (very small ones!) from places you might not afford to eat at, or have considered eating at.
kang – of course you’re right. I was annoyed with their PR attitude too, but was too weak to boycott the actual event. After all, the restaurants and food and drink stalls didn’t do anything to upset me.
Gourmet Chick – I did eat rather well (as I know you did!). In the end, I’m glad I went, and will probably continue to go. Both years I’ve been, I’ve been introduced to food from restaurants that I’ve subsequently gone on to have meals at.
An American In London – Boxwood Cafe was at Taste (but I didn’t go). £50 could buy you a very good meal at one restaurant. I guess at Taste, it bought me 5 or 6 small dishes from different restaurants!
OysterCulture – yes, the photos were taken with the new Leica!
Lizzie – thanks, new camera is great. I’ve got Dinings on my list, and also Launceston Place, The Ledbury, Tom’s Kitchen and a few others.
Tangled Noodle – sorry to have confused you. The second photo was a friend’s dish, wagyu beef tataki. The third one, which doesn’t look like a lamb cutlet, is the lamb cutlet!
Helen Yuet Ling
Dear Helen,
Taste Of London was a ‘premiere’ for me this year and I have to say that I really had a good time. As a food blogger like you, I had the chance to interview a lot of chefs who told me about their love for food and especially French Cuisine as I’m French myself.
I also wrote an article about Taste Of London that I sent to the PR team for their information and they came back to me just to thank me… Will see if they will contact me for upcoming events…
http://mathildescuisine.wordpress.com/2009/06/23/taste-of-london-the-unique-culinary-journey/
Mathilde’s Cuisine – glad to hear you had a good time at Taste! And thanks for linking to your post too, which I shall read shortly…
Helen Yuet Ling
Hello Helen,
Could I ask you where your friend had that beef?
It looks very tasty!
Thanks.
Andrew
Andrew – the wagyu beef is from Dinings in Marylebone, London. Enjoy!