Tastes of London + small discussion on certain chef.

A group of us went to Taste of London on the weekend at Regent's Park, which is a huge fine food fair, where about "40 of London's most prestigious restaurants" have little uber chic stalls, and this is the only time of the year I can ever possibly afford to eat at some of these places because they're disgustingly expensive, and let's face it, I'm not made of money.

Despite there being some really cool restaurants, my favorite things were the stalls where companies try to sell their wares by first enticing you with offers of free tasters. The best fool proof way to make them give you more and more free food is to pretend to be interested in their produce. Yes, I am interested in this goats cheese, please tell me more about it, oh and whilst you're at it, could you cut off a little bit of each of those 40 cheeses behind you, so I can fill my belly? Thankyou.

I love free food. I'm not proud.

Anyway, some highlights:
Debbie & Andrew's Sausages
They had a nice corner stall, where the man kept telling us how organic and well made they were. The fact he kept cutting up and giving us freshly cooked sausages was the main reason we went to the stall though. And they were so good. I don't even like sausages, and I think I ended up eating about 3 of them right there and then. Plus the guy didn't seem to mind too much that I was just standing there eating away. Definite favorite is the Sicilian ones, which are slightly spicey and oh so tasty. We ended up buying about 9 packs between us (which is about 54 sausages!).


Gu Puddings
I started the day out thinking "I'm not going to wait until they offer free tasters, I'll just go up and ask". Which is exactly what I did at Gu. The first bit of free food of the day was Gu's Chocolate Cheese Cake, which was really yum. PLUS, I particularly like is the fact that you get really nice ramekins to keep with each pud, which you could give away as a lovely gift (after scoffing all the chocolate first, obviously)



Sloe Motion
Some seriously delicious Sloe Gin and Whiskey. They didn't offer us too many free tasters (they were right next to the sausage stall, so I think they worked out our game.. chat, yabber, eat/drink as much as you can before herded away by security). This gin was so good though. Quite sweet and very very gluggable.


Ferrarelle Spa
Water from Italy. I actually didn't try any of their samples because the guy looked me up and down and clearly I wasn't good looking enough for free water. But they did give away these cool red cloth bags, which after the guy rudely refused to talk or even look at me, I went and took a big ol' handful of them.

Angela Hartnet
I love Angela Hartnett. Not only is she a woman AND a michelin star chef, she cooks food I really like, she doesn't take stick from anyone, and she looks like she eats her food. I actually saw her at her stall, looking like she'd just come out of the kitchen in the back, where she had been (shock!) actually working! I think I might have freaked her out a bit cause I just stood there staring at her, non blinking for 5 minutes, not believing my luck. Oops.


Short summary of other highlights:

• Not seeing Jean Christoff Novelli. He's a sleezy sleezy sleezy arse who last year was just schmoozed around all the annorexic sloaney types, trying to get them to kiss and hug him. Last year when we saw him, we stood right next to him, deliberatly ignoring him, and said really loudly "Jean Christoff who? Who's that? Oh, is he that short fat italian chef? Oh not, that's Antonio Carluccio isn't it". He didn't like that too much, and sculked off. Such a twat.

• Not seeing Venessa Fetlz in a see through lace dress, and a bright red g-string clearly visible riding up her arse.

• NOT seeing that goat kissing, arsy, rude, self-promoting, glory seeking, smug, loafing, Tottenham loving, twat of a chef Anthony Warral Thompson. If you haven't noticed, I CAN NOT STAND that self-important excuse of a human being. I hate how patronising he is, I hate that he loafs about doing tv promotions, whilst his wife who is also a chef, works in a proper restaurant. I HATE how smug he was during Hells Kitchen, when he just ripped apart the AMATUERS food, saying that it wasn't any good, then after filling his boots with the free champagne, went to the kitchen and said "I see you don't have puddings on the menu. Why don't i come back there and show you're students how it's done?" I also hate how completely patronising he is on Saturday Kitchen where he loves everything that everyone loves, and hates everything that everyone hates. Grow some balls and have an opinion. I also hate how he feels the need to show how "cool and hip" and "down with the kids" he is by wearing those plastic charity bangles. And he doesn't just wear one or two. Oh no, not Antony. He wears about 10 of them, every colour of the rainbow, and they are clearly cutting off circulation in his fat wrists. STOP WEARING THOSE STUPID BANGLES. If you want to give to charity, then GIVE THE MONEY DIRECTLY. A greater percentage will go to the charity if they don't have to offset the money making PLASTIC BANGLES. PLUS there is NO NEED to show everyone "oh look at me, I gave some money away. I'm so earth loving and people tolerant" because when it comes from YOU Antony, you are just one MASSIVE fake.

Wow. That's turned into a real rant huh.

Anyway, in summary: Taste of London - good. Antony Warrol Thompson. Twat.