We had a very busy morning indeed today as Fay and I hosted our big press launch for the London Restaurant Festival 2009. We started with a press breakfast at One  Aldwych – for which many thanks to the team there.

Everyone who agreed to turn up did so which is always encouraging and there were journalists from Bloomberg, BBC, The Telegraph, The Times, the London Evening Standard, London Lite and several others. All were eager to find out more about the festival and get stories in their various publications. Awareness is crucial so this is pleasing.

Chefs in Covent Garden

From here Fay and I led the journalists up to Covent Garden, where the London Restaurant Festival Hub will be located (see below). We had arranged for a photo call with 25 of London’s top chefs. It’s always slightly nerve wracking when you organise these sort of occasions but it was wonderful to see that all 25 chefs turned out, resplendent in their whites, to be photographed with Fay and I in front of our huge festival dinner plate.

I would like to thank Chloe Couchman from our partners at Visit London who helped orchestrate the shoot and press day and also all the chefs who turned out. The success of the first London Restaurant Festival is reliant on several factors, not least the enthusiasm and support of the very chefs who have helped establish London as one of the world’s great restaurant cities.

All-Star Cast

Among the 25 who turned out today were Mark Hix, Angela Hartnett, Thomasina Miers, Henry Harris, Pierre Koffmann, Richard Corrigan, Claude Bosi, Anthony Demetre, Tim Hughes and many others and Fay and I are extremely grateful. All of them will be running festival menus.

On the subject of which we have now got almost 500 restaurants signed up.

After the shoot we repaired to Sophie’s Steakouse on Wellington St where an assembled crowd of some 100 press and chefs gathered to hear more details about the festival. Thanks very much to Sophie’s Steakhouse for hosting us.

I gave an address before Fay set out her clear aims for the festival and her motivations for helping to create it.

Visit London Support for the Festival

Sally Chatterjee, the interim CEO of Visit London, then spoke about the support given by Mayor of London Boris Johnson and also the wholehearted backing that Visit London are giving to the festival both in year one and going forward.

It was all generally deemed to be a great success by both press and chefs alike and Fay and I both hope that the resulting press coverage we receive will help boost the awareness of the festival.

At the time of writing I gather the story has already made some of the papers and hit the airwaves.

The Hub at Covent Garden

I am writing this blog from the rather magnificent chrome 1950s airstream caravan that we have plonked in Covent Garden and is serving as our information centre and press office. Do come down and have a look if you are in the area and you can find out more about the festival. It’s being hauled off tomorrow though and will be back on October 1st and will stay in place for two weeks over the festival period.

My thanks to Covent Garden London - one of our key partners – for helping us to organise all of this.

Pierre Koffmann at Selfridges

One last thing, I made an exciting announcement at the press conference this morning and that is the news that Pierre Koffmann’s restaurant on the roof of Selfridges has already had so many reservations that we are going to extend it for one week.

Tickets are also now on sale for The Big Roast, Gourmet Odyssey and the Simon Schama Lecture so please do book your tickets as they are selling fast.

Tickets for the other events will start going on sale very soon so keep checking in.

Festival Menus

Also, do have a look at the restaurants running  festival menus and start thinking about making your reservation soon, as several chefs I spoke to this morning said they were already getting reservations.

Thanks once again for all of those who are getting behind the London Restaurant Festival and doing their utmost to guarantee that the first year is a triumph. I’ll be back with more news soon and if you have any questions, comments or ideas for events then please do post them and I shall endeavour to get back to you.

Don’t forget, the London Restaurant Festival is your festival too. Thanks very much.