Dining

The Great Feast review: An experiential eating experience with a gourmet twist

The Great Feast Joyride menu features a beetroot heart

Seven of London’s hottest chefs have partnered to produce The Great Feast, a festive foodie fantasia that can be enjoyed in The Old Selfridges Hotel in the run up the Christmas. 

Offering a mouth-watering selection of bites, plus an experiential all-plant joyride, it’s a novel night out with a gourmet twist. Team TLR tried it out and had a blast.

Running until December 18, the shindig is the brainchild of Dominic Cools-Lartigue, who also gave us Street Feast, the Tramshed Project in Shoreditch and food charity A Plate For London.

Menu contributions come from Andrew Wong and Tom Sellers, who both have two Michelin stars to their name, plus Ravinder Bhogal, Adejoké Bakare, Selin Kiazim, Chantelle Nicholson, and Jason Howard.

Each chef has contributed two small dishes, served from a 50-metre bar dubbed the Counter of Joy. You can sample the various bites on offer or opt for the seven course tasting menu. There’s a good split between meat, fish and plant.

Each chef has contributed two small dishes, served from a 50-metre bar dubbed the Counter of Joy…

Hot Oyster off the menu of The Great Feast
Tom Seller’s Hot Oyster

We found plenty to enjoy. The Wagyu Pastrami Crumpet (from Tom Sellers) is a delicious meaty indulgence, while the Aloo Ghobi and cheddar croquettes with carrot Achaar (by Ravinder Bhogal) are alarmingly moorish.

Other favourites included the Hot Oyster with caviar and Bergamot (from Tom Sellers), and unapologetically noshable Deep-Fried Salt & Vinegar Brussel Sprouts, (courtesy of Chantelle Nicholson).

Inside The Old Selfridges Hotel event space with guests
Inside The Old Selfridges Hotel event space

The Great Feast has a theme park feel, as you migrate from The Magic Garden, with live music, to that Counter of Joy and then onto Wonky Dreams. The latter, a dessert and cocktail bar for decadent Christmas treats like the Party Popper Pine Cone, a chocolate cone with a cranberry centre and crunchy waffle bits, served with a party popper that contains cardamom powder (top tip: aim this down at the plate, and not at fellow diners).

If you’ve still room, sample the Oozing Cherry Pie with Brandy Ice Cream. It goes down a treat with a prosecco or two.

Food anthropologist Caroline Hobkinson
Food anthropologist Caroline Hobkinson and Bang & Olufsen HX wireless headphones

For something entirely different, the Great Feast offers Joyride, an experiential eating experience . Here you get to don one of 12 Bang & Olufsen HX wireless headphones and explore a three ‘chapter’ plant-based menu, complete with narration and atmospheric sound effects. The sensory journey is inspired by the sea, forests and mountains, with dishes that appear to be one thing but are in fact another.

Joyride is the creation of food anthropologist Caroline Hobkinson and chef Andrew Clarke. I’m not entirely sure that naming a gory looking beetroot a ‘Venison Heart’ (pictured top) will tickle vegetarian taste buds, but it certainly creates a buzz around the floating table.

The Great Feast ticket prices: General admission £20; Counter of Joy tasting menu £100; Joyride £60. Tickets to The Great Feast are available here.


About Steve May

Creator of Home Cinema Choice magazine, and editor of The Luxe Review, Steve muses and reviews for Trusted Reviews, T3, Yahoo UK, Home Cinema Choice, Games Radar, Ideal Home, Louder Sounds, Channel News and Boat International. He’s also the editor of professional home cinema website Inside CI. He's on Twitter and Instagram as @SteveMay_UK

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