Mayor Boris Johnson and Visit London are supporting the London Restaurant Festival, created by restaurant critic Fay Maschler and Simon Davis, her business partner in the consultancy A Private View.
The inaugural London Restaurant Festival will run from Thursday 8 October to Tuesday 13 October 2009. It will be a citywide celebration of eating out which will raise the profile of establishments involved and acknowledge the pleasure and sustenance given to all by London’s extraordinarily diverse range of restaurants. In these hard times for restaurants, one of the aims will be to entice and drive more customers into restaurants.
Boris Johnson – Mayor of London, said: “London’s restaurant scene is world-class, boasting a massive 6,000 eateries. The sheer scale and diversity of the capital’s gastronomic delights is testament to the vibrancy of our city and the many communities living and eating here. Their importance to the capital’s economy cannot be underestimated as they provide a tasty enticement for people who visit, work and live in our city. So it is timely that this exciting new festival has been launched to celebrate all that is best about London’s restaurants.”
As well as a series of events, a street festival, film festival, pop-up restaurants, demonstrations, lectures, and challenges organised by the executive board, individual restaurateurs will be encouraged and supported in devising activities with direct appeal to their own market. Restaurateurs and chefs are invited to register their ideas on www.londonrestaurantfestival.com
Fay Maschler comments: “Like all good ideas, you think, why hasn’t this been done before? London is an exceptional city and restaurants play a huge part in its warp and weft. That needs to be celebrated.”
Sally Chatterjee, interim CEO of Visit London, adds: “The London restaurant industry currently boasts some of the most celebrated and diverse talent in the world. By backing the London Restaurant Festival, we hope to create an unrivalled annual event that showcases the importance of restaurants, food and wine throughout the capital.”
The Festival will open with a high-profile launch party at Quaglino’s on Wednesday 7 October, co-hosted by Vanity Fair. The culmination will be the London Restaurant Festival Awards at a gala evening on Tuesday 13 October prepared by a team of London’s most inspiring chefs.
Partners of the London Restaurant Festival include Visit London, A Private View, Single Market Events, Vanity Fair, Toptable.com and Evening Standard.
