Taste festivals

Taste Festivals is a company which runs a series of food festivals around the world. As of 2012, these have taken place in fifteen cities. The events typically have the prefix "Taste of", although the company joined forces with celebrity chef Jamie Oliver to organise The Big Feastival for the first time in 2011. The events are typically attended by restaurants who operate mini-kitchens, these include Michelin starred restaurants.

Description

The events run by Taste Festivals feature mini-kitchens from different restaurants, along with live demonstrations from chefs. The events have their own currency called "crowns" which are used to purchase food from the restaurant's kitchens.^[1] The restaurants featured have included Michelin starred establishments such as Rhodes 24 and Le Gavroche at Taste of London.^[2] The Best in Taste award is given out by each festival to the restaurant who serves the best dish at each event.^[3]

History

Taste Festivals launched in 2004 with the first Taste of London, which took place at Somerset House.^[4] The London event was moved to Regent's Park in 2005, where it has remained since.^[5]^[6] The show was named Best Consumer Show at the 2012 Exhibition News Awards.^[6] A second London based event runs later in the year, entitled Taste of Christmas. It runs on similar principles to the main Taste of London event, although it is instead hosted at the ExCeL Centre.^[7]

Taste of Edinburgh was first run in 2007, initially at The Meadows, but after two years moved to Inverleith Park.^[8] In 2012, the festival was called off at late notice following high levels of rainfall in the days prior to the event making the site unsafe for the expected number of visitors.^[9] Initially the plans were to continue with the event despite the weather.^[10] As of 2012, there have been Taste festivals held in fifteen cities around the world, the exhibitors at the 2012 Taste of London held a combined 11 Michelin stars.^[4]

The events were expanded to Africa in 2006 with Taste of Joburg,^[11] and expanded in 2008 to add a second South African event with Taste of Cape Town,^[12]

In 2013, the Taste festivals were acquired by IMG.^[13]

The Big Feastival

Taste Festivals began running the Jamie Oliver backed Big Feastival in 2011, a combination event featuring both restaurants and musical artists.^[14] The initial plan was to host the event in Victoria Park during 2012 to coincide with the 2012 Summer Olympics, however due to branding restrictions this plan was cancelled.^[15] The event instead was arranged to take place at the farm of musician Alex James in Oxfordshire, who had previously hosted a similar festival in 2011 which resulted in the event's organisers going out of business due to the losses involved.^[16]

List of Taste Festivals

Australia

Taste of Sydney^[17]
Taste of Melbourne

Ireland

Taste of Cork^[18]
Taste of Dublin^[18]

South Africa

Taste of Cape Town^[12]
Taste of Joburg^[11]

United Kingdom

Taste of Bath^[18]
Taste of Birmingham^[18]
Taste of Edinburgh (also referred to as Taste of Scotland)^[19]
Taste of Leeds^[18]
Taste of London
Taste of Christmas

Elsewhere

Taste of Auckland^[20]
Taste of Dubai^[21]
Taste of Milan^[22]

References