So a few weeks ago, my friend and floormate Chrissie told me about this BBC Good Food Show that was taking place in London today. I've never been to a Food Show, but it sounded cool, so I said I'd go. Having been sick lately, I wasn't sure if I'd make it there today, but my cough has been miraculously well-behaved today, which was great.
The show started at 9:30 this morning. Chrissie wanted to be there when it opened, and wanted to leave Oxford by 6:00 am, but knowing my sleep habits I figured there was no chance in Hell that I could make that happen. We got out the door by 7:30, and into Kensington by a little before 10:00. So we made good time. The weather was lovely, the walking distance between bus and tube stops was minimal, so it was a good day for all this.
The show was at Kensington Olympia, a huge expo center. When we went in, we were a bit overwhelmed by all the things to see and try, but we made a decision to walk up and down each aisle until we got through everything. They didn't have just food - they had cooking supplies, kitchen furniture, cleaning supplies and some random stuff (like garden clogs, Smart cars, and investment plans). I'm pretty sure we got to see everything.
The food samples were amazing. There was food to sample, food to buy and eat there, and food to take home. We sampled cheese, wine and champagne, hot chocolate, chicken, sausage, cakes, breads, chocolate, crisps and popcorn, and bought ourselves fresh free-range turkey sandwiches made right in front of us. (For some mysterious reason, there were several food court areas along the edges of the place selling prepackaged sandwiches. Why would anyone want that?) We also bought tons of stuff to take home, including organic crisps and popcorn, Welsh cheeses (sorry Christian!), brownies, organic juices, tea, Cava, two kinds of honey, and other stuff I can't even remember now. We're broke and we're tired, but we had a great day.
Oh yes! There were also a bunch of celebrity (well, celebrity in the UK) chefs giving demonstrations and doing book signings. The main featured chef was Gordon Ramsay, and of course the tickets to his demonstrations sold out immediately. However, we discovered that there were little tables and chairs along the edge of the demonstration theatre, so we got to sit and watch Gordon Ramsay do his demonstration! It was very exciting - he cooked a three-course meal in 24 minutes.
We got tired around 3:30ish, and headed out around 4:00. We decided to have an early dinner, so we wouldn't have to find food when we got back to Oxford. Once we returned to Victoria station, we headed over to Pizza Express, since Chrissie had never been there before. (It's actually much nicer than the name suggests!)
We got home by about 8:30ish I think, and are now digging through all the pamphlets and free stuff that we picked up along the way. All in all, a great day.
Pics on the Flickr. Enjoy!
xxx
