Hidden within Soho, Carom's Botanical Gin Garden offers a secret sanctuary for those in the know. Located within the modern Indian restaurant, the garden conveys an elegant country house garden which has been tastefully decorated with living wall herbs and natural flora. Guests can lounge on antique garden benches while surrounded by crates of terracotta potting plants, pretty jam jars of wild fragrant flowers, hanging pots of herbs and green bottles sprouting foliage. Providing direct views of the night sky, the bar also boasts a glass roof pyramid that's accented with trailing living plants and greenery, and an imposing vintage glass chandelier. Innovative cocktails are created using Tanqueray gin with options including Rose & Lychee, a Tiny Ten Martini and a No.TEN with pink grapefruit. Or, budding botanists can consult with the bartenders to create their perfect bespoke tipple. A range of interactive events will also take place at the bar throughout the summer and autumn: Cocktails at Home Foraging in the Summer, guests are encouraged to forage in the garden and concoct their own cocktail creations; Rangpur Indian Supperclub, Carom's Executive Head Chef curates a special Indian dinner; and a Tanqueray No.TEN Infusion Evening hosted by Master Distiller Tom Nichol.
Kew Gardens is giving visitors the chance to experience the weird and wonderful world of edible plants this year with the IncrEdibles series. Making the most of the many edible species in the gardens, visitors will be inspired to broaden their knowledge on food and their relationship with what they eat. Food artists Bompas & Parr will also be helping out with their transformation of the Palm House Pond. With the pond turned into a giant fruit salad bowl, visitors will be able to sail on boats shaped like melons into the centre of the pond, where they'll discover a giant pineapple and a hidden banana grotto. Further highlights include The Global Kitchen Garden, which will feature more than 90 edible plants from across the globe; the Rose Garden Tea Party, one the Mad Hatter would be proud of with edible plants growing out of plates, goblets, dishes, jugs and platters; and the Picnic Garden, where picnickers can be educated on the ingredients used to make some of the nation's favourite tipples. The Orangery restaurant will also join in on the fun with a special foraged dinner, which features dishes such as grilled Kentish asparagus with wood sorrel flower petals and wild rose milk jelly with white and dark chocolate crumbs and candied pistachios.
Before the days of budget flights, lack of assigned seating and pay for the privilege toilets, air travel was considered rather glamorous. This year Dine Mile High is giving Londoners the chance to experience this glamour with a series of immersive dining events based on the golden age of travel. So far, the series has already touched down in Gothenburg, Beirut and Sicily, and is coming in to land at its final destination this year, Mozambique. Either hang out in the Departure Lounge, enjoying specially-created cocktails and in-flight entertainment, or upgrade to a Destination Dinner ticket for a first-class banquet of prawns marinated in fresh coconut, sardines with cassava and salsa, spatchcock poussin and macerated pineapple with passionfruit granita, cooked by former Moro chef Oliver Templeton. To keep things exciting, the exact location will be revealed on purchase of you ticket (but we can divulge that it is somewhere in West London). Now boarding 18th-21st September and 25th-28th September. For more information and booking, please visit the official website.
Pop up restaurateurs The Wandering Chef present Opium Nights at La Maison des Artistes this autumn. Known for their creative flair in the kitchen, the duo are the masterminds behind previous events Head, Shoulders, Veal and Toes, Veal and Toes, a pop up operating theatre serving gruesome but tasty delights and Grub Club at the Movies, with foodie events inspired by films. This latest venture takes inspiration from the decadent and sultry opium dens of the Orient. Guests descend into an intimate underground restaurant where they will be treated to a sumptuous seven-course meal, with dishes including absinthe marinated sashimi, fried soft shell crab and glazed duck with rice pancakes and roast pear. Side orders come in the form of saucy burlesque dancers and the feast concludes with some seriously sexy dessert. Once the dinner is over, the venue morphs back into a club and guests are invited to party the night away.
Adalberto Battaglia, aka Adha, has previously worked with the likes of Jamie Oliver, Marco Pierre White and Stefano Cavallini, and is considered to be one of the best Roman chefs in London at the moment. Now, he's treating Londoners to An Italian 7 Course Game Feast at his latest Grub Club. With game at the heart of the menu, the 'King of Gnocchi' will serve dishes such as hare gnocchi in a rosemary and Chianti sauce, and venison burger with chestnuts, pancetta and cavolo nero.
Presented by Grub Glub, A Middle Eastern Journey Through Food sees The Hampstead Kitchen serve a 14-dish feast to represent 14 countries that make up the Middle East. Celebrating each region, diners will discover that there is more to the Middle East than Tabbalouleh and Hummus. They will be served stuffed zucchini with rice and minced meat simmered in spicy red and tomato pepper sauce; chargrilled lamb with toasted pine nuts; pastry encased in awai and mascarpone cheese; and homemade Persian yoghurt mixed with steamed fresh spinach with roasted cumin, caramelised onions, garlic and rose petals.
Named after the East London Overground line (coloured a carroty orange on the Tube map), the secretive organisation that is Gingerline invites you to take a leap into the unknown. Their themed dining evenings - part theatrical experience, part gastronomic experience - have become legendary among the capital's supper-club cognoscenti. Prospective diners choose a date from a selection of available evenings and specify any dietary requirements. But what they'll eat and where is kept a secret up until the last minute. On the night in question, guests must wait by their mobiles until a text comes through with instructions as to which Overground stop to alight at and directions from there. Past events have greeted guests with a fairytale world, a hedonistic casino, a trip back to Victorian London at the Brunel Museum, and initiation into a weird cult in Newington Green Unitarian Church. November's event is called 'The Hideout'. Other than that, we are sworn to secrecy. Tickets go on sale from 30 September 2013. Book on the [Gingerline website]{http://www.gingerline.co.uk/the-hideout/" target="_blank}.
Basement Gallery once again present their Underground Supper Club this November. The one rule that everyone abides by on London's tube network is to ignore one another - do not look anyone in the eye, do not sit too close and do not, under any circumstance, strike up a conversation. However, that's certainly not the case at the Underground Supper Club. Diners are invited to enjoy a seven course tasting menu within a decommissioned 1967 Victoria Line tube carriage at the Walthamstow Pumphouse Museum, sitting next to strangers and actually encouraged to converse. Courses include blue baked figs with celery and amaranth salad; slow-roasted pulled pork filet with creamy basil potato puree and beetroot salsa; and lemon verbena cheesecake with summer berry compote and lime shortbread. There will also be a pop up bar serving wine, cocktails and soft drinks.
Carom Soho's atrium space is given a new makeover for winter with its new Tanqueray Tea Light Lounge. Located at the front of the modern Indian restaurant, the space is continuously used to full effect with a number of themed pop up bars. Summer saw the area decorated with living wall herbs and natural flora for the Botanical Gin Garden while this winter sanctuary sees it transformed into a world of tea lights, vintage armchairs, inviting sofas and antiqued silver wallpaper. Continuing the theme, the walls are adorned with tea crate shelves which house a whole host of trinkets and books, loose teas and botanicals, and traditional tea pots and glasses. Guests are treated to innovative cocktails inspired by the herbs and spices used in chai, such as the Basil Spice Collins, an intriguing concoction of Tanqueray gin, fresh basil, black pepper, honey, lime and soda; Tea Alexander, with cardamom, cream, Crème de Caco and Tanqueray gin; and the Ginger Chilli Tipple, a brave combination of fresh red chilli, lemon, ginger and cranberry, with orange curacao and Tanqueray gin served in a miniature teapot and cup. Furthermore, The Everybody Love Wandering Star Tonic Bar serves fresh chai tea potions and a menu designed by Executive Chef Vishnu Natarajan perfectly complements the warming tipples.
Some of London's best chefs are going head-to-head every Thursday to Saturday at Notting Hill's Tom's Deli this November in an Ali-v-Foreman-style cook-off. Chefs from London restaurants St John, Petrus, Trullo, Bocca di Lupo and the team behind Mile High, Shuttlecock Inc, will be pulling no punches as they fight to impress the harshest of critics YOU. Given the same ingredients bought fresh from the market that morning, pairs of chefs will be challenged to create a three-course meal, both serving their dishes to the discerning punters. Voting takes place after each round/course so best of three wins. Expect heavyweight cooking with an Italian accent.
Pushing the boundaries of food as we know it, London's most innovative collection of cooks and artists will once again be coming together at Brick Lane's Old Truman Brewery under the banner of The Experimental Food Society. Among exhibits that will force you to confront your gastronomic preconceptions are a flower meadow made entirely from sugar, a 'breathable tearoom', an edible camera, butter sculptures, chocolate models and some historic kitchen chemistry bitters infused with moisture extracted from the walls of the Churchill War Rooms. There will also be a chance to attend talks by jellymongers Bompass & Parr and experimental psychologist Prof Charles Spence, among others. You'll never look at food in the same way again. Tickets can be booked through www.wegottickets.com/EFS
A pop-up within a pop-up, how very East London. Bright young foodies Check On will be in residence at The Dolls House (the temporary second home of Dalston's Dead Dolls Club in a warehouse scheduled for demolition) for three nights in mid November. The seven-course menu promises a big comfort blanket of wintery fare such as beef bourguignon and duck confit, as well as some twists on nursery tea. Their 'cereal and milk' (cornflakes, honeycomb, chocolate and raspberries) sounds certain to banish the winter blues.
Treat your senses to a five-course banquet designed to thrill the nose as much as the taste buds. Experimental Food Society regulars Blanch & Shock will take over the InterContinental Hotel's Cookbook Cafe for two nights only where, working with psychologist Prof Charles Spence, they'll be demonstrating just how important smell is to our enjoyment of food. Their creative cuisine will include dishes such as dried mallard duck cooked in dark beer, given a theatrical twist by being served on a scented recreation of the forest floor in an atmosphere of smoking branches. The Cox apple compote meanwhile comes with a guaiac wood sorbet and inhalable blackcurrants buds. An immersive autumnal experience. Visit the Experimental Food Society website for more details.
Join the staff of Bollingbroke Franking Machines Ltd for an office Christmas party with a difference - that difference being it's 1989 and the staff may not be quite what they seem. This is fun foodie pop-up people Shuttlecock Inc's festive treat, held in a mystery location in the King's Cross area. And as with any good Christmas party, there will be pass the parcel, Cinzano & lemonade, ice sculpting, novelty ties, water-cooler flirting and a bit of naughty photocopying. Oh, and plenty of dancing. Dinner will be served up by chef Ollie Templeton and will include winter wonders such as cured duck breast with rhubarb butter and watercress, chicken broth with saffron and crispy morcilla, braised beef shin with cannellini beans, and a chocolate and raspberry terrine. Just watch out under that mistletoe. To book, email Shuttlecock Inc at create@shuttlecock-inc.com or call 07766 201 568.
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