Tastes of Better London March 2023

The global ingredients giant is not holding back. IFF will offer thirsty guests a a zero-alcohol elderflower champagne with a plant-based parmesan crostini topped with black olive, tomato and basil. It will then serve a plant-based blueberry waffle with crispy ‘bacon’, a habanero and lime porkless scratching, and maple syrup. It will follow that with a plant-based beef rendang served with sticky rice, pickles, toasted coconut, nigella seeds and spring onions, then serve a plant-based chocolate orange brownie carob custard, topped with honeycomb and chocolate shards. And to round things off it will offer guests a lo-no rum and cola.

Crowd-pleasing favourites like burgers, sausages, chips, crisps and pasta pack Kemin’s menu, with the emphasis firmly on how Kemin’s rosemary-infused frying oils and antimicrobials help preserve and extend the look, taste and texture of various foods (and even the frying oil itself). Kemin plans a ‘before and after’ experience, which sounds like determined guests may have to keep eating hot crispy fries again and again until they can make up their minds. 

Keeping things coy, Sweegen is flying in from the US in with a top secret menu to accompany a full on sensory overload. It’s keeping the full menu under wraps to maximise the element of surprise, but has said its Signature Sweetener portfolio will feature, and promises guests will have multiple senses engaged while they choose what to eat and drink, to explore why consumers choose the things they do. 

Colourful and vibrant, Beneo’s menu starts with creamy tomato soup with plant-based meatballs, dubbed cheat’balls. That will be followed up with a faba bean and rice cracker topped with an on-trend textured tuna alternative. With appetites fired up, Beneo will then serve a butter chicken curry, made with meatless chicken chunks and roasted cauliflower. And it will follow that with a crunchy snack high in protein and fibre before rounding things off with a coconut and chocolate dessert, enriched with protein from faba beans and rice starch. 

Utilising the power of fermentation and mushroom mycelia, MycoTechnology will kick things off by waking up coffee lovers with a spiked oat latte, made with coffee and vodka blended with oatmilk and balanced with MycoClearIQ to produce a smooth, creamy drink (an alcohol-free version will also available). After that, it will serve up a vegan chick’n curry made with Myco FermentIQ texturised plant protein, garam masala, fresh ginger and garlic blended with fire roasted tomatoes, accompanied by a naan bread.