Taste Of London – The Secret Ingredient

Last week we were very happy to be invited to attend The Taste Of London festival for the second time. We were returning as guests of Electrolux and what was almost more exciting than the festival was the fact we got to take a close up peek at their brand new Combi Steam Sous Vide oven.

As you may already know from the blog I use a Sous Vide water bath at home and I’m a huge fan of this method of cooking so an actual oven which does everything that a normal oven does, also has the option to cook sous vide AND has smart phone capabilities well wow.

Anyway back to the festival.

From just one show in London eleven years ago, Taste has rapidly grown to become an essential part of the social season for foodies, restaurant-lovers and chef-groupies. Today there are 22 Taste festivals in cities throughout the UK, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia. Wherever it is in the world, Taste represents foodie heaven: stunning food prepared by the city’s greatest restaurants, world famous chefs, superb drink and outstanding entertainment, set in stunning outdoor surroundings.

I’ve only attended the London events so far but I think at some point I will have to take in some of the other shows too. Taste of Milan anyone?

It’s a real feast for the senses and a little more exciting, a little more grown up than some other festivals. There’s an air of gourmet glamour as people tend to make a day/evening of it. The food is the best in the area with the very top restaurants competing against each other for the best dish.

We ate too much, sampled some delightful drinks including this gorgeous Pimms cocktail from the Singha beer bar:

Pizza from Rossopomodoro:

We also had some delicious salted caramel ice cream from Purbeck ( who we always try to visit at these festivals) you can see the cone in our giant deck chair pic lower in the post but I didn’t get a close up.. Naughty food blogger.

And then I had some real foodie treats from past Masterchef winner Tim Anderson at the Electrolux Secret Ingredient stand:

Tim demonstrated how to use the fancy new Sous Vide oven from explaining how to use the vacuum sealer drawer ..(which I’m a little in love with) to the way he uses the sous vide to get maximum flavour and texture.

Here’s a little info about the oven:

The Electrolux CombiSteam SousVide oven is incredibly multifunctional. As well as three low-temperature sous-vide settings it can also steam, roast, bake and grill. Combining these cooking methods gives home chefs an unsurpassed cooking repertoire.With the Electrolux CombiSteam SousVide oven, ingredients are first combined and then sealed in the VacSealer drawer. Vacuum sealing is an extremely versatile process that far exceeds just a cooking method. It allows food to be pre-cooked then refrigerated or frozen, so it can simply be finished off when necessary. This provides greater cooking flexibility as elements that are more time-sensitive can be prepared in advance and simply finished off closer to serving. During the next stage, food is steam-cooked at temperatures ranging from 54 to 80°C depending the food and desired result. These lower cooking temperatures lock in vitamins and nutrients and longer cooking times ensure herbs and spices infuse directly into the dish, delivering deliciously moist melt in the mouth food whilst retaining textures.

Advanced technology, inside and out:
The cooking technology found within this oven overflows into its design. The CombiSteam SousVide oven features a TFT interactive colour screen which holds an archive of 90 cooking recipes as well as providing users with a smooth and precise interaction with their oven. This ‘smart phone’ style touch screen guides users intuitively through the ovens settings so the correct functions can be selected with ease. The Electrolux VacSealer drawer is so precise; it removes 99.99% of all air, whilst the CombiSteam SousVide oven’s temperature can be controlled within a tenth of a degree for consistent results, every time.

And some pics to make you drool…if you are kitchen nerd like me:

If you are on the hunt for a new oven which can do pretty amazing things then look no further. Did I mention my oven has recently started to sputter and moan..the hints have already started dropping at my house.

And back to the festival again..

With what feels like a hundred places to eat..just as many to drink and lounge:

*baby not included.

Demos from the very best chefs..

And of course food products and gadgets galore.

The next Taste event ( in the UK anyway) is Taste Of Winter which is held in London’s Tobacco Dock in November. For more info click