The London Restaurant Festival 2010

For the second year in a row London will be celebrating a city-wide festival, the London Restaurant Festival. This year's festival will be taking place from the 4th - 18th October 2010. The festival, founded by Fay Maschler of the Evening Standard, took London by storm in 2009. Some 450 restaurants took part in the inaugural event, with special festival menus. There were also other exclusive foodie events, such as Gordon Ramsay cooking on the London Eye, chef Pierre Koffmann opening a Restaurant on the Roof at Selfridges, and The Wolseley's "Festival Afternoon Tea".

This year the event will be supported by even more of Britain’s famous foodies. Back by popular demand, Gordon Ramsay will be cooking in the London Eye again. This dinner experience will be auctioned for the charity StreetSmart.

There will also be the Gourmet Odyssey, an event which sold out completely last year. Tickets to this event don’t come cheap at £135, but if you don’t want to miss your chance, click this link to book a ticket! Diners on the Odyssey will be chauffeured around the city on an old route master on one of four gourmet routes through Piccadilly, Mayfair, Belgravia, and Park Lane.

Whilst there are these more expensive events going on at the festival, there will be other less expensive events too. There will be a live debate (Janet Street Porter and Rosie Boycott versus Jonathan Meades and AA Gill) on the motion: Is French food a spent force? Tickets to watch the live debate are £18.50, which includes drinks and canapés. There will also be a live food quiz, a mobile street kitchen, and all manner of other exciting foodie events. See the Visit London website for more information on the London Restaurant Festival, or to book tickets to any of the festival events.

Written by: Emily Boyd