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.

In case you didn’t see it we got a great showing in The Evening Standard this week so thanks to editor Geordie Greig and deputy editor Sarah Sands who have really got behind the London Restaurant Festival.

The paper has also agreed to be media partners for the London Restaurant Festival Awards.

Read the Evening Standard article on London Restaurant Festival here.

I am particularly pleased to announce that Pizza Express are fully behind London Restaurant Festival and are planning on serving a Festival Pizza in around 100 of their London restaurants during the festival.

Fay and I have always maintained that the London Restaurant Festival is not just about the big name chefs and exclusivity but also about celebrating the restaurants that make up the everyday fabric of many Londoners’ lives and there are few better examples of this than Pizza Express. So we are thrilled to have them on board.

I’m also pleased to announce that the London Restaurant Festival is set to have its own “pop-up” space for six weeks or so in the run up to the festival. The space is a fantastic unit in the centre of Covent Garden and it will function as a press office, ticket booth for events, and also as a focal point for information and awareness about the London Restaurant Festival.

We must thank our partner Covent Garden London for agreeing to allow us to set up camp for a few weeks in this brilliant spot. It will really help us establish the festival in year one and also be extremely useful for those who want to find out more about the festival and talk to some of the team.

The plan is to have this up and running at the beginning of September in time for the main press launch of the London Restaurant festival 2009 which will be on September 9.

I’ll be back soon with more news as we move forward. In the meantime any restaurateur who wants to get hold of the registration forms can now do so by downloading them from the links below:

Restaurant Registration Form [PDF 308KB]

Restaurant Registration Prices [PDF 134KB]

Restaurant Registration Guidelines [PDF 129KB]

A Festival Menu should encapsulate, explain and deliver the essence of each participating establishment. The menus will be an opportunity to concentrate even more than usual on creativity, seasonality, surprise, nurturing and good value.

Menus at different fixed price points will give potential customers confidence. Places that they may have been diffident about trying become understandable and accessible.

Festival Menus provide the opportunity for restaurants of any ethnicity to convey precisely what their cuisine contributes and the part it plays in the astonishing range of restaurants that London possesses.

The many events of the festival will culminate in the London Restaurant Festival Awards presented on the evening of 13 October in association with the London Evening Standard.

Among the awards is the category of Best London Festival menu, which will go the restaurant – in each price category – that in the opinion of the judges has most creatively, generously and deliciously presented an edible snapshot of how they feed us

Inspired? Restaurateurs can register now to participate with a Festival Menu at London Restaurant Festival. Download the forms here:

Restaurant Registration Form [PDF 308KB]

Restaurant Registration Prices [PDF 134KB]

Restaurant Registration Guidelines [PDF 129KB]

Last week we sent out a “call to arms” to encourage as many London restaurants as possible to sign up and take part in the inaugural London Restaurant Festival.

Happily the response has been really enthusiastic. Hundreds of restaurants of all sizes, cuisine and budget have been requesting registration forms. These are now filtering back and we are hoping that our first-year target of 1,000 restaurants might be reached by the time the festival kicks off in October.

The restaurants involved will all be running their own Festival Menus. These are a bedrock of the festival. Below is an outline of just what we mean by the Festival Menu “event”:

The London Restaurant Festival is not about coupons and vouchers. Instead, the participating restaurants will offer great value, and inventive cooking, to customers through their Festival Menus.

These will run throughout the festival at all participating restaurants from The Wolseley to family-run independents and from Pizza Express to hidden gems that few have experienced.

The Festival Menu ‘event’ is inclusive and wide-ranging. Lunch menus of two courses will be priced at £10, £15 or £20 (whether drinks are included depends on the restaurant). Dinner menus of two courses will be priced at £15, £25 and £40.

There is no limit to the number of restaurants that can run their own Festival Menu and all will be listed on the London Restaurant Festival website – www.londonrestaurantfestival.com

To register, download the forms here:

Restaurant Registration Form [PDF 308KB]

Restaurant Registration Prices [PDF 134KB]

Restaurant Registration Guidelines [PDF 129KB]