Hot on the heels of Guinness x Meatopia in Dublin, the live fire festival came back to Tobacco Dock in London over the sunny weekend of 31st August – 2nd September for three days of flames, food, booze, demonstrations and dancing. If you aren’t familiar with Meatopia, it was founded in the US by the late Josh Ozersky over a decade ago, and subsequently brought to the UK by Richard H Turner. It’s described on their website as “a festival of high quality, ethically sourced meat, all cooked over ethically sourced wood and charcoal by some of the world’s leading top chefs.” This year also saw beer-writer Melissa Cole up the festival’s beer game with a strong line-up in the Craftopia room, featuring the likes of Marble, Siren and Harbour.
I made it over on super Sunday and stuffed my face for several hours with beautiful food from a multitude of chefs, washed down with a number of beers and Longflint G&Ts, occasionally stopping by the bandstand for a brass-fuelled boogie. There were too many tasty treats to name them all, but highlights included Ben Quinn’s cornish lamb shoulder, Ottolenghi’s sexy celeriac, Mark O’Brien’s smoked lamb hearts, Harneet Baweja & Nirmal Save’s butter chicken, Mirek Dawid’s roast beef, Elliot Cunningham’s aged beef burger, and Sam Bryant’s smoked face bacon. Hover over the photos below for more details, and be sure to keep an eye out for more Meatopia fun in 2019!
