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The First London Restaurant Festival Gets Underway

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

Fay Machler cut the cake to declare the festival open at the Vanity Fair party at Quaglino'sAnd so, less than a year after the idea was hatched the first London Restaurant Festival has begun. I am writing this from our fantastic chrome 1950s Airstream caravan in Covent Garden that is operating as our hub for the entire festival.

Do come down if you are around as there are all sorts of activities going on from the world’s greatest pizza tossing acrobats to book signings with Antonio Carluccio and Jason Atherton among others. Legendary underground restaurateur Ms Marmite Lover is hosting our Supplier’s Market today and other restaurants will be doing so over the next few days. Meanwhile across London over 500 restaurants are busy preparing to serve their first Festival Menus and we gather that to date over 5000 reservations have been made.

Richard Corrigan is revving up to be the first chef to serve guests at the incredible pop-up restaurant in a capsule of the London Eye and Pierre Koffmann is prepping everyone for the first service at the extraordinary restaurant on the roof of Selfridges that has been constructed for the London Restaurant Festival.

I’ve just spoken to group of journalists who have flown over from the States to cover the festival and they’re going to the Tate Modern to see the Pop Art exhibition and try the Festival Menus the Tate have prepared inspired by Pop Art.

Festival Launch Party

Last night we had a wonderful launch party at Quaglino’s attended by 350 influential sorts from the restaurant industry and BBC news came to film a live link. It was all deemed a triumph so Fay and I and all the team are thrilled and grateful for all the support.

So, there’s masses going on. Get out there and enjoy yourself. I’m off to have lunch at Pierre Koffmann’s, but only after I watch the amazing pizza tossers kindly arranged by one of our patrons, Pizza Express.
Back soon.

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London Restaurant Festival Online Booking Issues

Sunday, October 4th, 2009

Our ticket booking partner’s website www.seetickets.com is currently experiencing technical issues. If you would like to book tickets for Gourmet Odyssey, Eat Film or Big Roast, please telephone SEE direct on 0115 912 9000 or please try again later.

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Gordon Gets a Bull's Eye

Monday, September 28th, 2009

As Fay and I are keen that the London Restaurant Festival has a charity element I approached a friend of mine called Rose Astor who is involved in Starlight.

For those who are unaware Starlight is a wonderful charity that grants wishes to seriously or terminally ill children. Rose was involved in a charity event at the Saatchi Gallery at the weekend, with her company Maggie and Rose, and I suggested that Fay and I donate one of the pop-up restaurants in the London Eye as an auction lot. Sarah Dawson at Starlight who helped arrange the event was more than happy to accept. So last Saturday I trundled along to the Saatchi Gallery at the former Duke of York’s Barracks in Chelsea, for the dinner – rather a good one as it happens from the team at Eight Over Eight – and the auction.

There were a dozen lots and ours was near the end. Tension mounted. You never know if these things are going to be a damp squib with no-one bidding. Happily a friend had called me on the way and made a bid at the reserve of £5,500. Yes, I know this sounds a lot, and it is, but these are remarkable one off events and we want to raise a decent amount for Starlight, and for Action Against Hunger, our other charity. So bidding got underway.

It kicked off at £4,000 and was soon to £7,000. Frankly I’d have been happy with that a pootled home. But no. On it rallied: £9,000, £10,000, £14,000, £17,000, £20,000. At this point the room descended into a cacophony of whoops and shrills. I was beside myself with excitement as this was all new to me and I was worried it might not sell. Prince William, on the table to my right, was cheering away. It finally stopped at £23,000 and the room erupted. The biggest price of any lot for the night and a huge success.

Fay bumped into Gordon today at lunch and he is thrilled. What a good man. He’s come in for some stick of late but much of it is undeserved. Sebastian Shakespeare, stalwart editor of Londoner’s Diary, kindly reported the news in his column this evening. No less exciting is that we’ve now managed to secure The Ivy for an extra night so one London Eye capsule will become the most exclusive pop-up of the capital’s most exclusive restaurant for one night only on October 14th.

All bids welcome.

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London Restaurant Festival Grows Its Fringe

Friday, September 25th, 2009

One of the ambitions that Fay and I had for the London Restaurant Festival was that restaurateurs, and others, would generate their own fringe events and that these could fall under the umbrella of the festival.

The idea being that no matter how big or small these events may be, the sum of these happenings across London would, in years to come help the London Restaurant Festival become a celebration of restaurants, food and wine that spanned the capital.

Happily this already seems to be happening even in year one. Chirpy jockey Frankie Dettori has decided to celebrate the London Restaurant Festival by putting on a Night at the Races at Frankie’s Sports Bar and Grill at Chelsea FC.

Frankie is a shareholder in Frankie’s along with Marco Pierre White. The evening will be co-hosted by jocular racing pundit John McCririck.

The evening takes place on Thursday Oct 8th at 7pm. You can have a three-course dinner and then take a punt on televised races throughout the inevitably raucous evening. All proceeds go towards Help a London Child.

Meanwhile, for those who would like a more rarefied experience, Tate Britan and tate Modern have organised a series of Art Lunches to run throughout the London Restaurant Festival.

Tate Britain, where the Turner and the Masters exhibition is on, have decided to serve a two-course lunch inspired by Turner with dishes the artist himself would have enjoyed eating. These include steamed mutton pudding with minted caper and lentil jus, using Welsh mutton steamed for five hours.

Over at Tate Modern where Pop Life: Art in a Material World is running, the Tate Modern Restaurant has Marilyn Monroe Crème Brulee, a seasonal crème brulee inspired by the pudding once famously served to Andy Warhol at London’s Café Royal.

It is these fringe events that will help give the London Restaurant Festival its longevity and help it appeal to as many people as possible. Well done to Frankie and the Tate and thanks very much.

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Awards, Events and Market Kitchen

Friday, September 25th, 2009

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.

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Tickets being Gobbled Up for London Restaurant Festival Events

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

With just over two weeks to go before the start of the first London Restaurant Festival tickets for all the events are being snapped up with encouraging vigor.

Reservations for one of our landmark events – Pierre Koffmann’s pop-up Restaurant on the Roof of Selfridges – have been so brisk that we have decided to extend his ‘run’ for not only one extra week but a fortnight so it will last for three weeks in total (ends 31 October).

The London Evening Standard ran a full page on the news this evening.

Starter for Ten

I’ve just been chatting to Bamber Gascoigne, the legendary former host of University Challenge, who will be our quizmaster for Starter For Ten. He’s having lunch with Fay on Friday and they are planning the questions. By the way, do please submit any questions you might have and if they’re deemed worthy we’ll incorporate them into the quiz. (comment on this blog post or email our Festival Contacts with “Starter for Ten Question” in the subject line)

In case you have not heard, Starter For Ten will be a quiz that pits Critics against Chefs with all the questions based on the subjects of food, restaurants, eating out and general foodie knowledge.

We’re thrilled to have Bamber on board as he very rarely gets involved in being a quiz host any longer. But he loved the idea so has come out of retirement for the London Restaurant Festival.

Starter For Ten will take place on Saturday 10 October at Vinopolis and the distinguished chef team is Angela Hartnett, Richard Corrigan, Rowley Leigh and Jeremy Lee while the critics – no less acclaimed – are Giles Coren, Toby Young, Tracey McLeod and Matthew Norman.

Get a ticket while you still can and join us for a drink and what promises to be a very entertaining evening. We’ve arranged the event so you can still go and have dinner afterwards so you can make a night of it.

Fay Maschler on Market Kitchen

Fay is off to film an episode of Market Kitchen today with Matthew Fort and Pierre Koffmann and I’m sure all talk will be of the festival. Don’t miss the screening that will be on 5 October.

London Eye Restaurant Capsules

For those of you who want to get the chance of the ultimate private pop-up make sure you get your bids in for the restaurants in the London Eye. All the details are on the site. I hard earlier that Zuma is getting some pretty hefty punting but all of them are generating interest.

We’ve got some extremely exciting news about the restaurants in the Eye that I’ll be able to reveal over the next few days so keep checking in.

Book a Table for Festival Menus

One last thing, do please start thinking about making your reservations for Festival Menus in whichever of our several hundred participating restaurants takes your fancy. I gather that over 1,500 bookings have already been made which is great news. The Festival Menus really are your opportunity to try new restaurants at an affordable price or see what inspired ideas your old favourites can offer.

Thanks to everyone for all your support and I’ll be back with a daily blog from now until the end of the festival.

Do let us have your comments below as these will be invaluable as we move forward both this year and in the years to come.

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Six weeks to go

Monday, August 31st, 2009

It’s now just six weeks or so until the first London Restaurant Festival kicks off and the team have been working hard all summer to make sure it’s as great a success as possible. From now on there will be regular updates on my blog to keep you really up to date with everything that’s going on.

Managers’ seminars

This week we’re holding our two managers’ days for all the restaurants to date who have signed up to run Festival Menus – we’ve now got just over 400 so our target of 500 for the first year of the festival looks well within reach.

Tickets go on sale

A limited number of tickets have now gone on sale for Gourmet Odysseys and The Big Roast and they are being snapped up with encouraging haste.
I am told that one company has decided to reserve an entire bus for one of the itineraries.
Once we have our main press launch on Sept 9th we will put all tickets on sale so it would be worth booking now for the one-off events to avoid disappointment. I think at the last count some 100 or so press were coming so the coverage should be broad.

Press coverage and your feedback

On the subject of press, we’re getting an increasing amount of enthusiastic coverage and the other day a friend from New York called to say that the festival was getting play in papers there.
On another point, it would be great to get your comments on any element of the festival as we intend to use all feedback to help us grow and improve the the London Restaurant Festival for 2010 so please do post your comments on this blog. This includes any ideas for events that you may have.

Keelung for Eat Film

However, the focus now is getting all the details in place for year one and I’m pleased to say that we’re on track.
It’s not all work though. Fay and I went to the most wonderful Taiwanese restaurant the other day called Keelung to create the menu that will be served after the screening of the wonderful Eat, Drink, Man, Woman – a key part of one of my favourite events Eat Film. By the way, it’s going to be on the Tuesday of the festival and the film will be played at the Curzon Soho a short walk from Keelung. Tickets will be on sale soon.

Off now to prepare for tomorrow’s managers’ day which is generously being hosted for us by the Millennium Hotel in Mayfair for which many thanks.
I’ll be back with more news shortly.

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The Evening Standard Becomes a Partner

Thursday, July 16th, 2009

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.

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London Restaurant Festival in The Caterer Magazine

Monday, July 13th, 2009

The London Restaurant Festival is really starting to get some coverage in the press.

Here’s a link to a piece I wrote for Caterer and Hotelkeeper recently: The Caterer London Restaurant Festival feature.

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Restaurants Get Behind London Restaurant Festival

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

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]

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