Scandelights

There were 40 restaurants represented at Taste of London, offering 3-4 dishes each, and I did my best to try as many dishes as possible.

The first dish was from Jason Atherton’s Pollen Street Social; avocado purée with crab and sweet corn mousse. Very nice, but the texture made it feel very heavy, so the small taster size portion was the perfect amount. I like that the dish seems simple, but still different. I mean, I would never dream of inventing sweet corn mousse.

Next up was La Gavroche‘s smoked salmon stuffed with ricotta and chives and served with a truffle sauce. Great produce, an easy dish to make but that truffle sauce just made it delicious.

The man behind La Gavroche; Michel Roux Jr, posed happily for photos. Here with a random girl.

One restaurant I was curious to try was Bar Boulud, from the team behind Daniel in NYC.

Their ‘hotdog’ with brioche bun, lamb merguez, sour cream, harissa and coriander was amazing and I can’t wait to sample more from their menu. This hotdog was also one of the most popular dishes at the festival.

Above is the spread that was available from Gordon Ramsay’s Savoy Grill.

I couldn’t resist the sirloin with mashed potatoes and café de Paris sauce. Pretty old school but delicious of course, although the steak was not the best I’ve ever had…

At Gordon Ramsay’s Maze I couldn’t resist this fun looking pudding;
pineapple and black pepper Bacardi slushy with raspberry jelly and vanilla yogurt. It was very refreshing and nice, although it didn’t seem that popular among others.

This pudding from Corner Room is amazing, and I have had it in the restaurant before. It is not supersweet and consists of many interesting elements; goat’s caramel, goat’s curd, crunchy biscuit, blueberries and shiso granita.

The last pudding was from Cinnamon Soho, Cinnamon Club’s newest edition. This mango and cardamom crème brulée was delicious with the little fruit salad on top although I did miss the caramelised sugar on top.

The festival offered lots of slowcooked meat and although I love it, I cook it al lot myself but it also feels more autumnal than summery, and I think that impacted the way I chose my sample dishes.

I spent Saturday afternoon in Regent’s Park at the Taste of London festival. As most vendors were the same as on the Foodies Festival, I mainly looked at the different restaurants. Each restaurant (40 in total) offered 3-4 dishes where as one was usually a signature dish with more expensive ingredients.

I tried lots of dishes which I will tell you all about tomorrow, but there are still more I would like to mention.

Jamie Oliver and Adam Perry Lang’s Barbecoa, their meat restaurant in the City was very popular and their burger looked really good.

Opera Tavern were there with their mini burgers but I eat there often enough anyway, so no need to try it out here.

The cheap thai chain Busaba Eathai were there too, and I have eaten here enough times to know it is good.

The Savoy had both Gordon Ramsay’s Savoy Grill and the River Restauant represented.

Swedish cider from Rekorderlig Cider was there too, but I can’t understand why this sweet cider has become so popular in the UK at the moment as I prefer dry cider myself.

Of the more exotic vendors Trinidad and Tobago had dancers with sequins and feathers and there were a whole Thailand village.

Club Gascon won the best dish this year and it is pictured above. It was a cheesy and marmite-y spread served in a Marmite jar with thick slices of sourdough bread.

Heston Blumenthal had his Bray pub, Hinds Head here and although the food looked good it seemed very simple compared to most resturants and that is probably why I didn’t try it.

L’anima’s signature dish was fettucine with truffle which I would happily have tried if I wasn’t so full at this stage. The trends this year was definitely truffle, pork and slowcooked meat. No surprises there.

Every slot has different chefs speaking and during my Saturday afternoon slot it was among others Jason Atherton, trained by Gordon Ramsay and known for his London restaurant Pollen St Social. It was good fun listening to him. He prefers natural flavours and does not compromise on produce. He even told us how much everything cost. Also two lucky people from the audience got to cook with him!