Obsessed Live heads to London!
We’re still buzzing from our Obsessed Live last Friday!
Our team of talented tastemakers and industry shakers took the London Zoo by storm, transforming it into a fun playground of creativity. Over 150 guests experienced our Obsessed culture come to life with epic displays and mouth-watering bites, while learning from some of the best in our business.
We’ve shaken things up this time. Guests were handed special envelopes upon arrival, each one holding the keys to interactive masterclasses and immersive experience sessions. A few lucky attendees even found a golden ticket, granting them access to Zoo Nights and the Wild Bites Street food market featuring 15 of Fuel’s partners, including Pabellon, Rice Guys, and Chatty Patty.
Chef Academy and the Project Knead team – Stephen, Rik, Debbie, and Sophie – joined forces, challenging guests to showcase their ‘Competitive Edge’ with a pizza-making contest which involved hand-stretching pizza dough to 10-inches, flipping it twice in the air, and adding tomato sauce. The fastest recorded time was 27 seconds!
For those craving ready-made delights, panuozzo’s, an italian pizza style sandwich, was on the menu, including a lamb salami panuozzo with truffle crème fresh, cipollini onions, and salsa verde.
Chef Billy served up okonomiyaki, a popular Japanese street food dish made completely with Waste Knot veggies – including leek, kewpie mayo, bulldog sauce, sesame, bacon, and bonito flakes.
Fuel also launched their brand-new initiative ‘Fuel Icons’. To mark South Asian Heritage Month, the first Icon, Rinku Dutt, delighted guests with two of her signature recipes – onion pakoras and Indo-Chinese chilli chicken.
The Royal Academy of Arts apprentices, Jude, Megan, and Louie, along with mentor and Executive Chef, Chris Terry and Regional Culinary Lead, Chris Jarman, hosted ‘The Chefs Table’ experience. Guests were treated to a starter, main course, and dessert, each prepped and dished up by our apprentices, allowing them to put their craft and creativity into action.
Louie kicked things off with a charred cured salmon starter with apple, kale, cucumber, and dill. Megan wowed everyone for the mains, creating a zero-waste Filipino tortang talong – an aubergine omelette with a green mango, radish, and peach salad, and banana ketchup garnished with seasonal produce and herbs from her location’s rooftop garden. Jude wrapped things up with a special zero-waste rum baba dessert paired with celeriac and apple. What a team, and we can’t wait to see what they do next!
Our Beverage Academy created a selection of seasonal summer sips to complement the delicious bites on offer. Team Extract and Barista Trainer Chloe Walsh kept the drinks flowing, providing guests with a morning, noon, and night offering. Starting with a ‘Chilled Cherry Cold Brew’ paired with pain au boudin noir, followed by a ‘Berry Breeze’ paired with lamb belly and finally the ‘Berry Mint Fizz’ paired with a bouillabaisse, compte curd, and champagne hollandaise. On the terrace, our Beverage partner, Dan Fellows shook things up with his Cocktail Masterclass as guests learned to craft the perfect espresso martini.
Chef partner Bettina Campolucci Bordi made beans the star of her Chefs Table session, wowing guests with a chilled leek, kale, and white bean soup alongside grilled focaccia, followed by a coco bean succotash with charred corn and broad bean puree and Lake District bean patty.
The afternoon was a hit with team members coming together to learn, showcase their expertise, talent, and innovation. We can’t wait to do it all over again at our next Obsessed Live!
Check out the photos below and watch the Obsessed Live London highlights reel here.
