The British Embassy hosted GREAT Britain Food and Festival at Tribeca Park, Central Park Mall, Jakarta. Held in the weekend, 23-25 October 2015, this festival aims to celebrate British food, drink, and culture.
“We hope this event attracts many people to learn about our cuisines. There are thousands of new farmers and manufacturers ready to produce various English food products. I hope this festival grow understanding and trust between our countries for a long term,” said Juliet Maric Capelling OBE, British Deputy Head of Mission to Indonesia and Timor Leste.
“The combination of food heritage and strong international influences means our food culture amongst the most exciting in the world. Come along this weekend and discover for yourself what makes British food great,” said Moazzam Malik, British Ambassador to Indonesia, ASEAN, and Timor Leste.
The British Embassy invited Gary Rhodes OBE, a celebrity chef who wrote more than 20 books and owns multiple-Michelin-starred restaurants as a guest of honour and GREAT Britain Food Ambassador. He demonstrated his British cooking and explained the uniqueness of British cuisine.
“We use mostly seasonal and local ingredients. It makes our food and cooking techniques different from one to other season,” said Gary Rhodes.
In his live cooking demonstration, he cooked Scottish Salmon with Fennel; Grilled Chicken with Carrot, Celeriac, and Courgette; and Raspberry Clafoutis. Although he used British ingredients for his cooking, Gary explained that the ingredients can always be substituted with local ingredients.
Chef Dea Annisa, a chef who hosts various TV programs such as Wondercooks of Foodie Channel and Dapur Nova of K-Vision, assisted Gary on his demo. After Gary Rhodes’ live cooking demonstration, she also did a baking demonstration on her takes of British classic dessert, Banoffee Pie.
To gather all the food lovers, various F&B tenants participated in this event. There are Pizza Express, Bakerzin, Hendrick’s Gin, Twinings, Britatoes, and Lemia Cupcakes. There are also various travel agents that offers special promo especially British tour package like Bayu Buana and Shilla Tour.
Not only selling their products, tenants also participated in making special demo and events to entertain visitors. Hendrick’s Gin shows their craftsmanship in making gin and tonic at a workshop they held on the Friday night. The next night, Britatoes shows the visitors that making potato dish with British twist can be as easy as ABC at their cooking demo.
Saturday afternoon also became colourful with the appearance of tea expert Ratna Somantri in a tea party hosted by Royal Albert. Various competitions such as PizzaExpress’ dough-flared competition and the British Embassy’s Fish and Chips cooking competition gave more exciting vibes for every visitor of this festival.
All the music lovers entertained by numerous bands such as Laid This Nite, Lip Gloss, and GPluck played every night.
GREAT Britain Food and Drink Festival in Jakarta is the first ever British Embassy’s event that focused on celebrating British food, drink, and culture. It aims to give everyone chance to learn about the British culture through the entertainment of a traditional British country food celebration.
Tags: british food festival, uk food festival, central park mall, tribeca park