Blaggers' Goodie Bags by Food by Mark

Cecilia and Mark had a fantastic time at the Blaggers’ Banquet. By all accounts it was a sensational success, with over £6,000 being raised for Action Against Hunger. If you want to read more about the event from a variety of perspectives then have a look at…

The early stages…

and this post by Gin and Crumpets about the initial get together at the Draft House

The frantic preparations… by Princess and the Pea and Scandilicious

The view from the pass… by Gourmet Chick and Kavey Eats

The wine experts’ perspective… by Fiona Beckett and The Wine Sleuth

A photographer’s snapshot by Food by Mark whose image is at the top of this post

And most importantly devour Niamh’s amazingly moving post…

But the fun hasn’t stopped. And neither has the fund-raising. If you visit the Blaggers’ Banquet eBay store you can bid on the first batch of lots including:

An Interflora “Hamper for Him”
An awesome Kitchenaid Artisan Stand Mixer
A visit for two to Artisan du Chocolat Atelier
Afternoon Tea for Two at the Ritz
A White Christmas Tea Collection from the White Tea Company

And look out for your chance to bid on Mexican cookery lessons from none other than our very own Tommi!

Thanks to Food by Mark for the image – have a look at the rest of his fantastic images here.

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On Sunday night Mark and I went to the Blaggers’ Banquet event at the Hawksmoor Restaurant  - all to raise money for Action Against Hunger. It was taking the pop up restaurant to a new level with a team having never worked together blagging food from all over the country, creating a menu using these products and then cooking and serving the food to 50 rather fussy and well eaten individuals. An amazing feat for anyone and annoyingly they made it seem far too easy!

I will leave the true art of restaurant blogging to those who, with relative ease, did a pretty good job of running a restaurant on Sunday night but thought I would drop down a few reflections on a delicious meal.

Mathilde from Mathilde’s Cuisine was our waitress for the evening with Denise from The Wine Sleuth serving us some delicious wine – we were met by warm happy smiles all round which gave the evening a great personal and friendly feeling.

Each course was matched with a different wine but I stuck to the delicious Portugese wine from Casa Leal, called Quinta Lagoalva De Cima, for most of the evening which was incredibly enjoyable… mmm yes I was feeling a little weary on Monday morning thanks to the Wine Sleuth’s efficient pouring!

Ok so i’m not going to go through the whole menu but i took a few photos of my favourite parts.. starting with these canapes made of deep fried crispy chicken skin (or were they roasted)… a similar idea to our pork scratchings (but i think ours may be a lot healthier!) we would really love to put something like this on our menu.. such a treat to have alongside a drink – in fact i would have been satisfied if that was all i was given for the whole evening!

Lancashire Hot pot is the next thing I want to tell you about as it is such a school dish that gets ruined time and time again but this was so tender and flavoursome that I had seconds and thirds of it  - despite also having a melt in the mouth buffalo steak and a tasty beef stew, which was all soaked up with some good fresh bread blagged from St Johns.

This was all followed by a gooey chocolate fondant cake and some extraordinary “Titillating jellies” which the man i was sitting next to was finding hard to cut up! Cheese, coffee, wine, more wine and auctions (brilliantly led by Tim Hayward) followed which brought us all back to why we were all still there! We have donated and created for this one off occasion a voucher for a cooking class with Tommi for eight people and no more at one of the Wahaca restaurants. Two tickets were in the raffle, two were auctioned off and 4 more are to go online – click here to check out the auction list and it should be going up over the next week.

This is a great and different christmas present for any friend of relative who is interested in Mexican food or just food in general so make sure you all get bidding.

We are secretly hoping the bloggers set up permanent shop somewhere soon, however from the tired faces showing when we left on Sunday night i think they might revert back to blogging… will have to wait until next year!

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With the shops ferociously stocking up on a seemingly endless list of new food titles for us to read over Christmas, we thought it would be a good idea to check out what you think about the latest cookery books hitting the shelves. We find that it’s the best way to narrow down what we’re going to be asking Santa for this year.

We were very excited to see that Dan from Essex Eating has reviewed Coco, a book which has got to be right up there on the wish list. Needless to say we were also very jealous to read about the event that Phaidon had hosted to celebrate the books launch. It sounds like a night to remember.

Another enlightening review was penned by a forkful of spaghetti, this time for Tasmin Day-Lewis’ Supper For A Song, which definitely sounds like one we’re going to have to check out.

And if you’re looking for something a little different, it sounds like The Scandinavian Cookbook by Trina Hahnemann will be an amazing read, according to Helen from World Foodie Guide’s review.

So, if you’ve been hitting the shops early this year and want to help craft our Christmas list, please send us a link to your review. We have a feeling that there’s going to be some seriously heavy stockings at the end of our beds this year.

Niamh, from Eat Like a Girl, and a group of fellow food and wine bloggers are hosting The Food Blaggers’ Banquet at Hawksmoor in order to raise money for Action Against Hunger. Participating bloggers have blagged all the produce and supplies from generous companies and will be also be cooking and serving the guests.

In addition to the dinner there will be auction where you can bid to get your mitts on some fantastic lots, with the best one being a cooking lesson from none-other-than Tommi! Apparently there will be some items auctioned on the night and then the bidding will continue online for the following week or so.

So if you want to come along, visit the eBay store where you’ll find a few tickets are still on sale. We are going along and are looking forward to a fantastic evening.

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We have got lots of fun events planned… and will post about them here. They’re going to be a lot of fun and we can’t wait to get them started.

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