Pie Crust to Upper Crust
Embankment Tube, Villiers Street exit | Map
Guided by Ann
Short version: Culinary Destinations – Afoot, Fooding & Feasting in The Strand & Covent Garden.
Long version: Take a walk along the Strand. 140 years ago the lower classes bought ham sandwiches in the street here, while the upper classes were eating the magnificent delights prepared for them at the Savoy Hotel by the king of chefs and chef of kings, Auguste Escoffier. You’ve eaten the peach Melba he created – Ann will give you some more of his glamorous peach recipes to run up at home.
Julia Child version: "People who love to eat are always the best people."
This walk covers London’s foodie history in and around the Covent Garden district, best known nowadays for shopping and eating, but for centuries the biggest market in the country for fruit and veg. The first tv chef, the best selling cookery author of all time, the muffin man of Drury Lane all make an appearance, as does that iconic English dish roast beef. We’ll avoid the crowd by taking some of the peaceful back streets and alleyways, and if we’re lucky we may end with a real cup of English tea.
PIE CRUST TO UPPER CRUST – THE PRACTICALS
The Pie Crust to Upper Crust Foodies walk takes place at 10.45 am on the following Saturdays: February 9, May 11, August 10, and October 26. The meeting point is just outside the Villiers Street exit of EmbankmentTube.
N.B. the walk takes about two hours and ends at Twinings, the legendary old tea dealer's across the street from the Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand (and a three-minute walk from TempleTube). See our dedicated Foodies' London page for all of the Foodies' London Walks Ann does (four completely different, regularly scheduled, public walks and a Chocoholics' London Walk that can be booked privately).
LONDON WALKS HORS D'OEUVRE
"Definition of 'muffin worry' – an old ladies' tea party."
LONDON WALKS VIDEO
The video is of Ann's Epicurean, Gourmets', Foodies' London Walk but it'll give you an idea of what a Foodies' London Walk is like (and it also showcases the calibre of the guiding).
LONDON WALKS REVIEWS
"Even jaded Londoners find these London Walks a source of astonishing gems of information about the city in which they live." Daily Mail, Top London Treats
LONDON WALKS PRIVATE WALKS
If you can't catch the regularly scheduled, just turn up, public Foodies' London walks Ann conducts, by all means give some thought to booking one (or more) of them as a private walk. You go private you can have whichever walk you want whenever you want it – rather than having to cleave to the public walks schedule. We'll suit your convenience, tailor it to your requirements. Just give Fiona or Noel a ring on 020 7624 3978 – or email us at london@walks.com – and we'll set it up for you and make it happen.
GIVE THE GIFT OF LONDON WALKS
It goes without saying that a private Foodie's London walk makes a brilliant – and unusual – Christmas or birthday gift for a partner, family member, friend or colleague who champions the stuff (likes fine food, likes fine food finds). Memories make us rich.