Your Diamond Jubilee Foodie Round-Up

An incredible 30,000 street parties were planned all over the UK for Sunday 3rd of June, in honour of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.  It is likely that all 30,000 started, but thousands undoubtedly ended early, due to what felt like some of the heaviest rain in June history.

Guestaurant wrapped up warmly and quite literally braved the weather to capture the foodie moments of the day for you.

Here are our chosen highlights:

Piccadilly Big Jubilee Lunch

The Piccadilly Big Jubilee Lunch was one of the events we were most looking forward to.  Held along London’s historic Piccadilly Street, the lunch stretched from Piccadilly Circus to the top of St James’s Street in London. The event included a 500 person long dining table, which over the course of the day sat 2,500 people — including Charles, Prince of Wales, and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.

The Piccadilly Big Jubilee Lunch, was borne under the ‘Big Jubilee Lunch’ concept. The BJL itself conceived by the organisers of The Big Lunch, an idea from the Eden Project. The aim of the yearly Big Lunch is to get as many people as possible across the whole of the UK to have lunch with their neighbours in a simple act of community, friendship and fun.

Fortnum & Mason first decided to run The Piccadilly Big Jubilee Lunch two years ago. Since their first brainstorm, the event’s tentacles spanned outwards to include local businesses such as BAFTA,  Rocco Forte’s Brown’s Hotel, The Cavendish London, Le Méridien Piccadilly, The Ritz, The Royal Academy of The Arts, The Wolseley and many more. The event was crafted by these local businesses all working together to put on something magnificent for the citizens of London.

The Foodie Moments at the Piccadilly Big Jubilee Lunch

We were keen to sample as many fine treats as possible. Sadly though, when walking around, we noticed many of the stalls had been dampened, and their staff looked less than happy to be there.  Food that may have looked tempting when first put out, was now damp and somewhat scary looking — ‘Scotch Egg with condensation madam?’ ‘Um, no thanks’.

It certainly was not an easy day for an event organiser or attendee, or media for that matter. Fortnum & Mason’s did however, deliver the experience that we expect they set out to achieve.  They cranked out the champers, the Highgrove Burger, their Diamond Jubilee Afternoon Tea,  and all with big smiles. Their foodie experience was sophisticated and as British as an attendee would hope for, making many happy to have chosen Piccadilly for their Jubilee day .

• Fortnum & Mason’s take on street food. The Highgrove Burger from Prince Charles’s Estate, is one of their most popular dishes, and also available on a regular basis at Fortnum & Mason. We asked Dudley Clifford, Fortum & Mason’s Head of Hospitality for the recipe, and Dudley opened up to us — “The Highgrove Burger has only a few ingredients”. Dudley said the meat spoke for itself, using only a “pinch of salt and pepper, as well as a bit of mustard” in their famed burgers.
• Fortnum & Mason’s Afternoon Tea.  Delights included Cherry and Pistachio Opera Layer Cake, Rose Eclair, Peach Melba as well as Pan’s Breast (below), and their Chocolate Apricot Cake (below).

Pan's Breast

Chocolate Apricot Cake

Bourne & Hollingsworth Diamond Jubilee Party
After taking in many Jubilee sites and events in Central London, we headed over to the Bourne & Hollingsworth Diamond Jubilee Party near Goodge Street. The rain was now falling the hardest it had all day. Amazingly so, the marquees were rammed, and also very much still pegged into the ground. The weather seemed to hardly phase the attendees.  Tucked away in Bedford Square Gardens, it was here that the fantastically dressed beauties and handsome gents chose to hang out on the special day.  Some might have said this is where the posh came to play.

The Foodie Moments at the Bourne & Hollingsworth Diamond Jubilee Party

Food was less of a running theme here rather than the amazing alcoholic Jubilee inspired cocktails.  Bourne & Hollingsworth proudly prepared a selection of drinks also available at their bar in Fitzrovia and at their pop-up/wandering bar,  The Fourth Wall. Here at their Diamond Jubilee Party they re-created their Fourth Wall bar, with the addition of a tarpaulin roof.

• Bourne & Hollingsworth’s Jubilee inspired drinks included The Queen’s Punch (above), which comprised of Sloane’s Gin and Spiced Green Tea laced with orange and lemon sherbet, citrus juice and topped with ginger ale.  Other drinks on offer included Charles’ Choice (rosé, Martini Rosato, strawberries), Royal Mule (rum and ginger cordial, lime and lemonade), Coronation Cooler (elderflower liqueur, Sauvignon Blanc, mint and cucumber) Pimm’s & Sloane’s Gin and of course Champagne.
• Bourne & Hollingsworth’s dessert station consisted of Betty Blythe’s beautiful cakes, including the famously British Victoria Sponge Cake. As a vintage slanted tea and cakes company, Betty Blythe was a perfect and delicious choice of supplier to the event.

For the Jubilee foodie round-up in pictures check out the below slideshow.  To discover these foodie experiences further visit the links below, and keep your eye on http://guestaurant.com/uk-all-events/for the next one-of-a-kind foodie events.

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

12►

http://www.thebiglunch.com
http://www.fortnumandmason.com
http://www.whereisthefourthwall.com  and  www.bourneandhollingsworth.com
http://www.bettyblythe.co.uk
http://www.edenproject.com