Plans for The London Restaurant Festival are at an advanced stage as more than 400 eateries have signed-up to be involved and some dozen events have been confirmed.
The six-day festival takes place from 8-13 October. Those restaurants that have registered with www.londonrestaurantfestival.com have been issued with guidelines and advice on preparing festival menus.
The festival will be a highly-publicised, city-wide celebration of eating out and raising the profile of those establishments involved. It was created by Fay Maschler and Simon Davis, her business partner in the consultancy A Private View, and is supported by Visit London and Mayor Boris Johnson.
The London Restaurant Festival will open with a launch event, to be held at Quaglino's on 7 October and co-hosted by Vanity Fair magazine. The festival's finale will be the London Restaurant Festival Awards, in association with the London Evening Standard on 13 October.
Other activities planned during the six-day event include an 80-cover pop-up restaurant on the roof of London department store Selfridges, an Eat Film movie programme and the Big Roast, where top London chefs will feed several hundred people on 11 October at Leadenhall Market.
A Gourmet Odyssey planned for lunchtime on 10 October will take people on a tour involving nine of London's most celebrated restaurants via a fleet of liveried Routemaster buses. Each bus will take guests to three different restaurants for a starter, main course and dessert. The tour will start and finish with a glass of Mumm Champagne at the exclusive Met Bar in Mayfair, and on-board each bus will be a restaurant critic or chef to guide guests through the tour.
Founding Partners of the London Restaurant Festival include Visit London, A Private View and Tim Etchells of Single Market Events. Festival Partners include Vanity Fair, Covent Garden London, Toptable.com, Eureka Executive Search, Taste and London Evening Standard.
For more information on the festivities and how to book tickets, visit www.londonrestaurantfestival.com
