One of the reasons I tell people when they ask me what brings me to London is the food. Although I have some doubt about the freshness of certain types of fruit and vegetables, I’m still impressed by the variety and availability of so many different foods and produce. As a result, I thought it would be good to go along to the Festive Good Food and Wine Show held at Earl’s Court Exhibition Centre today. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, with a visit to something similar to this back home keeping me occupied for about an hour before I got bored. After going along today, it was definitely the sheer number of produce retailers and distributors, the numerous celebrity cooks and the huge sprawl of stands that kept me entertained for most of the day.
Some of the celebrity chefs that I got to see included Curtis Stone (from Surfing the Menu, Saturday Kitchen, and Dinner in a Box), Jo Pratt (from Great Food Live and Elle Magazine), and my favourite of the day, the world renowned Rick Stein (from too many shows to list). It was almost quite surreal having watched someone like Rick Stein overseas for such along time, and then being able to see him be just as passionate about his food live as he is on his shows.
Although each ticket is worth a fairly hefty £14 you easily make up for this with the excellent demonstrations and all the samplings around the place, everything from dips, oils, breads, sausages, cheese, chilli ice-cream, and chocolate products. In addition to all the food, there is also much in the way of drinks including cordials, liqueurs, whiskeys, flavoured vodkas, London produced Gin and the variety of wines from all over the world with sampling. With many of the hosts encouraging people to sample all these wares at eleven in the morning, it’s no wonder there’s a number of people staggering around by the end of the exhibition. A great way to taste some fabulous nosh, sample some interesting drinks and just kick back for the day. Oh yeah, and if you’re wondering, yes that is a fountain of chocolate for fondue.