I then joined Fay, and her husband Reg, and Wahaca‘s Tommi Miers and her husband Mark at Il Barreto on Blandford St. Such a great place and choc full on a Monday night. We look forward to seeing what they produce for their Festival Menu in October.

On the subject of which, the sign-up is now fully up and running on the website. Please do sign up as soon as you can to make the most of your involvement. It’s quite clear from last year’s LRF that the restaurants who signed up early and got engaged in the festival from the outset saw the greatest benefits from their involvement. It’s just £100 to sign up your restaurant. A very small price to pay for being involved in London’s only genuine restaurant festival designed to embrace all that is great and London’s restaurant industry.

All the very best,
Simon.

Our host for the evening was the BBC’s Nigel Barden who provided both wit and warmth. Fay Maschler, the distinguished Evening Standard restaurant critic and festival Chair, opened proceedings explaining that the awards were devised to honour the fundamentals of restaurant-going as she saw it. So there was no Best French, Best Italian and so forth but categories that included Bravery, Passion, Ceremony and Fun.

Thanks to our awards presenters Giles Coren, Tom Parker-Bowles, Tracey MacLeod and Nick Jones.
Also thanks to GH Mumm champagne who were the official champagne of the London Restaurant Festival and Ketel One vodka who did cocktails.

You can see all the award winners if you click on the article in today’s London Evening Standard.

Fay was presented with a special award, by GH Mumm, for her outstanding contribution to the industry before I trundled up to give thanks to all of those who have helped the festival be such a tremendous success in year one.
The whole thing lasted no more than 40 minutes which Fay and I were particularly pleased about as there are few things we find more tiresome than lengthy awards ceremonies.

Pizza East Opening and After Party

The awards were held in a rather modish covered, cobbled courtyard that separates Shoreditch House from Pizza East, the latest restaurant from Nick Jones, the founder of Soho House, and his business partner Richard Caring.

Nick, who is an old friend of Fay and myself, very kindly offered to open up Pizza East to 160 of our guests for dinner. Given that the place does not open to the public until Friday this was extremely generous of him – and also rather brave given that the room was full of critics, chefs and restaurateurs.

Pizza East, housed in a 5000 sq ft former tea warehouse, straddles the worlds of the City and the Shoreditch funksters and its canny formula of rough-hewn hipness will appeal to both.

We feasted on the most delicious pizza and Francesco Mazzei, whose restaurant L’Anima won an award and who was brought up in Calabria told me he thought the pizza superb and he knows what he’s talking about.

Plate after plate of calamari, lasagne, sea bass and a divine cauliflower carbonara came to the table washed down with tumblers of wine – it’s all about tumblers of wine these days. Thanks so much Nick and good luck when you open on Friday.

All in all a wonderful way to round off the first London Restaurant Festival. However, this does not mean that this website will be going quiet. Oh no.

I’ll keep everyone updated as we start to make plans for the London Restaurant Festival 2010. All the team have achieved an extraordinary amount in year one with very little time or money and we intend to build on that platform.

We’ve learned an enormous amount. There’ll be changes, improvements and some new events so keep checking in.
Thanks everyone for your support and all feedback is vital to us so speak up.

We wanted a cerebral element in The London Restaurant festival and Professor Simon Schama’s inaugural lecture which took place yesterday morning at Kings Place provided that and more.

His talk entitled Mouthing off : Eating and Utterance, which he delivered self- confessedly jet-lagged but fizzing with energy, insight and humour took the  brains of the audience on a whirlwind tour of the language of food. There was a  much appreciated  flattering assumption on the behalf of Professor Schama of a parity of reading and experience.

Several people said to me afterwards that it was so exhilarating to find the opposite of dumbing down. “My mind has been stirred with a big wooden spoon. I’m off home to find and read the books of M.F.K. Fisher”, said a friend of mine as she left.

John Nugent of Green and Fortune, the caterers at Kings Place, laid on a terrific brunch with fruit kebabs and muesli for the health conscious and bacon butties for the rest of us before the talk. And many in the audience went afterwards for lunch to the Rotunda Restaurant on the ground floor overlooking Battlebridge Basin, which was taking part in the Festival’s Big Roast celebration. Having their own farm in Northamptonshire supplying the beef and lamb, they are perfectly poised to produce a great traditional Sunday lunch.

I must confess now that The Wells is owned by my sister Beth Coventry but nepotism sometimes ought to rule.  Tonight The Wells is hosting a Lucky Dice evening – throw a six and your food will be free – and there is still time to try their festival menu at £25 for two courses and send in votes.

Speaking of nepotism, you can also try a Festival Menu and a Lucky Dice extravaganza tonight  at my son Ben’s gastropub, The Draper’s Arms in Islington. Food runs in the family.

Photo gallery:

Photo gallery:

A team of top London chefs just pipped a team of critics to victory on Saturday night at the inaugural Starter For Ten quiz – part of the London Restaurant Festival.

Questions were set by distinguished critic, and London Restaurant Festival chair Fay Maschler, with legendary quizmaster Bamber Gascoigne in charge of proceedings.

Thomasina Miers from Wahaca, Richard Corrigan, Rowley Leigh from Le Cafe Anglais and Jeremy Lee from the Blueprint Cafe were on the chef team against Giles Coren, Toby Young, Matthew Norman and Tracey MacLeod were the critics. Simon Parkes of the Food Programme of Radio Four was the voiceover man.

There were drinks beforehand – kindly donated by our sponsors Field, Morris & Verdin – and the quiz had picture rounds, music rounds, proper buzzers and the whole works. It was all very professional and the questions were deliciously tricky.

Well done to the chefs and good effort from the critics – better luck next year.

The Gourmet Odyssey is the same notion but on a far larger scale using London Routemaster buses with four itineraries involving Scott’s, Corrigan’s, Wild Honey, Arbutus, Quo Vadis, Hakasan, Maze, Sake No Hana and Hibiscus.

Almost 300 people bought a ticket and arrived at The Metropolitan Hotel on Park Lane for a glass of Mumm champagne who were our sponsors. Guests, in a high state of excitement and anticipation, received smart little tags as if for race day and these denoted their itinerary by colour.

My wife and I were on Park Lane 1 and headed off to Theo Randall at the Intercontinental. Theo had hotfooted it back from appearing on the BBC’s Saturday Kitchen where he was busy talking about the Gourmet Odyssey (thanks Theo).
Chef Randall worked the tables and talked through the remarkably fresh Devon crab he served for our starter before signing guest’s menus.

Then it was onto the bus and off to Corrigan’s when the great man was offering a choice of a divine venison ‘Wellington’ or sole. After being introduced by Fay, who joined us for lunch, he chatted to all the guests, signed menus and had his photo taken.

Everyone deemed the food exquisite and with a spring in our steps after generous refreshments we boarded the bus once more and headed to Scott’s where we were welcomed by Tim Hughes, affable executive chef of Caprice Holdings, one of our festival patrons and owners of some of London’s greatest restaurants.

Scott’s was buzzing and they served us a tasting plate that included apple pie and a chocolate parcel that oozed the richest flow of chocolate sauce when burst. And we got a pud wine.

On the bus back to the Met the atmosphere was fantastic and everyone couldn’t have been happier about their day out which after all the work involved was hugely rewarding.

An enormous thank you to all the restaurants who took part, all of those who supported us by purchasing a ticket, The Met hotel and also Katie Mann from the London Restaurant Festival who managed the event and helped it run so smoothly.

We already have some plans for next year and some new itineraries for different parts of the capital.

Our photographer captured the Pall Mall Gourmet Odyssey, click the pictures below for the image gallery:

To the London Eye on Friday evening where Gordon Ramsay took his turn cooking for ten guests who had bid to eat in our extraordinary capsule restaurant.

The great man was on cracking form and came to meet the guests who included singer James Blunt. He then headed off to the little kitchen we have created in the ticket hall and produced a wonderful dinner. The first course was a ravioli of lobster followed by the fillet of Angus beef, cheese and then a Granny Smith apple trifle. Wines were kindly provided by Fields Morris & Verdin and involved magnums of Jacquesson Cuvee 732, Mountford chardonnay 2005 and a Bodega Pintia 2004.

The successful bidder had paid £23,000 for the one-off opportunity with money going to Starlight, the charity that grants wishes to seriously and terminally ill children. Fay and I would like to thank Gordon for taking the time to support Starlight and the London Restaurant Festival.

On the a la carte the same partridge dish is priced at £23 so the bargain is blatantly obvious particularly as the first course I chose of mackerel with Serrano ham, capers and a parsley emulsion was immaculately prepared with the mackerel skin as snappy as crackling and the flesh staunch enough to partner the ham perfectly.

Nigel Barden who will present the London Restaurant Festival Awards on Tuesday 13 October rated highly the alternative main course of crisp pork belly with caramelised onions and apple sauce and had the nerve to ask for a first course from the Festival Dinner Menu (£25/£35 for two/three courses) of pig’s trotters and ceps on QV sourdough.  We shared a dessert of praline chocolate bar with caramelised banana with spoons clashing as we approached the middle from either end.

The Festival aims to beckon diners into restaurants with the promise of a more than fair deal and hopefully become the start of a lasting friendship. I have a feeling that Quo Vadis may do very well in the voting for Best Festival Menu on www.londonrestaurantfestival.com or www.toptable.com