London, foodie capital: let’s celebrate that

ONE of the most remarkable features of contemporary London, an aspect of its global, cosmopolitan character, is that it is now one of the great gastronomic capitals of the world. The increasing prosperity of the city has allowed more and more people to eat out — a trend that has been undiminished since the referendum — and the influx of people from all over the world means that what we eat is now remarkably diverse. If you want to eat Vietnamese, Peruvian, Sicilian or Ethiopian, you can do it here.

This extraordinary food culture is what this paper is celebrating in our London Food Month in June. It will take place all over the city with the highlight being an outdoor dining event called the Night Market in a London park which will take place over 12 nights from June 7 and will replicate the city’s street-food scene. The festival as a whole will include events with London’s most celebrated chefs. One recent development has been the number of top restaurants in other capitals who have set up establishments here; why should food lovers travel to Paris or Madrid if they can eat their finest dishes here? But we should not forget that England has its own admirable culinary tradition: the focus will be on local and national produce and on British as well as global cooking.

The festival will, in fact, embrace good food in all its forms: its partner charity, The Felix Project, brings attention to the issue of food waste, which has been given renewed attention in a recent Evening Standard campaign. We shall be publishing the festival programme in April: we hope readers will come and enjoy it.