All of foodie London appeared to be at the Ivy this evening to celebrate the official launch of the London Restaurant Festival 2010.
Hot Dinners spied chefs Thomasina Miers, Rowley Leigh, Jun Tanaka as well as Pierre Koffman whose rooftop restaurant at Selfridges was last year’s festival hot ticket. There were also plenty of critics and food writers in attendance, including Matthew Fort, The Guardian’s Jay Rayner, Waitrose Kitchen editor William Sitwell and Tom Parker Bowles.
Conspicuous by his absence from last year's London Restaurant Festival, Marcus Wareing was there, determined to get involved. 'Last year was my first year on my own away from Gordon, so for me it was about bedding myself into my own business,' he told Hot Dinners. 'It's not that easy to step out - having been in a company like Gordon Ramsay holdings for such a long time - and to think that you're just going to be a success straight away. It's just a lot of work. So the second year of the festival, I'm delighted to be invited.'
Organisers Fay Maschler and Simon Davis were in ebullient mood – perhaps because they’d secured the headline sponsorship of American Express. The card company’s Kathryn Pretzel Shiels told the crowd they were delighted to be teaming up with the festival for the second year in a row – not least because their cardholders like to eat out ‘a lot –really you have no idea!’
'The festival will be "bigger, better, taller and wider,' declared Fay. 'We're going to put the festival menus into the backbone of the festival - we're aiming to get al least 800 restaurants this year...also it's a really nice hoolie celebrating what we're so good at in London - which is restaurants of every kind and chefs of every kind.'
The 2010 London Restaurant Festival will focus largely on the festival menus, declared Davis. With a target of 800 restaurants to sign up, and already 350 in the bag and several of last year’s headline events returning , things are looking good.
Things to look out for are:
- Much more festival menus - including a deal for "under £10"
- The London Eye pod dining, extended over 10 days of the festival.
- The sell-out Gourmet Odyssey where diners ate each course of a three course meal in a different restaurant at last year's London Restaurant Festivalv will return this year and include walking tours of Shoreditch and Soho
- A Big Food Quiz (following last year's Starter for 10)
- ‘Contentious’ debates held at King’s Place in King’s Cross.
- A restaurant suppliers market held at Covent Garden where restaurants will set up stalls with their favourite suppliers, allowing shoppers to take a bit of their favourite restaurant home to their own kitchen.
- And the biggest event... the Am Ex-sponsored 10.10.10 – held obviously enough on the 10th October. This will feature 10 high profile out-of-town chefs coming to London to work alongside their city peers for a very special Sunday lunch.
Although Mayor Boris Johnson couldn’t make this evening’s event, he sent an ambassador in the form of Rosie Boycott who declared the LRF to be ‘a great festival, encouraging Londoners to dine out and support their local restaurants.’
The two-week festival, which this year runs from 4-18 October 2010 will culminate in a glitzy London Restaurant Festival Awards, held in an East End venue. It won’t be a ‘rubber chicken’ kind of event promised Simon Davis, ‘but a brilliant night out with pop-up restaurants where the 800+ guests can try all sorts of dishes.’ Tickets for all events will go on sale at the end of June.
For an idea of what to expect from the London Restaurant Festival 2010 - check out our coverage of London Restaurant Festival 2009.
