Yes Chef! had a jolly old time at this year's inaugural London
Restaurant Festival, which got some of the capital's best chefs
on-board for a week of food-related debauchery.
Organised by dream team
Fay Maschler and Simon Davis, the festival, which was designed
to celebrate London's sheer wealth of top-notch restaurants, got
off to a glamorously flying start with the Vanity Fair launch party
at Quaglino's, but the main draw for the gastro it-crowd was the
coup that was, and still is Pierre Koffmann at Selfridges.
News of Koffmann's hotly -anticipated return to the stove at a
pop-up restaurant on the roof of Selfridges was enough to have
anyone with a culinary bent breaking out in excitable meat sweats,
let alone the announcement that the Gascon chef, who once held
three-Michelin stars at London's revered La Tante Claire, had
enlisted the help of
his former protégés.
YC was lucky enough to eat at the restaurant (which is running for
a month due to the huge uptake) twice during the festival,
savouring our chance to sample the revisited pig's trotter - an
unctuously delightful affair - and the cloud-like pistachio
soufflé as well as rose veal and a rather superb red-wine
poached pear pudding from Tom Aikens.
Food-royalty swarmed up on the fifth floor (we spotted Tom
Parker Bowles, Angela Hartnett, Xanthe Clay, Lulu Grimes and Amber
Nuttall on our visits) sipping Mumm rose and aperitifs, while
backstage Koffmann's assembly of
now-Michelin-starred-in-their-own-right chefs cooked up a storm of
Koffmann classics and their own specials.
The Capital's recently departed Eric Chavot was running the show
the busy lunchtime we visited, and we managed to grab a quick
glimpse of the chef working the pass along with Tom Aikens, both of them
deeply ensconced in their Koffmann kitchen moment, just as they'd
been years earlier.
Other highlights included the
Big Roast, which saw chefs like Mark Hix and Fergus
Henderson pitching in to create an array of roast dinners for
hoards of hungry eaters at Leadenhall Market. At the Eat Film event
festival-goers were treated to a screening of a food-related film
(we went for the ever-so-saccharin but nevertheless likeable Julie
and Julia) followed by a meal with food from the film.
One of the London Eye's capsules was
transformed into a ferris wheel restaurant with chefs such as
Gordon Ramsay, L'Amina's Francesco Mazzei and Richard Corrigan all
cooking up a storm for a select number of private diners. Sadly
press weren't able to sit in on the meals - though we did get to
speak to the chefs before and after the dinner rotations.
The whole thing finished on a high with the pop of corks
bursting from magnums of Mumm as the winners of the festival awards
were presented with prizes by the likes of Giles Coren and Maschler
at the Tea building in oh-so-trendy east London. Refreshing
categories like Bravery, Discovery and Warmth and Welcome saw
Wapping Food, Wahaca and
Angelus pick up awards, while Quo Vadis, L'Anima and Helen Darroze at
The Connaught were recognised for their festival menus.
The final moments of the festival were played out next door in
the ultra-slick, brand new premises of Pizza East, the brainchild of
Soho House group founder
Nick Jones, where plates of delectable Italian fare came thick
and fast, giving the cream of the culinary crop a sneak preview of
one of the most exciting openings London will see this year. Phew.
What a week. It will be very interesting to see how the organisers
plan on topping this one next year...