I ate London!
On the weekend of 28 April 2007, Trafalgar Square became the venue for an extraordinary event that quickened the heartbeat of food-lovers across town: 14 volunteer groups from across London created what can only be called a triumph of the imagination: an edible map of London. Imagine the Square occupied by buildings made of samosas, sandwiches, muffins and delicious sweetmeats – yes, dare to dream! 
The news had spread quickly: When I arrived, Trafalgar Square was overcrowded as usual, but this time all the people going there had just one idea on their mind: to eat London!
Eat London is a festival organised by Ali&Cia, led by Alicia Rios and Barbara Ortiz, and Lift, the London International Festival of Theatre. The idea for the event was inspired by the two women’s affinity for playing with food to reinterpret their surroundings. They created hats, libraries, logos and even whole cities, which then resulted into the creation of a large edible map of London.
The project, which ended on Saturday 28th April in Trafalgar Square, drew together fourteen volunteer teams from social clubs, community centres, societies and organizations from different areas of London. For three months, over 200 volunteers wandered through the streets of London, scrutinising the city and inspecting every inch of its landmark buildings to then discuss the recipes for each of them. That’s how Project Phakama UK designed the Gherkin with black and white grapes layered over an Emmental base, or how the London Eye has been transformed into Pizza by the Organic Café CIC.
This project was an opportunity to bring together people from different backgrounds and areas of London. The people participating were from the London Boroughs of Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets, Islington, Harringay, Southwark, Greenwich and Waltham Forest.
Their cuisine represented the diversity of London. Each group worked on a part of the city which contained several famous buildings, parks and streets. The main dishes were sandwiches, rice, vegetables and cakes, but there was also a stand where samosas and onion pakoras could be sampled. The Eastwards Trust – Saadi Centre was in charge of Tower Bridge, Tower of London and the City Hall and made them spicy!
After a final retouch, the teams brought the 14 sections under a central marquee. Journalists, participants and visitors could thus admire the appetizing city, trying to recognize the sights among the grapes and grains of rice, an opportunity to decide where to dig in first.
The event was short and tasty; beginning with the different organizers welcoming the people and explaining that was not only an afternoon of tasting, but an occasion to make Trafalgar Square the place where everybody, from North to South London, from Vietnamese to Bengali, was able to share their city, their culture and their food.
Shortly after the teams escorted their sections of the map back to the serving tents, the public was invited to taste London. Long queues quickly built up and as you waited to be served, you coul
d chat to the people who created the sections and find out more about food creations.
By 4.00 pm the event came to an end and the organizers tidied and scraped together what had remained - that is to say almost nothing!
The first event of this kind took place was in Melbourne in 2004 where it met with immediate a success. One of the original ideas behind this event was to realize one’s desire to eat a particular building: imagine chewing on Buckingham Palace, and feeling St Paul Cathedral melting on your tongue! Now if you see people with badges saying “I ate London”, remember that it is not a bad joke!
By Lucie Duboquet
Check out the amazing food creations at Eat London!
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