Second London Restaurant Festival to run for fortnight in October

The second London Restaurant Festival will run in the capital for two weeks in October, Caterersearch can reveal.

The event was launched last year by the London Evening Standard’s food critic Fay Maschler and Simon Davis, who together run restaurant consultancy A Private View. It is a citywide celebration of dining out designed to raise the profile of restaurants involved and drive footfall.

Supported by Mayor of London Boris Johnson and tourism body Visit London, the 2010 London Restaurant Festival will run for two weeks from 4-18 October compared with six days last year. Restaurant operators in the capital can register to take part in the event by entering their details on its website.

Last year, the London Restaurant Festival attracted more than 500 operators and saw a myriad of events take place including the high-profile pop-up restaurant of iconic chef Pierre Koffmann on the roof of department store Selfridges, which ran for more than seven weeks.

Other events included the biggest ever Sunday roast cooked by chefs including Fergus Henderson, John Torode and Mark Hix at Leadenhall Market as well as the London Eye Restaurant Capsules, which saw celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay and six other top London chefs transform one of the capsules of the London Eye into a kitchen.

Maschler, chair of the London Restaurant Festival, told Caterersearch: “The London Restaurant Festival was initiated last year as recognition and magnification of London’s immense diversity and liveliness when it comes to eating out.

“The greater number of establishments that sign up to publicise their talent, cuisine and menu, the more potential customers can be alerted to somewhere new to try or reminded of somewhere worth revisiting.”  

The 2010 London Restaurant Festival will launch with an industry gathering at the Club at the Ivy on 13 April.

London Restaurant Festival Award winners revealed >>

Selfridges extends Pierre Koffmann’s pop-up restaurant yet again >>

Bidder pays £23,000 to dine with Gordon Ramsay on London Eye >>


By Kerstin Kühn

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