Masterchef Live! London 2011
We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to this year’s event! There seemed a much better layout, with the restaurant experience situated at the rear of the main hall. This allowed for a more relaxed dining experience.
We visited on the Sunday and managed to sample quite a selection of mains and puddings in a happy grazing fashion while listening to the live jazz.
The outstanding dishes to us were
Smiths of Smithfield slow roast belly of pork, green sauce and mash. The combination of fresh herb sauce, soft mash and tender meat was a winner and we hope to try out the recipe which was available as a leaflet.
From the Maze we sampled the jasmine and miso cured salmon, avocado, watermelon, radish and ponzu dressing. This was the most outstanding dish we tried. The salmon had a lovely texture, not quite sushi, delicate and different.
We also enjoyed their marinated beetroot, Doorstone organic goat’s curd, pine nuts, with Cabernet Sauvignion dressing. This combination was a delicious and refined vegetarian option.
From Gauthier Soho we tried black truffle risotto which was also outstanding, the creamy texture really showed off the dense mushroom-flavour of the black truffle oil.
From Blue Elephant the free range chicken curry with organic red and jasmine rice was tasty, especially accompanied by warm foie gras with tamarind sauce and Thai basil mash – the texture of the foie gras was really complemented by this combination.
Onto the puddings! The Wallace and Co chocolate mousse was really yummy, beautiful texture with a clean satisfying chocolate taste. Their sticky toffee pudding was lovely too. Phil Vickery’s chocolate brownie with kirsch cherries and whipped vanilla cream was also a winner with the chocoholics amongst us!
The other chocolate pudding we tried was Smiths of Smithfield’s chocolate pot, marshmallow cream and honeycomb. The marshmallow and honeycomb were tasty but the chocolate section proved immensely rich, too rich and sweet even for our young daughter to polish off! But then we had already sampled lots of tasty food beforehand…
The producers’ stands were all as helpful and generous as ever. We had tastings of lots of stuff!
The Rachel’s organic live yoghurts were great, flavours such as gooseberry rhubarb and blueberry as well as Greek honey and yoghurt were available at a special price four pots for £5 (came with free cool bag which was very thoughtful, as it was so much easier to carry home our purchases in good condition). Good to see a Welsh firm doing so well! The Snowdonian cheese company also seemed to be doing well, and offered an array of delicious cheese to taste including cranberry and garlic varieties.
We also made an order with James White, a Suffolk company, for free delivery of 12 bottles of their very delicious organic fruit and vegetable juices – their beetroot and apple juice is a star! These were delivered promptly a couple of days later.
We also sampled Christmassy tipples like toffoc (toffee vodka) and Sebor absinth (wow the real wormwood McCoy. Very grown up.)
The wine show, now based on the first floor, was a little more confusing. Some stands needed the purchase of an extra ticket for access, and the wonderful wines of Chile seemed absent, but we enjoyed meeting the producers of some excellent calvados, and sampled some fine M&S wines.
We watched some of the live invention tests and demonstrations taking place, caught glimpses of celebrities milling about or giving book signings. But mainly we spent the day sampling all the good food on offer, and it was heartening to find such a variety of good stuff from chillies and spices to cheeses and potted crab… A brilliant foodie day. More please for 2012!
We visited on the Sunday and managed to sample quite a selection of mains and puddings in a happy grazing fashion while listening to the live jazz.
The outstanding dishes to us were
Smiths of Smithfield slow roast belly of pork, green sauce and mash. The combination of fresh herb sauce, soft mash and tender meat was a winner and we hope to try out the recipe which was available as a leaflet.
From the Maze we sampled the jasmine and miso cured salmon, avocado, watermelon, radish and ponzu dressing. This was the most outstanding dish we tried. The salmon had a lovely texture, not quite sushi, delicate and different.
We also enjoyed their marinated beetroot, Doorstone organic goat’s curd, pine nuts, with Cabernet Sauvignion dressing. This combination was a delicious and refined vegetarian option.
From Gauthier Soho we tried black truffle risotto which was also outstanding, the creamy texture really showed off the dense mushroom-flavour of the black truffle oil.
From Blue Elephant the free range chicken curry with organic red and jasmine rice was tasty, especially accompanied by warm foie gras with tamarind sauce and Thai basil mash – the texture of the foie gras was really complemented by this combination.
Onto the puddings! The Wallace and Co chocolate mousse was really yummy, beautiful texture with a clean satisfying chocolate taste. Their sticky toffee pudding was lovely too. Phil Vickery’s chocolate brownie with kirsch cherries and whipped vanilla cream was also a winner with the chocoholics amongst us!
The other chocolate pudding we tried was Smiths of Smithfield’s chocolate pot, marshmallow cream and honeycomb. The marshmallow and honeycomb were tasty but the chocolate section proved immensely rich, too rich and sweet even for our young daughter to polish off! But then we had already sampled lots of tasty food beforehand…
The producers’ stands were all as helpful and generous as ever. We had tastings of lots of stuff!
The Rachel’s organic live yoghurts were great, flavours such as gooseberry rhubarb and blueberry as well as Greek honey and yoghurt were available at a special price four pots for £5 (came with free cool bag which was very thoughtful, as it was so much easier to carry home our purchases in good condition). Good to see a Welsh firm doing so well! The Snowdonian cheese company also seemed to be doing well, and offered an array of delicious cheese to taste including cranberry and garlic varieties.
We also made an order with James White, a Suffolk company, for free delivery of 12 bottles of their very delicious organic fruit and vegetable juices – their beetroot and apple juice is a star! These were delivered promptly a couple of days later.
We also sampled Christmassy tipples like toffoc (toffee vodka) and Sebor absinth (wow the real wormwood McCoy. Very grown up.)
The wine show, now based on the first floor, was a little more confusing. Some stands needed the purchase of an extra ticket for access, and the wonderful wines of Chile seemed absent, but we enjoyed meeting the producers of some excellent calvados, and sampled some fine M&S wines.
We watched some of the live invention tests and demonstrations taking place, caught glimpses of celebrities milling about or giving book signings. But mainly we spent the day sampling all the good food on offer, and it was heartening to find such a variety of good stuff from chillies and spices to cheeses and potted crab… A brilliant foodie day. More please for 2012!
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