What to do, see and eat at this year’s Taste of London food festival
The original pop up food festival, Taste Of London, is back at Regents Park and it’s sizzling!
The festival, which was first established in 2004, will see 890 restaurants and over 150 artisan producers participating, from Wednesday to Sunday, of this week. Plus 55,000 hungry Londoners, ready to devour the best food and drink in the country.
We went to Regents Park on Thursday to find some Taste of London restaurant regulars, and to discover some exciting new food talents.
Read on to find out what to do, see and of course EAT, this year at Taste of London.
The Fire Pit
The Fire Pit is the flame-fuelled centrepiece of Taste of London. It’s a highly entertaining stage of fire, theatrics and feasting. We caught a cooking lesson in front of the burning embers with Thom Bateman, Simon The Butcher and Julian Brown and also sampled a Slow Grilled Garlic & Cumin Pork Belly Aliños with Marinated Celeriac plus a Taste exclusive of Grilled Bavette Steak courtesy of Country Fire Kitchen.
West London rapper turned foodie Big Zuu opened up the fire pit on Wednesday, with Fallow showing their sustainable cooking skill in the flames on Thursday. Over the weekend Taste newbies Drums & Flats will be making their first festival appearance and Genevieve Taylor will be returning to share her top tips on ‘how to pit’, while Ximena Gayosso Gonzales of Madera at Treehouse will be demoing their take on the summer BBQ. Joining them will be Chef and pastrami expert Jay Morjaria, Pig and Butcher’s head chef Sean Garrett, Ashley Abodeely from NoMad Hotel, Covent Garden. There will be tons of tasty samples to try alongside all the demonstrations, so get ready to devour!
You can view the full Chefs Line-Up here:
A Very Grand Cheese
Another firm favourite of ours was a cheese big enough to dive into; The Grana Padano PDO. A staple in Italian cuisine, this cheese has become the world’s best-selling PDO cheese. It has a fine grainy structure and a mellow, tasty, yet never overpowering, flavour, and can be found aged between 9 months to over 24 months. We learnt that Grana Padano PDO cheese possesses unique nutritional features such as quality proteins, vitamins and mineral salts, especially calcium and it is lactose free due to the characteristics of its production and ageing process. Did we mention it was also big enough to dive into? OMG
Divine Dumplings
Another highlight from our Taste of London experience include chatting to, and eating, some divine dumplings from the inspiring team behind Journey To The West who told us they were on a mission to make fresh dumplings as accessible as fresh pasta was in our supermarkets.
The two founders, Sandy Tang and David Solomon bonded over a shared passion for food and the idea for a new category of dumpling in the UK, different from the typically low quality, imported, frozen ones available. They realised that like them, UK consumers would enjoy expanding their knowledge of the range of flavours and styles of what a dumpling is and can be.
Sandy Tang, a chef and recipe developer, who at the age of 24, cooked her way to the Final of Masterchef UK 2020, was born in Macau, where she lived until the age of 13. She grew up surrounded by a unique fusion of cultures. Her work in the kitchen reflects the fact that she has spent half her life in Asia and half in the UK, so she enjoys combining both Eastern and Western ideas and techniques when working in the kitchen, producing innovative fusion concepts that are still grounded in tradition.
David Solomon spent a lot of his life travelling through India, Nepal, China and Southeast Asia in 1991and, his work and love for the region have taken him back over 40 times. Since raising a British-Russian family in London, pelmeni and other Eurasian dumplings have also become an essential part of his diet, so much so that making them from scratch is a regular family activity.
We loved chatting to the team - if you make it to Taste this weekend then go and say hello to them and make sure you ask the chef to demo his dumpling flipping skills!
Middle Eastern Melt In Your Mouth Halva
We discovered something new about this middle eastern sweet treat - not only is it delicious, it’s Vegan, Gluten-Free & Dairy-Free. It’s also totally natural, made with organic and full of Protein, Calcium, Iron and Fibre, thanks to the single-origin Ethiopian white humera Sesame seeds that it is made from. We learned all this at the Sesame Kingdom stand where we also sampled the hand crafted Halva, which can be described as nutty, indulgent and rich with a creamy, melt in your mouth texture.
Luxury French Madeleines
We also recommend you hunt down the Madeleines stand which is a little bit tucked away off the main track, but well worth the effort of finding.
Founder, French native Marie Jacob, was raised on the Brie plateau. Her baking obsession started very young with her mother as a teacher. Marie now shares her lovely childhood memories and passion for exquisite baking with us Brits, for which we are very grateful!
The pretty little garnished, glazed, decorated cakes are super instagrammable as well as incredibly delicious. They also need to be eaten before they melt in the midday sun!
Other festival highlights included the giant popcorn chair from Joe & Seph’s, the swinging seat from The Ahmed Tea Garden, the pints of Pimms and the fabulous DJ who was entertaining visitors with some classic summer tunes as we walked in.
Taste is definitely one of our favourite festivals in the London social calendar and well worth the ticket price. Here’s some practical info to help you plan your day..
Getting To The Festival
We’d recommend planning your route with CityMapper. There is limited parking around Regent’s Park, so travelling by public transport is your best bet (and better for the planet!).
The festival location is: Regent’s Park, Outer Circle, London, NW1 5HA. Check out the handy map below of where the festival is based within the park. There will also be lots of super visible signs directing you from the stations below to the grounds.
The nearest Tube stations are:
Baker Street
Regent’s Park
Great Portland Street
Tasting Sessions
This year, Taste of London is returning to Regent’s Park for eight delicious sessions:
Wed 15 June 17:30-21:30
Thurs 16 June 12:00-16:00 & 17:30-21:30
Fri 17 June 12:00-16:00 & 17:30-21:30
Sat 18 June 12:00-16:00 & 17:30-21:30
Sun 19 June 12:00-17:00
Book your tickets in advance of the day to save on Show Open pricing.
https://london.tastefestivals.com/tickets
A big thanks to everyone who took time to speak with us and good luck with your foodie endeavours!
If you enjoyed our Taste tips and pics then you’ll LOVE our instagram - you can find us at @londonlivingblog.
Happy eating!