"This will be a once in a lifetime experience...enjoy the ride!" This was breakfast, like you've never had it before...sitting around a table on a platform suspended a hundred feet from a crane above Canary Wharf. "Do not unbuckle your safety belt once you are off the ground" declared the safety instructions, rather unnecessarily, as we were fastened securely into our seats ready for takeoff.
In the middle, The Modern Pantry executive chef Anna Hansen and her head chef Rob were already busy handing round thick mango and turmeric smoothies and bowls of seeded granola with poached apricots and thyme - there was a lot of food to get through during the half hour 'flight'.
The platform lurched upwards, giving us a grand view of all the skyscrapers: we swivelled round briefly to admire the panorama, before deciding better of it. Trays of hot smoked salmon and cornbread were warming in the ovens, while eggs were poaching and Anna was briskly whisking up some yuzu hollandaise. All the food had to be prepped on the ground, but finished and plated up on the platform - no mean feat for 22 diners, all suspended high up in the sky. The egg and salmon dish, finished with hazelnut dukkah, was perfect: the chefs could have been in their own kitchen.
The whole contraption rotated slightly alarmingly to give us an alternative view: we would have taken more photographs but were terrified of letting our iPad go flying over the edge. By this stage it was almost time for our descent, but there was one more course to come - some irresistible miniature hazelnut tonka bean croissants, finished in the oven: as she passed them around, Anna looked highly relieved it had all gone so smoothly.
She'll be serving up breakfast twice a day during the ten day pop up: other chefs will be taking on two days each at lunch or dinner - a longer, multi course experience which must have been a huge challenge to plan. This is the first time Events in the Sky have sold tickets to the public - and they've certainly got an impressive roster of chefs on board, including Atul Kochhar, Pascal Aussignac and Alyn Williams (click here for more details). We confess to being a bit wobbly once back on terra firma - but it certainly lived up to its promise. A once in a lifetime experience, and a breakfast we'll never forget.
London in the Sky runs from September 12 to 21: tickets and full information from www.eventsinthesky.co.uk/events/london-in-the-sky/
