Food 'n' Drink |

On Friday February 19th, the new Laithwaites flasghip store in the Vinopolis complex will open near Borough Market.  Customers are being invited to join staff from Laithwaites and Vinopolis, as well as stallholders from Borough Market, for a celebratory glass of champagne and an exciting evening wine tasting.

The celebration continues on Saturday February 20th when Laithwaites, the UK’s largest independent wine merchant, is offering customers the unique chance to walk away with a bottle of the finest wine for just £5.  From 10am – 10pm, Laithwaites will offer 500 ‘mystery’ bottles for sale, all for £5 each. Highlights include Lafite, Haut-Brion, Mouton and mixed in amongst the bottles, all worth over £5, will be other established classics and New World discoveries.  There will only be 500 bottles so with thousands expected to try their luck come early to avoid disappointment.

As well as picking up their mystery bottle, customers will also be able to taste a selection of wines from Laithwaites comprehensive range, at one of the world’s longest wine tasting tables in the 5,000sq ft store.

Opening of the Laithwaites Store – February 19th 4pm onwards

Wine Lucky Dip – February 20th 10am – 10pm

The store is situated at No.1 Bank End, London SE1 9BU.

For further information visit www.laithwaites.co.uk

The Southbank’s Chocolate Festival returns this Easter with even more attractions and special activities, running from Friday 26 until Sunday 28 March. Included in the event will be an afternoon (Friday 26 March from 2-7pm) of demonstrations by top pastry chefs from some of the best five star hotels and renowned restaurants in the capital using Valrhona products in their chocolate infused recipes.

The chefs will include Valrhona’s own pastry chef Andrew Gravett, Abel Vieilleville from Skylon restaurant, Tal Hausen head pastry chef at The Lanesborough, Johannes Bonin executive pastry chef Connaught Hotel and Mourad Khiat The Berkeley’s head pastry chef. BBC Master Chef winner Steven Wallis will also be using Valrhona chocolate for his demonstration of courgette flower tempura & duck salad with dark chocolate vinegrate on Saturday 27 March at 1pm. All demonstrations will take place in the main marquee.

Pastry chefs will also join master chocolatiers to create a beautiful display of sculptures made entirley from chocolate. Visitors can see this at Festival Riverside Level 1 entrance in the Royal Festival Hall. It will be open for the public on the days of the festival, from 10am – 11pm.

The Festival will also feature dozens of stalls, all individually focused on one area of the delicious world of chocolate as well as a range of workshops, tasting talks, demonstrations and book signings. Exhibitors include Best British Chocolatier William Curley, Damian Allsop and Paul Wayne Gregory, as well as chocolate companies like Rococo and Hotel Chocolat.

In an effort to show how absurd the current food labelling system is as well as the domestic habits 5,000 meals were created in Trafalgar Square yesterday from food items that were close to their use by date, otherwise would have been thrown away.

Although saving food instead of wasting it will not save the planet, it will be a step in the right direction towards preserving the planet.  In fact, anti-waste organization Wrap updated information from two years ago that estimates that every year on average a typical household wastes about £420 worth of food.  Their new figures place the amount at waste at about £480, which equivocates to about 8.3 tonnes nationwide.

The largest contribution to waste is people’s tendency to purchase too much food and cooking too much at one time as well.  This is not to mention the amount of food that rots in the fridge out of negligence.

At the root of the problem may be the common view of food, which among adults is that it is an act of love to purchase and prepare good food, thus it is a gift to make new items over serving leftovers.

Food waste is said to start at the top of the supply chain due to the amount of energy that is consumed simply producing food items and transporting it to shops.

In order to reduce energy consumption, the Sustainable Food Commission from the government suggested that diets contain less red meat and dairy products due to the high CO2 emissions.

2012 Olympic organizers have stated that most of the drink and food items offered at the London Olympics will be notoriously British.

20% of the food offered will come from McDonald’s, Cadbury, and Coca-Cola, but there will be a wide array of other options as well.

Chief executive of the London 2012 team Paul Deighton stated that the Games are going to create a great opportunity for a legacy from the country’s catering industry.

There have been many concerns about the quality of food offerings at the London events, with direct concerns aimed at Cadbury as a sponsor since it will promote an unhealthy food choice to children.

Throughout the Olympics 14 million meals are estimated to be served at the 40 different locations of the events, according to a spokesman from the London 2012.

Any catering, event, or hospitality firm that is going to provide food must sign up with a food charter that includes sustainable, local, seasonal, and healthy food items.

Coca-Cola will be providing all of the mineral water and soft drinks available at the games.

Deighton said that the goal of the organizers is to make sure that everyone in attendance has a great time, and that the drinks and foods that are available are sustainable as well as affordable.

James Cracknell the Olympic rowing champion who is the sustainability ambassador of London 2013 stated that this year the theme of food provisions for both spectators and athletes is a diverse array of options that are responsibly sourced.

Marks and Spencer is once again is planning to support its charity choice this Christmas lending their hand to Shelter.

Throughout the holiday season the retailer has placed its Food to Go range on sale with a percentage of proceeds from the items pledged towards the organization.

This is the fourth year that M&S have pledged their support to Shelter with a cumulative amount of about £1 million already raised during this time period.

The director of fundraising at Shelter, Louise Parks, stated that the charity is pleased to once again have the partnership of M&S, and that they are able to provide a vast amount of help during the season which is one of their busiest times.

The entire range of Food to Go products will be packaged in red and have the Shelter logo on it to make it easy to find within stores.  Among the items offered for sale are turkey feast sandwiches, festive fruit juice, and cheesecake.

Shelter also has recently won a £363,769 grant from the Big Lottery Fund to help provide housing sustainability and well being to others.

Motherwell College students from Lanarkshire were chosen to help TV chef Gordon Ramsay with a 250 guest dinner for a charity gala. Seven students were selected to aid the celebrity chef prepare a six course meal for gala event that was organized on behalf of the Scottish Spina Bfida Association.

Outside of Ramsey, three other top chefs from Scotland were on board to cook for the event of which Ramsey is an honorary patron. It was Ramsey’s suggestion that the students also be invited to help out.

The dinner was hosted by Gordon and his wife, and was held at the Glasgow Science Centre.

The other chefs were Joe Queen, Willie Pike MBE, and Steven Docherty.  Together the group worked on the menu for two days prior to cooking for the event.

All of the items were cooked with ingredients from local sources and guests were allowed to watch their food be prepared via a video link for “Hells Kitchen.”

Lecturer Jim Mullen stated that while the students seemed to be shy and awestruck at first they quickly got to work in the kitchen and continued to work for about 12 hours.

Mullen also stated that Ramsey had toned down his presence for the night from his lively TV persona, and was a gentleman offering the students advice about their future careers.

A student at the event, Hazel Gardner, commented that the night was amazing but exhausting at the same time because she had never been involved in such a large event before.