The judging lunch for the London Restaurant Festival Awards was held on Tuesday 22 September in the private room of The Greenhouse in Hay’s mews where Antonin Bonnet’s thoughtful cooking and the wines chosen by Master Sommelier Ronan Sayburn made what was anyway an enjoyable argy-bargy and riot of horse-trading into a total treat.
Tracey McCleod, Marina O’Loughlin, Giles Coren and myself were the restaurant critics taking part. We were given the well-informed customer’s point of view by Tamara Ingram, Chair of Visit London, and Simon Davis, Director of the Festival.
Award Categories
We like to think that the categories for the awards are something of a breakthrough in this kind of event. In place of Best French, Best Italian, Best British etc. we have looked to qualities that we cherish in restaurants, qualities like Bravery, Discovery, Passion, Warmth, Ceremony and Fun. Unsurprisingly this has given us shortlists and winners that deviate rewardingly from the same-old-same-old places receiving recognition.
You will have to wait until Tuesday 13 October to hear the results when Nigel Barden will reveal all at a gathering of the industry at The Tea House in Shoreditch. At the same event the winners of The Best London Restaurant Festival Menus will be announced.
If you are a chef or restaurateur and you haven’t yet signed up to do a Festival Menu, get cracking.
Pierre Koffmann on Market Kitchen
On Wednesday morning, rather too early for my liking, I went to the set of Market Kitchen to talk about the Festival to presenter Tom Parker Bowles (always a pleasure) and watch the legendary chef Pierre Koffmann do TV for the first time in his life. He took to it like a duck to water, his grizzled charm easily surviving the attentions of the make-up girl, and his dish of grouse a l’Anglaise served with fried breadcrumbs and bread sauce which he cooked with his erstwhile protege Eric Chavot, a masterpiece. Tom PB and I despatched it in a trice. All this and more can be viewed on Monday 5 October.
If you can’t get a table for Pierre Koffmann’s pop-up restaurant on the roof of Selfridges from October 8 for three weeks – they went as quickly as I ate that grouse – remember there are other equally diverting events taking place such as Starter for Ten, the quiz to decide supremacy of chefs or critics, conducted by Bamber Gascoigne at Vinopolis on 10 October, Simon Schama’s lecture on the language of food at King’s Place at noon on Sunday 11 October, The Big Roast at Leadenhall Market also on Sunday, Eat Film throughout the festival, Gourmet Odysseys, the Bistrotheque pop-up in the Masonic Temple below Andaz Hotel in the City and more. All the details and ways to book are on the London Restaurant festival site.
