Taste Festival London 2008 and a Few Add-Ons

Our first weekend in London since February, so I made sure I use it to my full advantage. The showpiece was of course the Taste Festival, but more on that later.

The first festival we hit was the Docklands Festival, which reminds me of the Sydney Festival. Indeed, one of the performance comes from Melbourne. There are multiple mini-events, usually dance and visual related, around Canary Wharf and Greenwich. I found the experience hit and miss, with some very good shows and some very boring ones.

We let the rain die down before venturing out to West End Live, a showcase of all the West End musicals. Unfortunately, all the good shows were on in the morning, but we did manage to catch Avenue Q and High School Musical among others. We also got given loads of freebie showbags. They must be very desperate to hand them out so they can go home afterwards. This one is good enough for me to go back to the next year.

And so we go with our hands full of goodies to the Taste Festival. I had been warned of the popularity of this festival, much like the Food & Wine Fair, except you have to pay a lot of money to get in, and the money doesn’t go to charity.

So, what do you actually get for your money? A few of London’s top restaurants, with a big smattering of Michelin stars, and others to round out the list, special events such as cooking classes and wine workshop, producers and alcohol sellers. We decided to hit the biggies (Le Gavroche and L’Atelier du Robuchon) first, then have a wonder around, maybe attend a few workshops. Well, we didn’t expect it was going to be so difficult and take so long, as the number of people was just staggering!! Here is what we spent our crowns on:

Restaurant	Item	Crowns	Comment
L'Atelier du Robuchon	Baby Burger au foie gras et aux poivrons verjutés - Beef and foie gras burger with lightly caramelised bell peppers	8	definitely worth the scrum and the wait. It’s all about balance here, the right amount of beef, the smidgen of sauce and a taste of foie gras combined to make this one tasty burger. We are going to try out the beef and foie gras pairings ourselves
L'Atelier du Robuchon	Chocolate sensation au chocolat Araguani, sorbet au cacao amer et biscuit Oreo - Creamy Araguani chocolate, bitter chocolate sorbet and Oreo cookie crumbs	6	Heavenly. A generous pot of molten dark chocolate with little raspberry squirts, with little crunchy bits. So good I can’t even describe it, except to say I really wanted to lick the cup.
Launceston Place	Roast middle white pork risotto, cracking, apple sauce	6	I have to admit, we only got this one because it was discounted from 10 crowns to 6, but I was kinda intrigued by that cream foam. I think the sweetness worked quite well with the pork pairing, but was disappointed that the risotto was quite hard.
Le Gavroche	Bisque de homard parfumee a l'Armagnac (Classic lobster creamed soup flavoured with brandy)	6	Wow, I even managed to get a very small piece of lobster in the soup. Very strongly flavoured with brandy, but it retained its intensity.
Le Gavroche	Daube de boeuf a l'ancienne et gratin dauphinois (Braised beef in red wine and creamed potatoes)	10	I was disappointed with the size of this, as you only get a £1 coin worth of beef. I remembered the meat being so heavenly at Le Gavroche before, but this didn’t live up to expectation. Don’t get me wrong, it was good, but just not out of this world good, which was what I was expecting.
Nahm	Pla tort nahm sahm rot – crispy fish with three flavoured sauce	8	Not as spicy as I had hoped, nevertheless, the sauce definitely had a kick to it.
Saltyard	Confit of Gloucester old spot pork belly with cannelini beans	6	Got this one ‘cos it was cheap. I was pretty full by this time. The pork was cooked beautifully, with a nice crunchy crackling, and the fat was just melt in the mouth. The cannelini beans have of course soaked up all the juices and was full of flavour, and a little bit mushy, jus the way I like it.
Tamarind	Meen Kozhambu: Cubes of kingfish simmered in a sauce of tomato, tamarind and coconut milk, flavoured with curry leaves, mustard and fenugreek seeds; served with steamed rice and haricot beans	8	The sauce was very pleasant, the kingfish being firm, takes to the sauce quite well. I wish they were a bit more generous with the beans though.
Tom's Kitchen	Seven Hour Braised Lamb Shoulder with Balsamic Onions and Mash	10	Definitely melt in the mouth soft, with a complex sauce and heavenly mash.
Zilli Fish	Cotolette d'Agnello e Gamberi ai Ferri: Surf & turf, chargrilled marinated lamb chops & spicy tiger prawns	10	They had a very orderly line, and was quite generous with their servings, 2 cutlets and 2 prawns, so we lined up. The flavour though, was excellent, with a spicy tomato salsa and very soft, fine lamb chops.
	Fair-trade coffee	2	The place where Slokky got conned into getting a cup by the lady in the stall. The most offending thing was that it wasn’t even made in an espresso machine. The taste was at bad as it sounded.

I also managed to pick up some delectable dried fruit from Urban Fresh Fruit. and puy lentils. We also managed to stay there long enough to get into the Bertinet Kitchen "cooking" school, where we “made” Somerset strawberry croustillant with pastry from Dorset. This involved about 1 minute of rolling pastry and then putting cream and strawberries on top after it has been baked for us. All in all, a good day out.

Info

L'Atelier du Robuchon
13-15 West Street
London
WC2H 9NE
Phone+44 (0) 20 7010 8600
Website

Launceston Place
1A Launceston Place
London
W8 5RL
Phone+44 (0) 20 7937 6912
Website

Le Gavroche
43 Upper Brook Street
London
W1K 7QR
Phone+44 (0) 20 7499 1826
Website

Nahm
Halkin Street
London
SW1X 7DJ
Phone+44 (0) 20 7333 1234
Website

Saltyard
54 Goodge Street,
London
W1T 4NA
Phone+44 (0) 20 7637 0657
Website

Tamarind
20 Queen Street
London
W1J 5PR
Phone+44 (0) 20 7629 3561
Website

Tom's Kitchen
27 Cale Street
London
SW3 3QP
Phone+44 (0) 20 7349 0202
Website

Zilli Fish
36-40 Brewer Street
London
W1F 9TA
Phone+44 (0) 20 7734 8649
Website