Competition

It's increasingly becoming one of the ways in which a restaurant can really showcase the kitchen's creativity and now there's a special event devoted to the bread course. This October, eight London restaurants and bakeries are going to be pitted against each other in the city's inaugural Bread and Butter-Off 2026.

The event, sponsored by Kerrygold of course, will take place at 40FT Brewery's Walthamstow base. It's the brainchild of hospitality industry website Countertalk, who have picked the participants. A judging panel of experts including chef Jeremy Lee and Toad Bakery's

We want to hear your thoughts on eating out in London this year. 

We've had the Scotch Egg Challenge, the Slider Decider, the Croquetas Challenge and Wing Fest. Now London is about to see a new food competition setting restaurants against each other. The MHK Meatball competition held at Mortimer House Kitchen this month will feature chefs from eight top London restaurants competing with their interpretation of the humble meatball.

For one night the restaurant's Executive

Last night saw eight London restaurants battling it out for this year's Croquetas Challenge. It's the sixth year that the competition has been run by the Salt Yard Group and the sixth year we've been judging it, so we couldn't wait to see what this year's finalists brought to our table.

Held at Salt Yard Borough after two tightly-contested heats here's what the restaurants served up last

Over the past few years we've enjoyed being part of the judging panel for the annual Croquetas Challenge run by the Salt Yard Group. So we're delighted to be able to reveal that the event is back again for 2023 with some interesting competitors already signed up.

In the run-up to the final on 6 June, the group will be arranging two heats in May when restaurants from across the city will compete.

We're very big fans of pate en croute here at Hot Dinners, so news of the return of Maison Francois' Croute Off has cheered us immensely. Just as you'd expect, it has some of London's best restaurants getting together to compete for the best pate en croute of 2022. 

There's a pretty impressive list of names involved too, many already producing some pretty fine croutes at their own restaurants They

A sign that the London restaurant scene is fully getting its post-lockdown mojo back again came last night with the return of the annual Croquetas Challenge. Last held in 2019, the event hosted by the Salt Yard Group was back with a bang.

After several highly competitive heats over the past weeks, seven finalists gathered at

Nieves Barragan's Sabor is one of the most highly-rated Spanish restaurants in London (with a Michelin star to boot). Here's one of her recipes to try at home, created in collaboration with Estrella Galicia - and there's also a chance to win a box from Sabor too.  

There are a few key food competitions in the London calendar that we always pay attention to - namely the Scotch Egg Challenge, the Croqueta Challenge and the Great Sausage Roll Off. 

It's the last of those that we turn our attention to today. This competitive sausage roll competition, held at The Red Lion pub in Barnes, has been going since 2013. Described (by themselves) as "a bit like the X-Factor meets Masterchef," they pitch it as "an

Forget the Met Ball or Ascot, clearly the best dressed list you should be much more interested in is the Best Dressed Irish Oyster competition. Hot Dinners headed over to Wright Bros in Battersea yesterday to help judge the third annual event. Following a series of heats, 12 of the UK's top seafood chefs were in London to battle it out for the title.

We joined chef Henry Harris and the wonderfully titled professional 'Ostrelier' Katy Davidson

Updated 25/9/19 with finalists' details

If the impending arrival of Autumn (if it isn't here already) has you depressed, then we have some good news to counter that. September may mean the end of the hols and back to work, but it also means that the Salt Yard Group Croqueta Challenge is just around the corner.

We've ...

OK - how good does this sound? The lovely Fred Sirieix, fresh from another series of pairing up romance-searchers on First Dates, has just announced his latest TV show.

He and chef (and the original co-founder of Leon) Allegra McEvedy - are going to be the hosts of Restaurant Dream Team. But this is no primetime show - it's actually going to be on CBBC.

In a post on Instagram today Fred said: "we are on the hunt for the “Restaurant Dream

Update 20/11/18 - the whole series is now available on Netflix right here (assuming you're signed up). Episode 3 is the UK one and yes, the American host's understanding of current British cuisine isn't exactly what we hoped for. Tell us what you thought in the comments below...

Original

If you're inspired by this year's Great British Menu to try some of the chef contestants' food, here's our guide to the London restaurants with chefs taking part, what to order and how much it costs to dine there.

If, like us, you enjoyed watching the lovely Fred Sirieix on the Million Pound Menu then the good news is he's coming back. BBC Two have just ordered a second series of the restaurant business show.

If you didn't catch the first one - recap, it's like Dragon's Den for restaurateurs with industry experts offering their mentoring