Top chefs pose for Taste of London

Six top London chefs have posed for a quirky photo shoot to mark the launch of Taste of London, which starts today and runs until Sunday 19 June in Regent’s Park. The festival will include a trio of dishes from 40 of the capital’s most exciting restaurants, cooking demonstrations, masterclasses and live entertainment.

Among the chefs to step up to the plate was Monica Galetti, former sous chef of Le Gavroche, who is soon to open her first solo venture, Mere, in Fitzrovia. Proving she’s a good sport, Galetti was pelted with flour in honour of her love of bread. “You can’t beat the smell and taste of freshly baked bread. The shoot was great fun and the results are striking,” she said.

Ben Tish, chef director of the Salt Yard group, which includes Salt Yard in Fitzrovia, Dehesa and Ember Yard in Soho and Opera Tavern in Covent Garden, was coated in sticky honey for the shoot. “We use a lot of honey at the restaurants – it’s especially delicious when drizzled over our deep fried courgette flowers. I never thought it would be drizzled over me though,” he joked.

Francesco Mazzei, formerly of L’Anima in the City and recently crowned the head chef of Sartoria in Mayfair, was bathed in olive oil. “I love good quality Italian olive oil, the smell and flavour is fantastic and can really enhance a dish. Today I was that dish. It was fantastic fun but I think it may take a while to get out of my hair,” he said.

The intrepid Pascal Aussignac, a chef at Michelin-starred French restaurant Club Gascon in Smithfield was “tattooed” with squid ink for the shoot. “I love squid and all seafood, so it was only right that I should cement that love by having it tattooed on my back. Maybe I will have the real deal next,” he revealed.

To express his undying love for mackerel, endless innovator Dan Doherty, executive chef of Duck & Waffle in the Heron Tower, was turned into the silvery fish via body paint. ‘I’m a big fan of mackerel, but I never imagined I’d be transformed into one. There’s a first for everything,” he said.

And finally… Ana Morris, a chef at Islington rotisserie restaurant LeCoq, donned a decadent headdress made entirely of pastel-coloured meringues. “I was never going to complain about having my head piled high with delicious, fluffy meringues, my utter favourite. I may have snuck a few into my mouth,” she quipped.