We said it last year and we'll say it again this year: we like the Taste of London food festival that is currently taking place. The reason is very simple, not only are the genuinely biggest names of the restaurant industry present (just see the pic below), but they are also available to everyone there: the pictures below required no special access, they were taken just walking around. 

Michel Roux Jnr, who we think is always so nice at all these events, endures selfie after selfie with guests with a genuine smile and he is very clearly a genuine star. And we can only repeat what we said in our post on Taste last year (it was a very good post after all) - try getting a selfie with Lewis Hamilton at the British Grand Prix in 2 weeks time; good luck. And that's the difference with Taste, the stars are readily accessible and that's rare. To have so many in one place is rarer still. It varies day to day and hour to hour for sure, but there's enough going on in any one session that you're unlikely to feel disappointed in our view. Of course, as you wander round, you'll get better value if you can recognise the chefs because often they're wandering around too, just like you; don't forget, they've all got beards now so you'll have to factor that in also.

We have a big thank you to say to Electrolux who are a major sponsor of the event and of whom we were guests today, but would we be prepared to pay to go? The answer is undoubtedly yes. We are lucky, we do get invited to lots of events though we seldom go to any; when we say yes, it means for sure we're genuinely interested. Rene Redzepi has the world's No1 restaurant (according to SP50), while Massimo Bottura the world's No3. We bumped into both just wandering around. They like many other big name chefs are also giving talks and demos on the Electrolux stage, so if you want more of a set piece that's available for you at no extra cost.

And on that subject of cost, it's a shade under £30 to get in, how should that be received? I just Googled ticket prices for Chelsea FC for the forthcoming season. Adult general sale seats for top grade matches range from £50 for the worst seats to £87 for the best. You wont get to meet the players and selfies with the players are clearly not available. How about tickets for Wimbledon? Oh yeah, right.

We have no vested interest here, this is simply how we see it. Taste has succeeded in attracting some of this country's, and the world's, top cooking talent. There's simply no other event in the UK where this range of the industry's excellence is not only available but accessible too. So if you like this kind of thing go and enjoy. Keep you're eyes open, be bold, approach them and say hello, even ask for a selfie if that's your thing, and remember, they all have beards now.  

Related articles:

Our 2013 post on Taste of London

Who wouldn't love to buy a case of Lafite Rothschild, and if your broker told you that he had an offer at which the wine could be purchased at a steep discount to comparable vintages of Lafite, you might even get excited. This is exactly what appeared in my inbox just last week with a screengrab of the offer below.

But while the cost of a case of the 2011 is less than the cost of any of the other wines, it is actually the most expensive wine on the list. Why? Because time is money.

The 1999 vintage at £6,400 is 12 years older than the 2011 offered and the age of Bordeaux wine does matter: a young wine is not fungible for an old wine. Accordingly, if you were to buy the 2011 vintage now and leave it for another 12 years after which the price had risen to £6,400 as noted above, it would have appreciated at only 2.8% per annum. This is less than the current rate of Retail Price Inflation (RPI) which is 3.1%. In other words, the only difference between the pricing of the 2011 vintage and that of the 1999 vintage is the extra 12 years of inflation. 

Alternatively, if you took the £4,600 that you were currently going to purchase the Lafite with and put in the stock market where long term returns (1871-2001) are 8.8%, in 12 years time you might reasonably have £12,656 after which you could buy a case at the prescribed £6,400 and pocket the difference of £6,256. Assuming you can get the stock market returns indicated, it holds true for all the wines featured: against the 2001 vintage you would have £4,742 surplus, versus 2004 £2,507 and even the 2007, £571.

When the time value of money is taken into account, the 2011 not only fails to be at a steep discount to comparable vintages, it is actually the most expensive. What's more, at 90-93 Parker points, it also has the lowest score since the others are all 94-95 but let's not worry about that.

Moral of the story, don't believe everything your wine broker tells you. Here, they either willfully ignore the maths, are too lazy to do the maths or simply don't know the maths exits in the first place.

Wizened with age and plumped of experience, we thought that little in the way of the 'customer experience' could these days leave us speechless but customer service at NatWest managed to do so. For the story alone, I'm too indebted to complain, and a complaint would end up in the waste bin of some middle manager no doubt following a standard letter to us stating 'we hope this doesn't stop you considering NatWest for your future banking needs' (it does), so instead, we have opted for an open letter on our blog.

The scenario is this: we wanted to open a bank account for a project we are currently undertaking. The conversation that I had in full with the information desk of the NatWest branch at Canary Wharf goes like this.

Me: Hello, I would like to talk to someone about opening a bank account please
NatWest Information desk lady: The person you need to speak to is not here currently, you'll need to make an appointment
Me: Is there no one else I can speak to?
Her: No.
Me: I came into Canary Wharf especially today to open an account
Her: You'll have to come back another time,  I can make you an appointment
Me: That's okay, I'll go next door to Barclays and open an account with them
Her: Uh, okay then.
Me: Okay, bye.
Her: Bye.

I walk out, visit Barclays and open an account with them.

This utter failure of service hardly needs to be enlarged upon but imagine if you were buying a car and walked in to a Vauxhall showroom and said to the showroom staff, "I want to buy a car" and the Vauxhall staff said, "there's no one here who can talk about cars right now, can you make an appointment and come back?" 
"That's okay, I'll go to Honda and buy a car from them instead". 
"Okay, Bye".

Do senior managers in their offices with their Powerpoint slides know what is going on in the branch? I doubt it. It's not rocket science, and aren't bank accounts what banks do? I shall leave the last words however to NatWest, well, RBS, NatWest's owners, who say in their 2012 Annual Report ('Essential Reading' section, p6)

Examples of the steps we took in 2012 to put customers first included:
- strengthening our customer culture through customer charters and commitments across our business
- introducing a training and accreditation programme for all of our front line SME bankers to ensure to ensure they are better equipped to serve our customers, and
- making sure we regularly and actively monitor customer satisfaction levels, customer complaints and customer feedback across our divisions.

... we will not waver in our commitment to embed serving customers well into our DNA.

Well, in line with point three above, consider this feedback. Anyway, must rush, I have to go see my Barclays Business Manager about making a large cash deposit.

Today we went to Taste of London. Despite previous invites, this was our first visit to said event and we were driven by curiosity as much as anything else. Given some of the Twitter critique, we wondered if the very devil himself might be making an appearance. We hoped, for the devil makes excellent copy, but no.

Let's do thanks and disclosure first however: we were guests of Electrolux, who are major participants in the event and we were invited for lunch at the Electrolux chef's table where Atul Kochhar of Benares was cooking. We very much enjoyed chatting to Atul who is a fun and charming fella, serving up first class food. The meal is shown below for those who like food pics and our thanks to Electrolux and Atul for accommodating us.

But this is where the fun starts. Today (Friday) was a regular day at Taste of London and having finished our lunch, we went for a wander. The pictures of some of those who we met are shown below. Actually, we want to reiterate the point: this was not the press day when chefs might briefly turn out to perform for the journos before shortly disappearing again, this is a regular day and every chef pictured below we met in the public area of the event.

Around Le Gavroche stand, Michel Roux Jnr was signing books and with the ubiquitous iPhone, every book signing came with a picture request from the book owner. Michel was more than happy to oblige and did so with a genuine smile on his face and an arm around the punter which undoubtedly made the day of those who now have a digital a well as an old fashioned autographed memory of the event. Elsewhere, we saw Raymond Blanc taking a moment away from book signing duties to have his picture taken with a school party (how many of those will become future chefs now?) while on stage, Pierre Koffmann and Tom Kitchin reminisced about their mentor-protege years at La Tainte Claire. So why the bad press?

The issue here surely is that bloggers are a spoiled bunch, ourselves included. We get invites to the best restaurants (for free) and regular and private access to chefs who are keen to impress to ensure a good write up. Michelin stars on speed dial. Bloggers live in a privileged food bubble and can afford to 'not be seen dead' at events like this. Lucky us.

Go to Cannes for the film festival and will you meet George Clooney or Brad Pitt? Of course you wont, it's all private events and invitation only (with bouncers who forcibly say no). The British Grand Prix next week: Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button, chit-chat? Never. But at Taste, and as we have said, all the chefs below we met in the public area, you can see Raymond Blanc flipping a burger (really), meet Michelin starred Alyn Williams on his stand and chat to Dan Doherty of Duck & Waffle about ducks and waffles (if you want). You can be anyone and talk to them, perhaps get your picture with them, and if you're one of the three million people who watch Saturday Kitchen each week, see those chefs of the screen come to life. No blog required.

Expensive and profiteering say some. Yeah, and BP charge too much for petrol and Barclays too much for loans. It's a profit making business, you just have to get over that (if you can't, don't go).

Are we just saying all this because we got a freebie? You can decide of course, but we were guests of Electrolux, not Taste, so there's no 'thanks for the freebie' requirement to say that we think Taste is a decent event, we do so because that's how we found it. If you just want the best food for your money, of course you'll visit the restaurant, not the event, but hey, see how far 28 quid gets you at Theo Randall at the Intercontinental.

But this is our view: we visited Taste on an 'open to the public' day, and on that day, we saw half a dozen food legends and many more than a dozen Michelin stars. We saw great chefs of today and legends of tomorrow. We didn't see them with exclusive access, they were simply there, happy to meet customers and anyone with a camera could have taken the pictures we snapped below. If you have the time, money and energy, for sure run a food blog and you'll have no need to ever visit Taste, though if you have a busy life but an interest in food and don't think that the term 'celebrity chef' is a swear word, it's a pretty good way to spend a couple of hours. Put another way, ignore Twitter, and if you think you want to go, go.
   

We are huge fans of the South West region and with the 'Eat, Drink Bristol Fashion' coming up later this month, it's great to see local food festivals bringing food communities together at a local level. Headlining the event is Josh Eggleton of The Pony & Trap (see CC review here), and Jonray and Peter Sanchez-Iglesias of Casamia (CC reveiw here) so the biggest names in the region are cooking there.

Fancy a great night out while making a difference to thousands of famine stricken children around the world? Of course you do, but where can you find such a thing? Well, the answer is a big party taking place at Shoreditch House, the one with a swimming pool on the roof. The date for this event is Tuesday 7th May 2013.

The event is a big party to support Action Against Hunger,  but more than just a party, more than just a champagne reception, more than complimentary beer and wine all evening, more than food from Dirty Burger and Chicken Shop, there will also be an auction with some amazing prizes, stuff that you simply can't buy. Fancy a day deer stalking with Brett Graham? Simply bid, and it could be yours. What else? How about this:

·         The chance to dine with critic Jay Rayner while he reviews a restaurant

·         A decadent supper for you and eight guests cooked by Michelin-starred Angela Hartnett in your home

·         Salmon fishing in Ireland with eminent chef and restaurateur Mark Hix

·         A day and night at the Waterside Inn, Bray, including time in the kitchen with the legendary Alain Roux and dinner at the three Michelin star restaurant

·         An exclusive behind the scenes experience at Michelin-starred Alyn Williams at The Westbury, with a table for four set up in the kitchen during the buzz and drama of service and a bespoke seven-course tasting menu.

And I'm pretty sure there's going to be quite a few more items, and all legendary stuff. Cunningly titled Auction Against Hunger, you can follow them on twitter @auctionhunger

If you want to but a ticket (and read everything I've just copied from their website again), visit the Auction Against Hunger page where you can buy directly. Ticket price is £75, which has to be worth it for a fabulous one off night and all the good that will arise from your donation. And who knows what you might take away from the auction.

When I have a week's holiday, I like nothing more than jumping in the car and driving round the country, visiting places I've never been before and trying new restaurants, hoping to find a gem. Last week, I had that opportunity again, and here is my route, 620 miles, leave on Sunday, back Friday afternoon, six great restaurants. You don't need to travel abroad to explore great food and original cooking, it's all right here on our doorstep.

'There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about' quipped Oscar Wilde in The Picture of Dorian Gray. Some chefs, it would seem, are increasingly upset on account of being talked about if that involves Twitter, Facebook and pictures of their food. But this article is most definitely NOT going to hash through all those 'camera in restaurant' arguments, rather, in a light hearted way, we will look at some unexplored facts around the public's fascination with food and see if it explains why the internet's plumbing is so heavily clogged with food picture debris.

Restaurants really are more popular than the internet

Given how much interesting stuff there is on the internet, surfing government websites is probably not high on most people's list of things to do on their day off, but amongst the bureaucratic rough, there is the odd diamond, and I would include for this the Office for National Statistics which has data on just about everything you could imagine. In particular, the biennial report Lifestyles and Social Participation focusses on social trends, and one has to go no further than page three of the most recent issue before the question of what people do in their free time is addressed. Since I am sure you can't wait to know the answer, we have summarised the data in a convenient chart below.

We can see from the above that the most popular free time activity of people in the UK is watching television, which is undertaken by 89% of the population (aged 16 and over). Spending time with friends and family comes second with 84%, though I find even the inclusion of this answer strange, effectively being a reciprocal question to 'are you a hermit?' (or I guess, do you have no friends?). Listening to music rates 76% and shopping 71%... and then it's eating out at restaurants, which 69% of all people over the age of 16 said they like to do.

This is big news, eating out at restaurants is the fifth most popular thing people do in their free time!

It is more popular than reading (67%), days out (63%), gardening (49%), and going to the pub (48%). And while we all use the internet, the number of people who said they choose to spend their free time on it is 59%. According to most recent data then, restaurants are 17% more popular than the internet as a way to spend free time.

For restaurants, this is clearly good news, but the news gets better yet. If we compare the 2009/10 survey (published in 2011) with the 2007/08 survey, we can see how these trends are developing in time. If we look at the absolute percentage point increase in people choosing to eat out at restaurants as a leisure activity, the two year on two year change is six percentage points making it the activity (tied with cinema) that has shown the largest absolute growth amongst all traditional activities. So not only are restaurants hugely popular, they are becoming even more popular still.

We should point out that the internet was not included in the 2008/09 survey (odd because it was included in 2006/07 survey at around 42%), so its growth rate cannot be exactly determined but it would probably be fair to assume it is higher, possibly eight percentage points if the improvement is linear during that four year period. If the trend continues in this fashion in the latest survey (to be published later this year), eating out would still then rate as a more popular pastime than the internet.

Change in selected activity (likes) performed in free time, 2007 - 2010 

The six point improvement in cinema also comes off a lower base (cinema slumped as low as 40% in 2006), so percentage wise, its growth rate for the same period to 2010 is higher (14.5%). But it takes nothing away from eating out: if relative rather than absolute growth rates are considered, restaurants, with 9.5% growth come second in terms of the improvement in popularity across all major traditional pastimes.

Simply put, eating out is popular, and becoming more popular at a rate faster than almost any other pastime. 

So that photo thing....?

Polaroid (remember them) recently put out a press release (click here) that estimated that 1.5 billion pictures are now taken every day due to the popularity of smartphone cameras. Whether this is a sustainable trend or not, who cares, but right now, people love taking pictures with their iPhone or Galaxy and are of course going to take pictures of what they do. And what are their favourite things to do? Well, we've already considered this:

1) television
2) time with friends
3) listening to music
4) shopping
5) eating out at restaurants

You will quickly see that the most popular pastime, TV, does not lend itself it taking pictures with a smartphone. Nor does listening to music, and shopping. So of the five things that people most like to do in their free time, only two activities can you genuinely capture with a smartphone camera, your friends and your food. Should anyone be surprised therefore that cameras are now used so extensively in restaurants?

Conclusion

While some people (or more usually trolls) enjoy taunting those who like eating in restaurants, these statistics prove that naysayers, who so often claim to speak for the majority, are in fact simply a vocal minority, and if you like restaurants, you can include yourself amongst the 40 million people in this country who share that hobby with you. 

Half of all people in this country are estimated to use a smartphone while 64% of internet users are believed to be on Facebook. Such people are part of a budding photography pool who globally take 547,500,000,000 pictures every year with their phone (which works out at 17,000 smartphone pictures every second).

For those of you who half remember with terror Venn diagrams from your school days, why people are using cameras in restaurants becomes too facile a question to ask, but if it does need pointing out, it is this: what do you get if you cross the country's fifth most popular pastime with a public who take 17,000 photos every second? Pictures of food of course, lots of them, thousands, millions. But in reality, you get pictures of everything, a taxonomy of people's every waking moment, weighted by their favourite activities.

It is far too clumsy a sentence, so apologies to Wilde, but our message to chefs would be this: the only thing worse than customers wanting to take pictures of food in your restaurant, is customers not wanting to take pictures of your food. Well, either that, or having no customers at all.