Taste of London

July 10, 2015 Events, Food, Restaurant 0 Comments

Apologies for the delay, festival season is in full swing and it feels like I’ve been spending more time away than at home at the moment!

A couple of weekends ago I enjoyed a feast for the senses at Taste of London. Over five days the event saw thousands of visitors, hundreds of exhibitors, and forty of London’s top restaurants flood through the gates to their Regent’s Park location.

Strolling around, I stumbled across the most imaginative and creative culinary dishes being prepared and offered to the general public, and was lucky enough to sample a fair few to keep me fuelled while on snapping duties. If you attend this event next year, even if you don’t plan on spending much money while you’re there – make sure you go on an empty stomach! Traders are alert and ready to tempt you with their samples; by the time you’ve gotten round the whole site you’ll have had enough food to constitute a fair few courses.

On my travels I caught sight of demonstrations by top chefs, champagne, gin, wine and whiskey tasting, live music and interactive masterclasses. From a food photography perspective, shooting wasn’t as easy as I’d imagined. I attended on a Friday evening; it was warm and sunny, people had just finished work for the weekend, and the place was packed.

Lens-wise I took the 24-105mm. It was good enough light for the f/4 aperture and I knew I wouldn’t be needing the extra focal length for the size of the event. Editing I decided to leave off playing with the levels since the colours were so vibrant, unlike some of my festival galleries where I like to create a washed out effect.

Although good spirits made for a most enjoyable evening full of friendly faces, the hustle and bustle made getting clear shots of food pretty tricky. Balmy temperatures also tends to melt anything in its path, so instead I focused on capturing the buzzing atmosphere and lively people action. A perfect recipe for event photography!

The lovely team from Lima Floral restaurant in Covent Garden. Virgilio Martinez and Head Chef Robert Ortiz offered visitor samples of some of Virgilio’s latest creations, I can’t wait to try this restaurant out! They use a combination of rare native vegetables, fruits and fish from the Amazon basin and the Andes altitudes, plus Peruvian tapas and Pisco infusions. Their mission is to help their customers discover new flavours, something they defintely achieved with me that evening!

Lima’s Sea Bream Ceviche; a fresh and tangy treat of sea bream, tigers milk, crispy onions and cancha corn. Heaven in a bowl 🙂

The team from Piebury Corner, doing what they say on the tin! With a shop near Holloway Rd and a stall near Arsenal, they’re well worth checking out if you’re a lover of all things pie:

Cone-full’s of colourful sushi delights from the team at Sushi Samba:

Thumbs up from the chefs at Heron Tower’s famous Duck and Waffle:

Tropical-infused goodness courtesy of the Honey Mahiki boys…

Vodka-based after shots from Candy Skull to “play with your senses”:

Fine food distributors Harvey & Brockless offering all kinds of cheese, olives, artisan meats plus Mediterranean deli products and the most delicious bespoke sauces and dips. Not to mention smiles and warm greetings 🙂

Green Oolong, herbal and red teas from Daokraji Lana Fine Teas. Promoting the the local Akha Hilltribes that work the plantation, Daokraji Lana endeavours to minimise the footprint and champion organic tea and fair non-exploitative conditions. Oh and they do an amazing Green Tea ice cream made with Moringa and real English Ice Cream…

Before and after infusion of Oolong tea leaves; from tight black scrunched up balls to leaves laden with the strength of a black tea plus aromatic flowery flavours of a green tea:

Possibly my favourite choclatiers… I would also look this happy if I made chocolate all day 🙂 Thanks to Green & Blacks for the sample of their Burnt Toffee chocolate, couldn’t’ resist buying a bar to take home!

Seeded, sourdough, rye and a huge assortment of pastry goodness on offer from the team at the Bread Shop: