The greatest place to fall off a diet and taste new cultures

up by warm, fresh roti, tempting tacos and restorative plates of tagliatelle. We like our eggs done 18 ways, our dim sum authentic and we want our chicken with spice, crunch and extra va-va-voom.

We are a city of amateur restaurant critics, flexing our Oyster cards to check out food trucks, markets and pop-ups. While some of us get in a tizzy about molecular gastronomy, others dream all week about the grilled cheese sandwich truck, or a warm, fresh salt beef bagel in Whitechapel at 3am, after the shift from hell.

London is the greatest city on earth to fall off a diet, eat new things, taste new cultures. Here at the Standard, we think it’s time to stake our claim as “the best in the world” with more vigour.

As creative director of London Food Month, alongside fellow director Tom Parker Bowles, I’m curating a city-wide smorgasbord of food events. Banquets, supper clubs and special one-off shindigs. There’ll be nights across the capital by international award-winning chefs as well as head-spinning collaborations between London’s finest culinary minds, from Michelin star-winners to home-taught heroes.

There will be talks and performances as well as masterclasses in cooking, growing and entertaining. Find out what chefs eat on their nights off and eavesdrop on London kitchen gossip. Stay out all night at some slightly scary supper clubs. Set your alarm to try some of our extra-brilliant breakfasts. Let us make you bolder with brunch choices, efficient with your 40 minutes of lunch-time freedom and wildly assertive with your afternoon tea booking.

London Food Month will also see our beloved restaurant critic Fay Maschler curate a list of her absolute favourite places to eat in London in 2017. Plus, over several evenings we’ll take over a famous London park to present the very best of what the city serves, from legendary London restaurants to squadrons of street food stalls, all representing London on a plate.

There will be big names, thrilling newcomers and a chance to eat a new dish from your firm favourites. Come for dinner, stay for our open-air cinema, for cocktails, DJ sets, performances and appearances by chefs, celebrities, thinkers and stars of the London food scene.

Meanwhile, in another part of the city, London Food Month will be working alongside The Felix Project to raise awareness of food waste and responsibility. We know that in our darkest times, food restores us, brings us together and makes everything a little lighter. Through working with The Felix Project we aim to share the knowledge, experience and time of hundreds of London chefs to make an impact on the problem of hunger, food waste and loneliness.

Please stay tuned for more details of London Food Month over the coming weeks. And perhaps buy some slightly looser-fitting outfits. London Food Month is coming — we’ll be eating the entire world, in one city, 24 hours a day. London loves food and we’re here to prove it.

‘There will be big names, thrilling newcomers and a chance to eat a new dish from your firm favourites’