A Feast for the Lens: Shooting the Le Cordon Bleu London Summer Festival
Some events hand you photographs. Others make you work for them. The Le Cordon Bleu London Summer Festival did both; a full day of demonstrations, tastings, and workshops spread across the school's Bloomsbury campus, where every floor promised something different and the light never stayed the same for long.
Arrival: A Culinary Passport
The festival leaned into a travel theme from the moment guests walked in. Each visitor received a Le Cordon Bleu "passport" and a culinary visa; a playful touch that set the tone for a day of hopping between food cultures. Floor signage in the school's signature style pointed the way: café on the ground floor, games and demonstrations above, workshops and wine tastings higher still. As a photographer, details like these are gifts for me. They anchor the story of an event before a single dish has been plated.
The Main Event: Indonesian Woku in the Demonstration Kitchen
The heart of the day was a demonstration built around the cooking of Petty Pandean-Elliott, author of The Indonesian Table and The Indonesian Vegetarian Table; both published by Phaidon, and both sitting proudly on the kitchen counter in their striking red and green covers.
The dish being taught: a spicy seafood woku spaghetti with tomato and lemongrass. Woku is a fragrant, fiery spice paste from Manado in North Sulawesi, and the mise en place alone was worth the trip. Before the demonstration began, I photographed the ingredient plate; a tumble of bird's eye chillies, lemongrass, spring onions, garlic, fresh turmeric, galangal, ginger, shallots, limes, and vine tomatoes. Colour, texture, and story all on one white plate.
The demonstration kitchen itself is a photographer's playground. An angled overhead mirror runs the length of the stainless-steel counter, giving the audience; and the camera; a bird's-eye view of every chop and stir, while wall-mounted screens relay close-ups of the chefs at work. The room filled quickly, every seat taken, guests following along with printed recipe cards as the chefs in their whites and Le Cordon Bleu-crested jackets built the dish layer by layer.
William in his tropical leaf-print shirt smiles at my camera from his seat in a clasroom-style demonstration room, with rows of attendees seated at small side tables around him.
The audience
A full house for the demonstration, recipe cards in hand. Rooms like this are a gift for candid photography — everyone's attention pointed the same way, nobody watching the camera.
Around the Festival: Tastings and Producers
Beyond the demo kitchen, the festival gathered a brilliant line-up of producers, and each stand offered its own visual character.
BG Fish Supplies, a family-run fishmonger, ran a seafood station straight out of a still-life painting: oysters dressed with shallot mignonette on a deep blue ceramic plate, Peruvian-style scallop ceviche studded with sweetcorn, and a bowl of sesame-scattered tuna poke served in little wooden boats nestled into crushed ice and dark seaweed. The Le Cordon Bleu chefs plating alongside them worked with the kind of quiet precision that makes candid photography easy.
Brindisa brought Spain to the second floor. Their carver worked a whole leg of Jamón de Bellota 100% Ibérico; Los Pedroches DO, 2022 añada; laying paper-thin slices across a wooden board in neat, glistening rows. Nearby, a spread of Spanish cheeses waited on butcher's paper, alongside recipe cards for a goat's curd Basque cheesecake by La Maritxu. The jamón carving was one of my favourite sequences of the day: hands, knives, and centuries of craft in a single frame.
Joli's chilli condiments added a pop of red to the tables; jars of smoked garlic chilli and super hot garlic peperoncino, several wearing Great Taste award badges. And throughout the day, dumplings sizzled in pans at the pop-up stations while the bar poured English sparkling wine; London Clay brut; alongside an alcohol-free Kamptal aperitif for those pacing themselves.
The wine bar
English sparkling wine; London Clay brut; poured alongside an alcohol-free Kamptal aperitif, with tasting glasses lined up and catching the window light.
Shooting Notes
Food events like this one are a lesson in switching gears. One minute you're shooting wide in a packed lecture theatre under mixed ceiling lighting; the next you're leaning over a bed of crushed ice trying not to fog the lens. The blue accent lighting in the tasting rooms pushed white balance around all afternoon, and the overhead mirror in the demonstration kitchen created reflections that were either a problem or an opportunity, depending on the angle.
But that's the appeal. A festival like this is really dozens of small stories; a guest studying a recipe card, a chef reaching for tongs, a wedge of blue cheese catching the window light; and the job is simply to be there when they happen.
All photographs shot on location at Le Cordon Bleu London. If you're planning a food event and need coverage, get in touch through the contact page.
The cheese table
A spread of Spanish cheeses on butcher's paper at the Brindisa stand, from smoked wedges to marbled blues, alongside recipe cards for a goat's curd Basque cheesecake by La Maritxu.
Cheese tasting
Cubes of Spanish cheese set out for tasting beside the Basque cheesecake recipe cards; the kind of detail shot that tells you how generous an event was long after it's over.
Jars of smoked garlic chilli and super hot garlic peperoncino from Joli, several wearing Great Taste award badges — a welcome pop of red among the festival's blues.
Dumplings
A pan of dumplings mid-fry at one of the pop-up stations. Steam, shine, and a pair of tongs — sometimes that's the whole photograph.
Scallop ceviche
Peruvian-style scallop ceviche studded with sweetcorn, served in little wooden boats nestled straight into the ice. Some dishes barely need styling — you just have to get low enough.
Oysters
Freshly shucked oysters dressed with a shallot mignonette, served on deep blue ceramic over crushed ice and seaweed at the BG Fish Supplies station.
The jamón carving
Brindisa's carver working a whole leg of Jamón de Bellota 100% Ibérico; Los Pedroches DO, 2022 añada; laying paper-thin slices across the board in neat, glistening rows. One of my favourite sequences of the day: hands, knives, and centuries of craft in a single frame.
The fish station
Le Cordon Bleu chefs plating alongside the team from BG Fish Supplies, a family-run fishmonger. Watching professionals work a busy station is a masterclass in quiet, repeatable precision.