London Restaurant Festival Awards at Pizza East

Last Tuesday (13 October) was the final day of the London Restaurant Festival and I was helping out at the inaugural awards. Details of the winners are on the official site. The awards were in the fashionable east-end in Shoreditch House.

I helped to shepherd the guests and keep order amongst the assembled rabble! I recognised a few faces most notably Richard Corrigan (Corrigan's and Bentley's), Jun Tanaka (Pearl), Thomisina Miers (Wahaca), Silvena Rowe, Tristan Welch (Launceston Place) and Oliver Rowe (Konstam). There were also a few notable critics: Faye Maschler of the Evening Standard (obviously), Charles Campion, Giles Coren (The Sunday Times) and Tom Parker-Bowles (Mail on Sunday).

The after party was held next door in Pizza East which was in preview mode and only officially opened on Friday. I must admit I absolutely relished my opportunity to eat in a restaurant before it opened. Basically there was no ordering we were just pumped full of dishes:

Antipasti

• Marinated olives, Marcona almonds - the most delicious olives I have ever had
• Wood roasted bone marrow, radish, parsley, rustic bread - unfortunate burnt offerings with very little marrow left to enjoy
• Lamb meatballs, tomato sauce - I'm a sucker for meatballs and these were good
• Wood roasted mussels, garlic fennel aioli - No, no, no
• Cauliflower carbonara - cauliflower cheese with pancetta. High-end comfort food.
• Anya potatoes, bottarga, shaved egg, parsley, mascarpone - Lovely, a very unusual potato salad
• Calamari, caper aioli - surely no one enjoys rubbery squid?
• Soft polenta, chicken livers, salsa rossa calabrese - a revelation. Delicious polenta (with an soft texture) and perfect chicken livers.
• Board of Mortadella, Gorgonzola Dolce, Prosciutto and Paglierna - great produce. You can't go wrong with this.

Pizza

• Margherita, tomato, mozzarella di bufula, basil, olive oil - burnt crust that was far too crispy
• Tomato, anchovies, olives, capers - the anchovies over-powered everything
• Speck, tomato, mozzarella, rocket - the best of the lot

Salad

• Wild rocket, shaved fennel, almonds, parmesan, lemon, extra virgin olive oil - dear Lord. Atrocious salad with rubbery cheese and an inedible acidic dressing

Wood Oven

• Sea bass, butternut squash, puntarelle, pumpkin seed vinaigrette - well cooked sea bass destroyed by too sweet butternut squash. No, no, no.

Dessert

• Lemon pot - a perfect blend of creamy tart sweetness

• Hot cinnamon sugar doughnuts, Valrhona chocolate - Tasty doughnuts let down by a very lacklustre sauce
• Fig cornmeal cake - very light
• Salted chocolate caramel tart - AMAZING. Best dish by a long way. Phenomenal blend of sweet, salt and bitter in a very short crust. DELICIOUS!

The LRF blog has more details.

On the way out we got a goodie bag of biscotti.

I had these for elevenses (and threeses) over the next few days and by jove, what a treat they were. Delicious crunchy biscuits with pistachios and raisins embedded in them. Absolutely tremendous dunked in coffee to soften them a little.

Although the festival is finished for this year, Kauffman's pop-up restaurant at Selfridges is still open. I wander if there are any tables going...