taste of london with a twist

Sunday 28 June 2015 London, UK

If you didn't already know from my  Taste of London give away last week, I was lucky enough to be invited by freuds.com to go to the Taste of London event at Regents' park from the 17-21st of June. I went on the final Sunday with my dear friend Betsy! So I came, I tasted, I drank and I went back home with enough gorgeous foods in my belly to last me a week. So yeap! It was lots of fun, very yummy and the sun was out most of the day! But I will shock you because I decided not to talk about Taste of London in this post! sorry. If you want to know more why then scroll down!!












Here you are again !!  I am glad you decided to scroll down!!

So did you like my pictures? It tasted as good as it looked! apart perhaps the green bull, he was rather a bit chewy.

This post wont be really about all the amazing foods I ate, the latest new cocktail craze or the intriguing foie gras burger but something which I though was the highlight of this event and which was closer to my heart to talk about.
This highlight was to see Michel Roux jr  introducing his 8 new young apprentices that he is training right now. You may ask what's so exciting about that!? Well those new young chefs are all young people that either have learning disabilities, downs syndrome, are blind or have Tourette's BUT all of them, as young as they are, have one passion in common which is to work within the catering industry! They all have beautiful dreams like becoming chefs or to work in patisserie or in coffee shops and making amazing cappuccinos, or even to be waitress'...etc. All beautiful dreams but because of their different condition and the society we live in things are going to be rather difficult for them, but thanks to the amazing generosity of Michel Roux Jr those lovely bunch are being trained with one of the best chefs in the country.

At the arrival of Michel Roux Jr on the stage with his lovely bunch, my friend Betsy & I, were expecting him to show off his amazing culinary talent but no, instead he let his apprentices do the cooking while he introduced us to each of them along with his program. 
So yes indeed I was rather moved by this whole introduction. I do believe everyone of us is entitled to have the same right regardless your background, your mentality or physical illness. So seeing someone so passionate about cooking by helping disabled youngsters was rather moving!
Something that made Betsy and I laugh, was to find out that one the 1st day Michel Roux met his protégés he asked them to make him dinner, to his surprise or perhaps shock! One of his apprentices brought him a microwave ready meal! One of the best chef in the world renown for his haute cuisine and Michelin stars got offered a microwave meal was rather something to laugh about! He said it was the first time he partially ate a ready meal and certainly the last time!
But on a more serious note, his program is to help those young apprentices get the real tools, partnership and learning for their future career. To get them as ready as he possibly can to kick down the doors closed to them due to their disability.
One more thing, we found out that an upcoming Channel 4 show will be following those apprentices with Michel Roux jr on their learning journey! This show could help open people's minds and hopefully employers in the catering industry may think twice and realise the potential these young apprentices have to offer. So for that I am 100% behind it!

So there you have it, my highlight of Taste of London.










Also a little thank you to siobhan one of my two winners (please check her great Taste of London post here) and sorry Rachel, my other winner, due to ticket issue she couldn't go but I will not forget about you a lil surprise will come your way soon to make it up for it! Also please do check her amazing blog here!

Have you been to Taste of London? what do you think of Michel Roux Jr's apprenticeship? Tell me all by commenting below.

Marie
xxx

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