The much-loved annual foodie event of the year, Taste of London, Winter Edition, rolled back into town between 16-19 November 2017 at its usual venue, Tobacco Dock in Wapping London.
The festival was specially curated to showcase all that the capital has to offer, from exciting and innovative global culinary hot-spots – the best chefs, the best restaurants and best gourmet producers.
From masterclasses with top chefs, to checking out more than 100 of the UK’s finest gourmet brands, visitors could shop, eat and browse to their hearts content.
My ‘Taste’ adventure began on the Friday evening, and I took my son along. He fancies himself as a bit of a food critic (too many mornings watching Saturday Kitchen!) and jumped at the chance to see popular chefs in action and to sample some treats.
As we entered the Grade 1 listed Victorian venue, we paused and surveyed the alcoves in the building, where food brands were stationed and filled with people chatting and enjoying the experience. We made our way through the cavernous building where we witnessed the long queues of people waiting to sample delicious Middle Eastern fare from Delamina – a new launch by the team behind Shoreditch’s Strut & Cluck. We lucked out as Barrafina was also serving up Michelin-starred tapas on just that one day. We decided to spend our complimentary dining vouchers there and at the “best dim sum in town” – Dumplings’ Legend, where I went for dumplings and my son chose duck pancake wrap, both delicious.
We came across an area called The Little Gallery, where lots of artisan food brands set up shop and enticed visitors with samples of their products.
Some of our favourites included:
The Borough Broth Company
The founder, Ros Heathcote, started to make her own bone broth soup after realising that it was helping to restore her immunity. She soon started making batches for her enthusiastic friends and family, and thereafter, decided to set up her business, helped by a butcher who gave her all his bones. After hiring a kitchen and putting it all on Instagram, Selfridges gave her the green light and she now sells her organic chicken and organic beef bone broth soup there.
Newton’s appl fizzics
We loved finding out about Newton’s appl fizzics from Sir Isaac Newton himself! My son’s favourite soft drink is apple juice and so he is something of an expert, but even he had to give the taste of Newton’s appl fizzics a full thumbs up. I also gave it thumbs up when I learnt that it is made with no artificial ingredients, sweeteners or added sugar. Great taste and refreshing.
The Hot Choc Club
How many of you have had hot chocolate made from actual chocolate and not chocolate powder? Well, that’s what The Hot Choc Club specialises in. Dark, milk or white chocolate in fact, there is an extensive menu of flavours to choose from. It’s going to be hard to go back to the powder option.
Sari Cakes
Almost too beautiful to cut in to, these cakes are sheer works of art. Lovingly designed by hand, these edible artistic bakes are delicious too, with red velvet sponge and fruit cake options to name a few.
We managed to drag ourselves away from the Little Gallery and checked out the masterclasses by renowned chefs, Cyrus Todiwala and Olia Hercules, even managing to sneak in a couple of photos.
