It’s a matter of Taste – Taste of London 2013 review

A little while ago I received a lovely invitation from Electrolux to attend the Taste of London food festival. As it came at a time when I was already going to be in London for Britmums I was extremely happy that I was able to say an excited yes!

For those of you who don’t know anything about Taste:

Regent’s Park transforms into a foodie wonderland for four days of summer eating, drinking and entertainment. Create your perfect taster menu from 40 of the city’s best restaurants as they serve their finest dishes for the ultimate alfresco feast. In addition, over 200 artisan producers and premium brands will provide a bounty of the best food and beverages from Britain and around the world.

Doesn’t that sound awesome? Well it really was.

The weather wasn’t exactly splendid on the day of our visit but it didn’t spoil it at all.

We started our day at the Taste of Thailand theatre, throughout the 4 days they had a really exciting programme of dance and various shows as well as culinary demos. My daughter was entranced by the dancers and it really started our day off with a bang.

Next on our list was food! We stopped at Barbecoa as it just smelled so delicious and shared:

*Barbecoa burger – Westcombe cheddar, Heirloom tomatoes, Charred red onion

*Pulled Pork shoulder – Jalapeño corn bread, BBQ sauce & Coleslaw

Ahh bliss.

I may have also bought a sneaky bag of salted fudge and eaten a few samplers on our way around too – it would be rude not to hey?

We moved on to the Electrolux chefs secrets area – this was amazing. It was set up with rows of worktops and top of the range Electrolux technology for visitors to take part in cookery sessions led by chefs such as Simon Hulstone – I was so disappointed to discover I had arrived too late to sign up for any as they were SO popular but we watched for a while and it looked and smelled amazing.

We visited the Electrolux taste theatre to watch some demonstrations by chefs such as Magnus Nilsson and Simon Hulstone – as the days went on there were some really fab collaborations in store such as Pierre Koffman and Tom Kitchin as well as three generations of the Roux family which I am sure were fantastic – unfortunately we were only there for the one day.

We visited the San Pellegrino stand where we tried some new flavours and ate some pizza from The Pizza Pilgrims which was stupendous.

As the afternoon wore on we started to get hungry again .. of course and so we visited the restaurants again for some inspiration. It was so difficult to choose what we wanted to eat but we finally decided on massaman curry for my other half whilst I indulged in another burger from Barbecoa ( I blame my pregnancy hormones and cravings) it was just so good I needed one to myself.

We also picked up some incredible fresh cheese straws for Izzy, some huge american style cookies and some delicious vanilla ice cream made by the guys at the cuisinart stand. YUM.

Time soon escaped us and we had to leave – next time I definitely aim to book into more than one session.

Next up is a Taste of Christmas in November at Tobacco Dock London which I doubt I will be able to make it to seeing as I am due to give birth the week before but hey Iz was 3 weeks early so there is hope 😉 I highly recommend you visit.

Thanks again to Electrolux for inviting us and for making me drool all over their products. WANT.