Slow Food London

Sud de France Natural Wine Tasting with Master of Wine, Isabelle Legeron 22 September

As part of the Sud de France Festival we are celebrating natural wines from the Languedoc-Roussillon region with a tasting hosted by Isabelle Legeron. This tasting is an exclusive peek into an exciting, upcoming world, which has been forging an underground movement in recent years.

Arlo Bates Red Wine Wellspring via Flickr

With 240,000 hectares of vines, the Languedoc-Roussillon region is the world’s single largest wine-producing region.  Isabelle will share with you 8 of her favourite natural wines from this incredibly diverse region.

Isabelle is the 1st French woman ever to become a Master of Wine and received both the Villa Maria Award for Viticulture and the Madame Bollinger Award for Excellence in Tasting  at her inauguration into the Institute. She is an exceptional award winning wine taster. Isabelle is all about proper, natural wine - wine that is authentic in flavour and free of additives or manipulation. Isabelle presents her own wine show on television, ‘Journey into Wine’ and her wine tastings were featured by Time Out as one of their top 1000 things to do in London.  See more about Isabelle at www.isabellelegeron.com .

Cost:  £20 for members, £25 for non-members.  Includes regional food
Venue: 6 Cavendish Square - Ground floor, London W1G 0PD
Date: 22 September.
Time:  18:30 - 20:30
Limited availability.  Advance booking required at http://slowfoodlondon.blogs.com/booking

Seasonal September Eating by Karen Homer of A Cook's Library

Many thanks to Karen Homer of A Cook's Library for this guest post on seasonal September eating the Slow Food way [editor Georgie Knight].

Cobnuts by gorgeoux via Flickr

Karen Homer: When I say I eat the Slow Food way people often assume this means I spend a fortune on food, create elaborate banquets full of rare ingredients and wash it all down with equally pricey wine. If only this were true! But I appreciate that one of the common accusations that has been levelled at Slow Food is that it is elitist and only for foodies, or that it is an expensive hobby for those with a sizeable disposable income.

Well, this simply isn’t true. Everyone can eat the Slow way whatever your budget; in fact, the benefit of dedicating a little more time to cooking a simple meal and sitting down to eat it with friends or family is even more appreciable when you are sticking to a budget.

One of the easiest ways to do this is by eating seasonally. Eating seasonally is one of the best ways of eating sustainably, and as Carlo Petrini wrote in his mission statement for Slow Food ‘…Our movement is founded upon this concept of eco-gastronomy – a recognition of the strong connections between plate and planet’.

Furthermore, when you eat seasonally, particularly if you shop at local farmers' markets you are meeting a further criterion for eating the Slow Food way and that is making sure your food is clean and fair, and that producers receive fair compensation for their work.

September is a wonderful time to start eating the seasonal way. Forming a bridge between summer and autumn you have a glut of produce from 2 of the best British food seasons. Take raspberries for example, a berry associated with high summer that has a second crop in September, and plums, greengages and damsons, the stone fruits that we use so well in jams and puddings in this country. Making jams from a glut of fruit now is an investment of time that will save you money and be a pleasure to eat for the rest of the year.

Unusually for England fruit is plentiful at this time of year with soft and stone fruits but also the apple season is getting into full swing. There are plenty of heritage varieties of apple that need preserving so seek out orchards and farm shops and taste the forgotten flavours of an Ashmead’s Kernel or Laxton’s superb. A simple lunch of apples and English cheese such as Cheshire and a few oat biscuits beats a sandwich any day.

There is a huge array of vegetables to choose from: summer lettuces and salad leaves are still plentiful but hearty roots such as glowing purple beets, turnips and larger bunched carrots as well as new-crop onions and main-crop potatoes are appearing marking the beginning of stew season; roughly chopped vegetables, slow-braised with a little meat or stock or even just with some hearty pearl barley are economical dishes that take care of themselves in the oven and the steaming pot can be brought to the table for the whole family to dip into.

Slow Food is an organisation that is keen to preserve biodiversity, heritage varieties of grains and vegetable and rare breeds species of fish and animal via its Ark of Taste initiative. Plenty of the 24 products in the UK Ark are good eating at this time of year. Red grouse for example, found mostly in Scotland and the north of England is a fading delicacy but without grouse shooting the heather moorland of Scotland would revert to scrubland. Grouse is not exactly a budget food but for a rare seasonal treat use every last scrap of this bird, serving a feast with bread sauce then making the bones into stock (something you should do with all your roast carcasses for economy and taste) and perhaps making a soup of grouse stock and oatmeal with the result.

Kentish Cobnuts are a delicacy local to London that are abundant in markets and even supermarkets these days and are delicious shelled and toasted in a dry pan then scattered over a salad, of seasonal watercress and a roasted wood-pigeon breast, finely sliced; pigeon is another (cheaper) game bird that is worth preserving.

It is not necessary to spend a lot of money on eating well. Buying an inexpensive cut of meat (and it needn’t be large) such as beef shin or ham hock and braising it with seasonal vegetables, bulking meals with inexpensive grains such as the British spelt grain and using a glut of seasonal vegetables for soups are all ways of stretching good produce over a number of meals.

The Slow food ethos is not about food snobbery but about respecting the food you buy and eat, however much or little it cost. And by eating in tune with the seasons you will both respect what nature has to offer at different times of year and save money too.

The Prince of Wales invites you to a garden party to make a difference 8-19 September.

The Prince of Wales invites you to a garden party to make a difference. Come to the rarely seen gardens of Clarence House, Lancaster House and Marlborough House 8-19 September.

Special offer for Slow Food members: tickets are £15 for adults but if you can work a 2 hour shift 11.00 – 13.00 any day you will have complimentary access to the event on that day as thanks for your help.  Please contact Alice Dickie to register your interest.

The Prince of Wales says: "This festival is just one way in which Start can help to demonstrate how we can all make a difference, however big or small the steps we take".

1 June. The Gardens of Clarence House.Garden Party curators and supporters: Dame Vivienne Westwood, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Jools Holland, Paloma Faith, and Roger Saul

The garden festival has a special programme of fashion, food, garden, home, debate and comedy curated by some of Britain’s greatest talents:

Musical Programme created by Jools Holland

Debate by Jonathan Dimbleby, Sanjeev Bhaskar & Clive Anderson

Comedy by Marcus Brigstocke and Hugh Dennis

Growing and Gardens by Alan Titchmarsh

Food and The Great Outdoors by Kate Humble

Ecocars by Roger Saul and Kevin McCloud

Fashion by Dame Vivienne Westwood

As well as food, fun, and great green ideas.

For full details visit  A Garden Party To Make A Difference or phone 0844 248 5052 for tickets.

Meet Slow Food London members at our Gastronomica drop in Tuesday 17 August

We're back at Gastronomica Italian deli for our eat and greet Tuesday 17 August 18.30 - 20.30 - an informal and intimate space to enjoy Italian regional cheeses and cured meats with a glass or two of wine.

Bring your friends, family, conversation and laughter as we enjoy good food and good company. Members and non-members, all are welcome. What kind of Slow Food event would you like to attend - tell us! Join us every 3rd Tuesday at our monthly drop in.

 
Photo credit Georgie Knight

£10 members/unemployed/students
£12 non members
includes antipasti buffet and drinks - pay on the night

Gastronomica
45 Tachbrook St
Pimlico
London SW1V 2LZ

nearest tube: Pimlico -  Victoria line

Any profit goes to support our projects.

London restaurant recommendations from Twitter

In London, we don't yet have a Slow Food recommended restaurant scheme.  We're often asked for recommendations, particularly by visitors seeking traditional English cuisine or a typical London kitchen. As one enquirer stated: "I know there are good recipes but few make the effort; it’s not just fish and chips and salt and vinegar crisps" (!)

Here's a list of restaurants recommended by various London food bloggers, journalists and foodies who kindly answered my shout out for their top picks for English food in London. Enjoy.

• 32 Great Queen St - especially the Hereford beef cooked various ways
• how about Albion Caff, in Shoreditch. Great English food http://www.albioncaff.co.uk/
• Dean Street Hotel is lovely 
• How 'English'? Simpsons....
• Traditional is difficult...but the perfect British food in London, Marcus Wareing @ The Berkeley or St Johns
• For a great pie, atmosphere, central and traditional I would suggest The Guinea good wine list too
• Anchor and Hope 36 The Cut, London SE1 or  Mark Hix
• Look no further! We do a number of great British classics, have a look at our menu at The Tommyfield
• The Bolingbroke on Northcote Road, SW11 does fantastic British food