Taste of London 2011

Taste of London 2011, Regent's Park

I was hoping for a glorious summer day for the ‘Biggest Foodies event’ of the year. I could not have been more wrong! The weather forecast said grey sky with patches of rain, but actually it was more like tropical – flipping between clear blue sky and thunderstorms...

We bought VIP tickets from the British Airways website. They were on special offer for £38 each including £20 worth of crowns, access to VIP Lounge and a glass of champagne. Don’t bother the VIP tickets if you are a BA mileage club sliver/gold member. Just turn up at the BA Executive Lounge with your membership card for unlimited drinks and canapés.

First up, a cooking class with Atul Kochhar in the AEG cooking studio. I had great fun following his instructions to cook one of the nation's favourite curry dishes - Rogan Josh.

Then we sampled a few dishes in the next hour or so...

Club Gascon – Spicy duck popcorn. Interesting idea to use popcorn, it kind of lightened the dish a bit and added some fun to a classic duck confit.

Benares – Chicken tikka pie with spiced berry compote. It was a pretty dish to look but not to eat. Way too much compote so I couldn’t really taste the chicken. Good idea but bad execution.

Corrigan’s Mayfair – Hand ground steak burger with bone marrow. Not much to say except: Simple, tasty, juicy!

The Cinnamon Club – Spice encrusted Gressingham duck breast, Hyderabadi korma sauce. Best dish of the day. Perfectly cooked breast of duck with crispy skin, the smooth korma sauce had the right amount of sweetness to accompany the duck.

At around 8pm, we headed to the AEG taste theatre to watch a demonstration by Nuno Mendes from Viajante.

He ‘cooked’ (more like assembled) 3 dishes from bags of vacuum packed ingredients. Each of them was cooked at a different temperature, for a different time and by different methods. This guy and the team behind him have an incredible level of creativity. I was blown away when we visited Viajante in Bethnal Green last year. The man himself said the restaurant has grown a lot since then, I believe him as who would have thought that lettuce, cherries and mussel juice would work? Jay Rayner loved the combination on the stage so I better plan my next visit :)

We managed to have a few desserts in the final hour. Some of them were given to us for free as the restaurants do not keep their food overnight. Here are the highlights:

Asia de Cuba – Mexican Doughnuts with Mojito sorbet.

Maze – Lemon cheesecake, black sesame, Earl Grey syrup.

Rhodes 24 – Lemon tart with fresh strawberries.

All in all it was a great evening, the rain and the mud spoiled the mood a little but that is always part of the fun of British summer, right? Let’s do it again next year!