Taste East - A Unique Food Festival

Taste East is a free two day food festival that celebrates Spitalfields and the East End by telling its history through food, to take place on Friday 2nd March and Saturday 3rd March in the covered Crispin Place. Taste East is part of ‘East’ a festival championing the best of East London.

Besides an abundance of quality food stalls and traders, visitors will also find authentic East End flavours and dishes which reflect the cultural diversity of the area. A selection of local ‘hero’ restaurants will also be joining the festival.

As well as being able to taste, try and buy a huge selection of tantalising treats, a main stage will host a series of live food demonstrations; musical and kid’s entertainment can also be enjoyed throughout the two days.

Taste East – Festival Highlights:

Alongside a variety of stalls and culinary delights, all restaurants in Crispin Place (LEON, Canteen, Scarlet Dot) as well as local food shops (A Gold, Montezuma’s, Bedales, Oliviers & Co) will be joining in the festival spirit with food demonstrations, food stalls in their outside areas and wine & food tastings.

Green & Red and The Hawksmoor to host Taste East’s Cocktail Bar
Two of the East End’s hottest restaurants and bars have come together to host an exotic cocktail bar. Red & Green, winner of several awards including Evening Standard’s Best Bar, is celebrated for their superbly mixed tequila cocktails. They will host the Taste East bar headed up by legendary cocktail maker Nick Strangway, General Manager of The Hawksmoor, another of London’s leading cocktail bars. Nick will also be taking to the main stage along with his team to give live cocktail making demonstrations.

The Bollywood Brass Band have played festivals all over the world from Womad to the Venice Carnival, they will be performing at Taste East throughout Saturday 3rd March. The band is made up of funky drummers and a hot 6 piece horn section. Come and enjoy them play massive hits from Indian films, driven by the beat of the dhol drum!

Spitalfield’s City Farm, founded in the 70’s this local farm will be hosting a stall at the food festival. The city farm is a focus of food growing activity in Spitalfields through their ‘Backyard Farming’ and ‘Healthy Living’ projects; they also have a great farm shop. The Coriander Club is a group of Bangladeshi women who regularly meet at the farm and grow ethnic vegetables to both sell and use to make authentic cuisine, come and meet them at Taste East.

Café Spice Namaste. This much loved Indian restaurant in E1 was founded by Cyrus Todiwala who was awarded an MBE in recognition of his skill and commitment to the catering industry; his restaurant is one of the only Indian restaurants to win the BIB Gourmand Award from the Michelin Guide. Café Spice’s head chef will be giving a live food demonstration and their stall will offer some of their acclaimed Indian dishes.

St John’s Bread & Wine will be hosting a stall selling fresh bread from their famed bakery and a selection of dishes created especially for Taste East, they will also be doing wine tastings on Friday evening and giving an exclusive food demonstration on the main stage.

Montezuma’s ‘Britain’s Best Chocolates’ (Fine Food Digest). Award winning organic chocolate shop (one of Rick Stein’s food heroes) will be hosting chocolate tasting and launching their new hot drinks menu.

TeaSmith is a contemporary tea house in Old Spitalfields Market, founded by tea obsessive John Kennedy and his wife Tomoko Kawase, whose aim is to increase people’s appreciation of real tea and bring the beauty of tea back to Britain. Tea Smith will be hosting a stall where visitors can learn the art of making the perfect cup and sample some of the finest collection of teas in the UK. They can also hear about the relevance of the tea business to the historical development of the East end. As a nation we drink an estimated 196 million cups of tea of day!

Peter Gott from Sillfield Farm counts Jamie Oliver amongst his many fans. Peter is an award-winning farmer who produces some of the UK’s best pork produce from his Cumbrian farm. Farmer Gott will be giving live butchery demonstrations and visitors will also be able to purchase a selection of his famed produce at his stall.

Champagne and Scallop bar. Sip champagne and enjoy freshly prepared scallops at Taste East’s bar.

LOCATION: Crispin Place, E1 6DW (fully covered, off Brushfield Street, E1)
WEB: spitalfields.co.uk/
TUBE: Liverpool Street
DATES: Friday 2nd March (12pm -8pm) and Saturday 3rd March (12pm– 5pm)
EAST Festival website: findeast.co.uk