Yes yes yes! I get to write about my absolute favourite annual event in the capital for the first time, Taste of London. It is an utter highlight of the summer for me, obviously - its a food festival, but it is the Grandaddy on high, of all food festivals, with some of London's best restaurants exhibiting, masterclasses with the top chefs, new brands, food trends and world cuisine to try. One can only pray for sunshine and no rain. Luckily for me the rain demons stayed away and my partner in crime, Nicole and I swooped in, ready to sample as much good food and alcohol as we could.
The great thing about Taste is that if you're a real foodie but don't have the opportunity to go to some of the best Michelin starred restaurants in the capital, you can visit a lot of them here and sample some of their signature dishes for a very reasonable price. There were at least 30 restaurants exhibiting this year including Pollen Street Social, Le Gavroche, Benares, Cinnamon Soho, The Savoy Grill and Asia de Cuba.
Funnily enough, the first person I saw as Nicole and I started navigating our way round was Jason Atherton from Pollen Street Social. As you may have read, I recently went to his excellent restaurant and so I had to go and tell him personally what I thought. He was delightful and started off my afternoon of food joyousness, really rather well.
We decided to do a full circle before committing to any one restaurant and first passed through Theo Randall, where we were offered a taste of some fresh parmesan from this giant wheel that we were told costs just under a grand. I wonder if the whole lot got eaten over the weekend? It tasted scrumptious.
En route round the restaurant stands we got ambushed by a smiley girl working at the Belvedere Vodka stand, offering us some shots of 2 new flavours, pink grapefruit and Bloody Mary. I have never been able to do shots of straight spirits, basically if I do, I throw up, but being close friends with a Russian seems to have changed all that. These shots were actually quite nice and had a lot of flavour to them. I was much more interested in drinking the vodka in some cocktails though, so asked for a Cucumber Fizz. It sounded like it would be amazing - Belvedere Bloody Mary vodka, fresh lemon, elderflower and cucumber. It was amazing, utterly drinkable and delicious. I would definitely be going back for more.
We continued with the Bloody Mary theme when my eye caught a garish red and black stand called Little Devil offering a whole host of Bloody Mary products including a Bloody Mary spice pack to add to vodka and tomato juice, and also a Bloody Mary vodka called Blood Shot. I thought the packaging looked great and the shot of the vodka that I tried was super super spicy, but how would a proper glass of Bloody Mary taste? I had a Bloody Bull that mixed all the usual ingredients together with some beef consommé. Well, it was definitely rich and thick, but I would have liked it a bit more spicy and sharp - you know when its almost black in colour? But then again, its totally subjective.
It was definitely time for food and so our first stop was at Cotidie, a new restaurant in Marylebone that I've been reading some good reviews for. Nicole and I were both intrigued by the tartare of beef cured in spices with a taleggio cheese fondue. Unfortunately, our intrigue was not met with enamoured satisfaction. In fact, quite the opposite, we were distinctly unsatisfied. The dish, other than the rich, creamy cheese was quite tasteless. I couldn't detect any spices at all. Disappointing.
Never mind, our spirits and taste buds were soon to be lifted by South America. Ah yes, my old faithful, you never disappoint. For starters, there was a big South American presence this year that I've never seen before. Argentina and Peru both featured heavily and the rest of our day basically became a game of "who makes the best ceviche". But first, that Argentine wonder that is steak. Nicole and I spied an Argentine flag and swept over to see a company called Portena giving away bloody and juicy steak, straight from a traditional parrilla. Along with a little bit of chimichurri it was heavenly. Portena is actually a speciality empanada caterer and were also giving away plenty of the half moon pastry treats, which were delicious. But I liked their cunning ploy of serving lots of steak to bring in the crowds.
Peruvian food is without doubt the fodder du jour and the restaurant, Ceviche is definitely the place that has put it firmly on the food cognoscenti's map. Ceviche had a small stall in the Tastes of the World "Peru" section with some yummy pisco sours and pots of totally exquisite sea bass ceviche. It was served the true ceviche way here: fresh, zingy and simple with nothing more than onion, coriander, chilli and lime. I could have eaten a tonne of it.
Next up we moved over to Alan Yau's Japanese restaurant, Sake No Hana. Both Nicole and I were really keen to sample the dishes as both of us have wanted to go, but have never made it. The delightful Maitre D, Pierre told us very eloquently, everything we needed to know about the food and the restaurant. We tried 2 dishes. Firstly, a seven spice ribeye beef tereyaki with lotus root chips and then, Tori karaage hacca fried chicken with haccho miso. I did like both dishes but I felt a little like they were from a Chinese restaurant, not Japanese. The beef had a slight sweetness to it, yet also a touch of sour that I am more familiar with in a Chinese environment. I loved the chicken because it was different and unexpected.
We then tried our second ceviche of the day, courtesy of Asia de Cuba, another restaurant I would love to go to. This one was a little more like what you might get in Colombia, on the Caribbean coast of South America. They tend to come with a bit more sauce and are often creamier than traditional ceviche. This was Scottish salmon ceviche with salted avocado helado, spicy coconut milk and bird eye peppers. I thought it tasted stunning, especially with the avocado ice-cream and coconut.
Then, as another little treat, we had one more celebrity sighting in the form of Michel Roux Jr standing outside Le Gavroche. He really is a very good looking older man, perhaps the George Clooney of gastronomy.
We were starting to reach our limit but we had to complete our trio of ceviche tasting. Since Argentina has such a place in my heart, where better to finish than Argentine powerhouse Gaucho for their starter of sea bass ceviche with mango and passion fruit sauce? It was another fine dish and presented beautifully, although I would have liked there to have been more fish and less dress. However, we then had one of Gaucho's fine meat dishes, a grilled steak with a humita cake and smoked garlic hollandaise which was just gorgeous and totally mouth-watering.
Along with a couple more cocktails, wine samples and a cheeky glass of champagne, I was almost ready to roll home, but there was no way I was leaving without dessert and there was only one dish that really and truly grabbed me as soon as I saw it. A chocolate sphere with milk ice-cream and honeycomb from Gordon Ramsay's Petrus. Eye-catchingly beautiful, each dish came with a little jug of hot chocolate sauce that the server poured into the bowl, melting the chocolate sphere to reveal the honeycomb and warm gooeyness inside. I have to say I often find Ramsay's cooking to be a little too rich but this chocolate was dreamy. My only criticism is that there was nowhere near enough honeycomb inside.
Ok, that really is it now. I didn't eat or drink anything else. But let me say this: to any one of you that classes yourself remotely in the category of living to eat, go to Taste of London. It is without the doubt the most brilliant food festival you could wish to go to. Excellently organised, a plethora of great restaurants to try, wonderful independent food companies, drinks aplenty, oodles of freebies, masterclasses from some of the best chefs around and some generally awesome people to meet. Can it be every day please?
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