London’s food lovers prepare for a fortnight of feasting

Urban Food Fortnight connects restaurants and retailers with London’s edible gardens and small producers to showcase the best food and drink on offer in the city with special menus, one-off events, workshops and supper clubs.

Run by London Food Link, the fortnight throws the spotlight on the hidden delights of the capital’s good food scene, giving Londoners the chance to enjoy ultra-local food. It also highlights the importance of small enterprises and initiatives that grow and make food, as well as save surplus from going to waste.

Eateries across the capital are busy creating dishes, cocktails, and even entire menus for garden dinners and polytunnel parties to showcase the best of London’s local larder. Whether it’s herbs and salads from urban farms, honey harvested from community beehives, small-batch beers, artisan cheeses, Real Bread made by social enterprises or saved surplus food that would otherwise have gone to waste, every bite has a London story behind it. 

Highlights of the fortnight include: 

• The London Grows moveable feast at Global Generation’s Skip Garden in King’s Cross.
• Intimate dinners with chefs and producers around the city - A chance to Meet The Producers, Sole Share, with Tom Hunt in his East London restaurant Poco, and to dine Local To London with Oliver Rowe at the London Cooking Project in Battersea.
• Community Beer Brewing Sessions with surplus food pioneers Toast Ale, and Urban Food Award winners, Clarkshaws Brewery.
• Harvest Stomp, a free community festival taking place in the Olympic Park.
• Dinner with a difference as Foodisms bring their Barcelona event, the Urban Food Challenge, to East London.
• A chance to get a taste of London’s edible gardens at Capital Growth’s Urban Harvest Feast.
• Learn how to make you own Korean-style pickles and enjoy the signature kimchi burger at the Table Café’s Pop-Up Kimchi evening.

The winners of the third Urban Food Awards will also be announced during the fortnight at Borough Market, with categories ranging from London Leaves to Sustainable Street Food. 

Events are still being added every day with everyone invited to throw open their doors to feed Londoners with ultra-local food and drink.

Find details of these and more events, plus how to register your own event, at www.urbanfoodfortnight.org 

@londonfoodlink #UrbanFoodFortnight

Notes to Editors:

1. Urban Food Fortnight is organised by London Food Link - an independent network of people, businesses and organisations that promote and campaign for good food in the city. The event has run annually since 2012. www.urbanfoodfortnight.org  @londonfoodlink #UrbanFoodFortnight
    
2. Capital Growth is a London Food Link project, set up in 2008 to provide help to Londoners wanting to set up food growing spaces. Capital Growth provides its 2,000+ members with training and advice and has been supporting growing spaces that want to sell some of their London grown produce. www.capitalgrowth.org ‬‬‬‬‬‬@capital_growth
    
3. More details on above events:

• Global Generation’s ‘London Grows’ Moveable Feast, 22 September at the King’s Cross Skip Garden. They are holding several events during the fortnight including collaborations with the Urban Cordial Company, and a twilight gardening and dining club on 21 September. ​
   
• Tom’s Feast, 12 September will also include talks from Sustainable Fish Cities, Sustain’s campaign to protect precious marine environments and fishing livelihoods, and call for fish to be bought from sustainable sources. www.sustainweb.org/sustainablefishcity/
   
• Local to London: An Urban Food Fortnight Feast, 15 September, is one of a series of pop ups that Oliver Rowe hosts at London Cooking Project. The collaboration launched during last year’s Urban Food Fortnight.
   
• Toast Ale turns surplus bread into a pale ale. Originally brewed at Hackney Brewery, before relocating to Yorkshire, they are returning to London for a community brew at the Temple Brew House on 21 September. 
   
• Winners of the Urban Food Awards 2015, Clarkshaws Brewery return to Urban Food Fortnight with their highly successful community brew. Brewers from across London are invited to drop fresh hops off at the brewery within 24 hours of picking to get a share of this seasonal green hop beer. 
   
• The Harvest Stomp, 25 September, is a community festival celebrating those who Make, Grow and Do in the Capital in the Queen Elizabeth’s Olympic Park. 
   
• Foodisms Urban Food Challenge, 24 & 25 September, is a walking treasure hunt that guides participants through playful challenges led by local sustainable food initiatives to present their work and hand over the clues to their next stop. The hunt eventually leads all participants to a lunch prepared by Norman Loves at a top secret location. 
   
• The Urban Harvest Feast, 17 September, gardens across the capital expected to take part and invite Londoners to get a taste for their edible garden. www.capitalgrowth.org/events/opengardens/ 
   
• Pop-up Kimchi, 19 September, 5:30-9.30pm at The Table Restaurant, SE1 0HX.  Head chef and owner, Shaun Alpine-Crabtree, will be cooking up a storm whilst London kimchi producer Tickles of London teaches diners how to make their own kimchi at home. Tickets can be booked through Grub Club at www.grubclub.com/urban-food-fortnight
   
• The Urban Food Awards are the annual celebration of the best of London’s local larder. They recognise fantastic food and drink grown and made across the capital’s boroughs, and the small, community-focused producers behind them, run this year by The Mayor of London’s Food Team, London Food Link and Borough Market. www.sustainweb.org/londonfoodlink/awards/