Oktoberfest at The Botanist Brewery and Kitchen - FREE TASTING SESSIONS

Each Thursday throughout October, The Botanist Brewery and Kitchen's master brewer Mark Wainwright will be hosting tasting sessions in their micro-brewery and talking about how he produces a unique range of craft beers and ales in-house.

Tastings will be on offer between 5.00pm and 8.00pm on October 6th  October 13th  October 20th and October 27th providing the opportunity to discover some original styles and twists on traditional seasonal, bespoke brews.

The sessions are free of charge however numbers are limited. Please call 020 8948 4838, email enquiries@botanistbreweryandkitchen.com or speak to a member of staff to book your place.

The Botanist Brewery and Kitchen

3-5 Kew Green, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 3AA

Website: http://thebotanistkew.com/

Twitter: @_thebotanist

London Restaurant Festival - 3rd to 17th October 2011

The London Restaurant Festival is a citywide celebration of eating out, designed to raise the profile of restaurants involved and increase covers. The Festival, created by restaurant critic Fay Maschler and her business partner Simon Davis, was launched in 2009. With the help of key partners, in its first year the Festival saw some 400 restaurants from across the capital running special, fixed-price Festival Menus, with about 10,000 meals being enjoyed by Londoners and visitors. Building on the awareness generated by a very successful inaugural Festival, 2010 saw nearly 600 restaurants serve up 30,000 covers as well as the likes of Alain Roux and Raymond Blanc joining culinary forces with Claude Bosi and Bruno Loubet respectively in unique, specially created events. During this time, the city’s restaurateurs work together to offer food lovers the chance to explore some of the capital’s finest cooking – from its high-profile Michelin-starred restaurants to coveted neighbourhood bistros.

The London Restaurant Festival comprises two main elements: Festival Menus and Festival Events. Attractively priced Festival Menus, designed to showcase a restaurant’s individuality and cooking style, are the bedrock of the annual celebration and the means to increase revenue for the participating establishments.

Unlike other Festivals, the London Restaurant Festival is not a singular, one-location event for which a single ticket can be purchased. It is an umbrella festival under which a host of activity and individual events take place.

For more information, visit the website on www.londonrestaurantfestival.com.

New Channel 4 TV show wants to hear your funniest Christmas dinner disasters!

In a seasonal food special, Jamie Oliver will tackle the nation’s most common yuletide blunders to guarantee a stress-free Christmas.

Christmas dinner can often be a recipe for disaster. Botched Brussels, dropped desserts, scorched birds, food poisoned in-laws... most of us have had our share of kitchen calamities at Christmas!

Whatever the mishap, from the funny to the tragic, and the stressful to the very familiar – we want to hear your stories. And Jamie will help guide us through the worst of it, plying us with tips and tricks and lots of laughs along the way. 

Tell us all about your funny festive flops for the chance to star in the show…

Email your story and contact details to: christmas2011@freshone.tv

Call on: 020 3375 5127 / 5099

Real Food Harvest Festival - 23rd to 25th September 2011 at the South Bank (FREE Event)

London’s The Real Food Festival, held each May in Earls Court, introduces The Real Food Harvest Festival, an all-new FREE event celebrating British autumnal produce.

The Southbank Centre will play host to the first Real Food Harvest Festival from 23rd – 25th September 2011. Bringing around 120 producers, a top line-up of chefs, livestock and entertainment to an expected 50,000 people. The Real Food Harvest Festival offers a great opportunity to taste and buy the best the UK has to offer, at this exceptional time of the year.

Founder of Real Food Festivals Philip Lowery commented, “Autumn is an exciting time to be staging a food festival and to be able to bring the best of what we do in Earls Court to such a wonderful outdoor setting is a real bonus. Harvest Festivals are celebrated throughout the British countryside and we really want to bring that energy and celebration to the capital and continue our goal of reconnecting people back to where their food comes from. We are also delighted that we can create a free Festival for Londoners”

Since Pagan times in Britain harvest festivals have taken place at the end of September when the full moon nearest to the autumn equinox falls – the harvest moon. It is a festival of feasting, merriment and romance. With this in mind The Real Food Harvest Festival will be much more than just a food market. There will be livestock, taste workshops and loads of interactive activities for kids (and their parents too…) including butter-making, bread kneading and even butchery classes.

With plenty to eat and drink while you are there and all sorts of music and street theatre, the Real Food Harvest Festival offers a great day out for all the family.

For more information, visit the website: http://www.realfoodfestival.co.uk/home

A SWEDISH CHRISTMAS COMES TO HARRODS

The innovative and unusual flavours of Sweden arrive in London on 3 October 2011

This winter, Harrods is launching an exclusive range of Swedish products, many of which will be completely new to the UK.  The array of Swedish treats will be available from 3 October 2011 up until Christmas, with limited edition Swedish dishes also on the menu at the Sea Grill restaurant.

One of Europe’s up and coming food destinations, Sweden is known for its unique and diverse set of pure natural ingredients, including berries, seafood and game. The delicious range available in the Food Halls includes Almnäs Tegel, a delicious mature cheese, Kalix Löjrom, caviar from the tiny whitefish living in the Gulf of Bothnia and an organic lingonberry jam.

For those who want to try some of the ingredients in action, the Sea Grill will also be serving two dishes created by Alexander Meier, the head chef at Swedish Lapland’s renowned ICEHOTEL between 3 and 19 October 2011. An innovative take on traditional Swedish food, the dishes will be Arctic char with dill butter, asparagus and morel cassolette, fried cherry tomatoes and assorted crayfish and King crab mousseline with candied tomatoes, clams, lingonberry vinaigrette and autumn salad.

To taste these gorgeous ingredients and recipes in their native environment, fly direct to the ICEHOTEL in Swedish Lapland this winter with the experts Discover the World (www.discover-the-world.co.uk/icehotel), three night trips from £1,093 per person.

Patara Restaurants Celebrates The Oyster Festival

Fine-dining Thai restaurant Patara has collaborated with Maldon Oysters to celebrate the Oyster Festival with two new oyster dishes on its menu, which will be available at all four Patara restaurants in London throughout October and November 2011.

Patara’s chefs have created two new oyster dishes, combining traditional Thai cuisine with excellent seasonal produce from Maldon Oysters. The Rock Oysters (Three: £5.50; Six: £9.50) will be presented in two ways – raw and cooked, in the following styles:

Maldon Rock Oysters with mint, coriander, lemongrass, Thai vinaigrette, lemon and crisp shallots.

Maldon Rock Oysters deep-fried in soda batter served in its shell with bean-sprout and chilli sauce.

Champagnes by the bottle available to enjoy with the oysters include Moutard Brut Reserve (£35.80); Laurent Perrier Brut (£56.20); Veuve Cliquot Rosé (£66.40); Moet et Chandon (£148.10).

About Maldon Oysters

The Maldon Oyster and Seafood Company, established in 1960, is now one of the largest producers of Pacific oysters in the UK, with 3,500 acres of the River Blackwater under its management. All Maldon oysters are cleansed in water that passes through an ultraviolet filter system to kill any bacteria that may have been present at time of harvest. This process is monitored by the local health authority and DEFRA. www.maldonoyster.com

About Patara

The Patara restaurant group has been creating contemporary fine Thai cuisine for over twenty years and has four branches in London and a further five worldwide in Singapore, Vienna, Geneva, Beijing and Bangkok. Patara’s London venues are run by Saipin Lee, recently named alongside Nigella Lawson, Ruth Rogers and Angela Hartnett in the ‘Women 1st Top 100 Most Influential Women’ listing for 2011.

www.patarathailand.com/london

NEW TV FOOD SHOW NEEDS YOU!

Are you a passionate amateur cook? 

Do you want to make money from your culinary skills?

Would you like the opportunity to put your food product or recipe on the market?

NEW TV FOOD SHOW NEEDS YOU!

Splash Media is currently looking for competitive cooking couples (friends/partners/colleagues/relatives) to take part in a primetime food show.

If you love to cook and fancy making some money out of your skill then now is the time. Whether you make the best cupcakes or your family can’t get enough of your homemade stew, this really could be the opportunity of a lifetime to turn your homemade cooking into a profitable business.

Splash Media has experience of working with major British Broadcasters (BBC, ITV, CH4) and have developed and broadcast successful shows in the past such as ITV1’s Piers Morgan On… series, cookery shows with celebrity chef James Martin and BBC’s A Farmer’s Life for Me.

We’re looking for people with a flair for cooking who’ve also got a business brain.

To find out more or apply please call 0207 255 5432

or e-mail us on poonamodedra@splashmediatv.co.uk.

Application deadline 30th September

(Applicants must be over 18 and available for 2 days filming in mid October)