Sophie Rushton-Smith To Run TTC

We are delighted to announce that Sophie Rushton-Smith from The Corner Plot will be coordinating this year's Top Tooting Cook Competition at Foodival on the 14 September. 

Sophie was Top Tooting Cook in 2015

In 2015 Sophie won the prestigious TTC award for her use of locally grown vegetables to make a delicious colourful roast vegetable medley. 

Who will be this year's Top Tooting Cook? Could It Be YOU?

There are lots of lovely prizes to be won. Want to take up the challenge? 

See here for TTC FAQs and the 2019 Registration form.

Email transitiontowntooting@gmail.com with any queries.

Tooting Foodival Food: the Four Wonderful Chefs, and the brilliant local donors of prizes for the Top Tooting Cook competition

All about Tooting Foodival Food:

• Four Wonderful Chefs for the feast on Saturday 15th!
• Brilliant donors of prizes for the Top Tooting Cook competition!

The Four Wonderful Chefs

 
Volker Nissen (top left) of Essential Ingredients is co-ordinating the cooking on Saturday, plus Manisha from Pooja Sweets (top right), Rick Gibbs of Rick’s Tooting (bottom right) & Elisabetta Costantini from Minestra Supper (bottom left).
Thank you all for sharing your time, experience & passion! 

The Top Tooting Cook competition (for details on taking part click here - and please do enter, just for fun of it) has some brilliant prizes for the different entry classes as well as the main TTC award itself.
In the generous style that we so admire in the Tooting community, the competition prizes have been donated by the local enterprises listed below. Thank you so much!

• Abel & Cole (who are celebrating their 30th anniversary)
• Al- Mirage 215 Upper Tooting Road, SW17 7TG
• Deelicious Nazish’s Kitchen 12 Tooting Bec Road, SW17 8BD
• Meat & Shake - Tooting 47 Upper Tooting Rd, SW17 7TR
• Nando's 224-226 Upper Tooting Road, SW17 7EW
• Unwined Tooting Market
• Walker Wyatt Cafe 3 Upper Tooting Road SW17 7TS
• Bring Your Own Zero Waste Shop Tooting Market

So much to look forward to: all welcome to the Tooting Foodival 2018, 11:00 - 5:00 on Sat 15th

at 220 Upper Tooting Road, SW17 7EW!

Did you try Minestra's delicious pasta dish?

On Sunday afternoon, while the cooks were deliberating over who would become Top Tooting Cook for 2016, Minestra turned local produce donated from Tamworth Farm and around Tooting, into the most delicious vegetable pasta dish.

Elisabetta preparing vegetables (Pic by Riccardo, Minestra)

Elisabetta demonstrates to a packed Foodival crowd (Pic by Riccardo, Minestra)

We are really grateful to Minestra for their cooking demonstration. Maybe you saw it and tasted the delicious dish. Maybe you'd like to try it at home? Head over to Minestra's Facebook page for the recipe - Homemade Maltagliati with Vegetables.

Minestra also run Supper Clubs at their home - delicious low food mile dishes, shared with neighbours and new friends. The next Supper Club will take place on 15th October.

Top Tooting Cook Entries - Wow!

Feast your eyes on these amazing photos of the #Foodival2016 Top Tooting Cook entries!  All grown principally from donated home grown produce. More details on recipes and prize winners will follow ... but I thought you'd like to see this hot off the press!

Thank you to Charles for these stunning shots.  There'll be some from the Soup Disco photo booth soon too!

Celebrating Local Food Together as a Community: Preview of #Foodival2016 on the 10th & 11th Sept

We're very excited about TTT's ninth annual Tooting Foodival which is all about Celebrating Local Food Together as a Community. 
We're planning the details now - here's a snapshot preview.
Plenty more information to come later on.

'Local food plus local community' is the weekend's theme:

I Grew This! (Foodival 2015)

Saturday 10th Sept activities run from from 1pm to 5pm and are based at Mushkil Aasaan, 222 Upper Tooting Road SW17 7EW. 

On Saturday we welcome all local growers to share and donate some of their local produce - maybe a bag of potatoes, or a single chilli pepper...whatever you would like to share.

Mark where you've been growing on our Growing Tooting Map.

We'll take your photo proudly holding your fruit or veg for our 2016 I Grew This! poster and we'll display what's shared.

Where will all this wonderful donated local produce go?

Top Tooting Cook! 
Firstly, donated produce goes to anyone who wants to enter our fun Top Tooting Cook event. Take some produce or recipes away (or cook with what you have grown at home), and bring back what you make on Sunday for the light-hearted judging and more at Mushkil Aasaan from 4 to 7pm.

The TTC hat - not the only prize you might win

Show off your culinary skills using fruit and veg grown locally and you could win a prize... and the coveted title "Top Tooting Cook"!
Find out all about the competition here and get in touch with Belinda to enter.
For inspiration, look at these delicious dishes - sorrel soup, risotto with cavolo nero, fava bean toast with egg - cooked by visitors to the Tooting Community Garden, using produce picked that day!

Thanks Naomi, Charles and Janine.

Soup Disco!

Secondly, local produce donated on Saturday will go to Sunday evening's Soup Disco party from 7pm to 10pm in Tooting Market, 21-23 Tooting High Street SW17 0SN.

From 7pm, we'll all be chopping up the veg to make our delicious Tooting soups for everyone to enjoy. And to accompany the collective cook-up, our fantastic DJ will be spinning some great tunes so you can show off all your best moves on the chopping board and the dance floor. 

No cooking or dancing experience required but fabulous disco outfits are encouraged! Plus, some enterprises in the market will be open for business - it's going to be a memorable night! 

Other activities for all ages on Saturday at Mushkil Aasaan from 1pm to 5pm will include:

Celebrate reducing waste and having fun by displaying your Ugly Veg. Or as it's called in the USA: Produce with Personality.

Learn about urban beekeeping, taste SW12 and SW17 honey and get close to live bees. Local beekeeper Richard is bringing a demonstration hive of live bees. He can chat about bees & honey - and about sources of info for planting and gardening to encourage bees and other pollinators.

Sprouted teff seed

Practice being a successful home farmer by sprouting seeds - easy and delicious. Fresh seeds sprouted at home only have to travel a few inches 'from plot to plate'. 
NO food miles!

Play our fun low carbon living games including exploring food's footprint and much more.


Get hands-on and creative with crafts linked to food and the Soup Disco - all ages can come and enjoy making.

In the garden...

Explore the local network of community gardens which can offer you fun, exercise, friendship, time outdoors in nature and a place to grow healthy local food.
Plus, you will pick up plenty of growing advice and encouragement to grow your own fresh food on window sill, a balcony or in a front garden.


Discuss the other local sustainability projects that Transition Tooting facilitates with many different partners, find out how to get involved - and we welcome your suggestions and new ideas.

All welcome to #Foodival2016!

Cook up a dish to be crowned Top Tooting Cook!

Win tasty prizes by cooking a dish made with locally grown produce and you could also be crowned Tooting's Top Cook!

Are you a budding chef? Do you fancy cooking a delicious low-food miles vegetarian dish?

Enter the Top Tooting Cook competition and you could win dinner for two at The Little Taperia or a £50 food voucher for the Wheatsheaf!

 

All you need to do is:

• Cook one dish made with some locally grown produce
• Deliver it to Foodival's Festival day at Samaj Hall by 1.30pm for judging

And that's it! Anything goes... you could bake, cook, assemble, pickle, or blend your dish. As long as it's vegetarian and some of the ingredients are locally grown, you can enter.

Don't worry if you don't grow any produce. Pop into Foodival's Donation Day on Saturday 12th September (1pm-4pm) at Mushkil Aasaan, 220-222 Upper Tooting Road and choose some locally grown ingredients to cook with.

Courgette fritters with Beetroot hummous, Tamworth Farm allotments

Rhubarb muffins & raspberry cakes, Tamworth Farm allotments

Tomato & spinach quiche, Tamworth Farm allotments

But what does it take to win?

• The judges will be a local panel of cooks and foodies
• 50% of marks for how local the dish is
• 50% of marks for taste

Last year's winning Top Tooting Cook entry

Enter today!

Simply email transitiontowntooting@gmail.comtransitiontowntooting@gmail.com with Top Tooting Cook in the subject line and we'll give you more details and can set aside ingredients you might want to use.

Or enter on the day by bringing your dish for 1.30pm on Sunday, 13th September.

Good luck everyone!

Who's cooking for Foodival?

The Foodival team have been busy bees this week, signing up more fantastic cooking establishments to deliver delicious dishes to you on Festival Day.

Already signed up (see previous post for details):

• Al Mirage
• Meza
• Pooja
• Rick's
• The Kitchen Table

 And newly signed up this week:

Brixton People's Kitchen is a community kitchen, who sometimes cook on a bicycle! Working with the local community, they deliver hot nutritious meals and cooking lessons to young people and adults alike. They'll be cooking up a surprise medley for us. We can't wait!

Route to Juice are a welcome addition to Tooting's High Street this year. They'll be whizzing together fresh, power-packed, nutrient rich juices and smoothies on the day. So if you've got fruit to donate - you know where it'll be going!


We have more restaurants, cooks, entertainment and announcements to come, so stay tuned, and add the dates to your diary:

Saturday 12th September

Mushkil Aasaan, 222 Tooting High Street, 12-4pm

• Donate your locally grown fruit, vegetables and herbs
• Watch cooking demonstrations
• Enter the Ugly Vegetable competition

Sunday 13th September

Samaj Hall, 26b Tooting High Street, 12-5pm

• Join the giant pea parade
• Eat delicious food
• Enjoy live entertainment
• Meet local producers
• Have fun!

Foodival 2015 - Just one month to go!

In exactly one month, hundreds of us will be celebrating locally grown, locally cooked food at Tooting Foodival.

We'll be making some exciting announcements over the next few weeks as we count down to festival weekend. And there are plenty of opportunities for you to get involved!

First up, we know you want to know who's cooking for Foodival this year.

Drum roll please...!

Rick's - Tooting's favourite modern British and European eaterie. Rick has supported the Foodival for many years. Who can forget the amazing fish filleting demonstration a couple of years ago!

Meza - Lebanese food is so popular in Tooting that owner, Hikmat opened a second restaurant in Tooting Broadway after the runaway success of the original on Trinity Road. Himat, Ali and team will be preparing a treat for us.

Pooja - the very best when it comes to Indian sweets and savouries. Who can resist the legendary samosas! We're delighted that Manisha and co are supporting Foodival again this year.

Al Mirage - Shamim and team will be bringing us the unique tastes and flavours of modern Pakistan that are so popular in Tooting. We know you'll be coming back for seconds!

The Kitchen Table - New to Foodival this year,  Zaf will be bringing his fresh neighbourhood pizazz and gorgeous dishes to the festival. If you've ever eaten at this wonderful café you'll know it's not to be missed.

Sounds tasty? Get 13th September in the diary!  And, stay tuned. We hope to have a few more local restaurants confirmed soon.

We'll also be sharing a recipe from each restaurant at Foodival too, so you can try what you tasted at home!

Goodness Graveney Me! A Top Tooting Cook.

Amrit with three of the judges Manisha, Kate and Chris

The Top Tooting Cook competition was fiercely fought out at Foodival last month. Twelve of Tooting's finest cultivators of cuisine produced some of the best presented dishes ever seen at TTC.  The judges tasted, deliberated, and after the dust had settled a new champion was crowned.

With the highest marks for taste, presentation and food miles, the Top Tooting Cook for 2014 is Amrit Sachar for her "Goodness Graveney Me" smoked aubergine starter. Well done to Amrit who won dinner for two at Meza. Runner up was a suspiciously dressed Sprout Lover with his beetroot & squash curry with Yasmin Salam in third place for her vegetable samosas.  Special commendation was given to Emily Boyce for her "Tooting Jam and Social" a trio of herb labneh balls, rosemary biscuits and tomato and chilli jam.

Check out the recipes for these winning dishes here.

Thanks to everyone involved in TTC this year and see you again in 2015.

Goodness Graveney Me!  "All I need is a smaaall aubergine!"

Manisha, Pooja & Foodival

A scene from Foodival 2009

The tastiest samosas in town are surely found about halfway between the two Tooting tubes on the Upper Tooting Road, where Pooja Sweets & Savouries has been serving tasty vegetarian food to the people of Tooting since 1996. With over 100 different varieties of both sweets and savouries, a serious dedication to freshness and flavour and a focus on delivering a personal service of high quality, Pooja has become a Tooting institution. 

Pooja samosas have been eaten in large numbers at TTT gatherings over the years while Pooja owner Mrs Salim and her team have kindly taken on the Foodival challenge to produce dishes from home grown, donated produce every year since 2009, always coming up with something fresh and tasty.  "We also learnt from you" says Mrs Salim, "we had never made anything with chard or leeks before!"

"The four pillars of Pooja"

This year we are delighted to say that Pooja's Manisha has agreed to be a judge in the Top Tooting Cook competition at Foodival. Manisha is described by Mrs Salim as “one of the four pillars of Pooja” (she is on the far right in the picture) and she confesses that she is a cooking perfectionist, a strict quality controller who tastes every item produced at Pooja to ensure it’s as fresh and delicious as it can possibly be.  So beware all TTC contestants, the bar is set high!

How to find out more?

• See Manisha's Judge's profile here
• If you think you could impress Manisha with your culinary skills, why not enter the Top Tooting Cook competition? Please email Malsara for details.
  
• To get involved in Foodival in any way please email Dave.
  
• Or if you just want to eat near zero food mile locally cooked vegetarian dishes for free just come along to Foodival at Samaj Hall on 14th September.

Top Tooting Cook 2014

This year's Foodival will again include a Top Tooting Cook Competition on Sunday 14^th September at Samaj Hall, Broadway Studios, Tooting High Street. Enter now to ensure your place in the starting line-up

At her press conference earlier today, Top Tooting Cook 2013 winner “What’s for Dinner” (WfD) announced that she will not be defending her title this year. We caught up with her to talk about TTC14.

TTT: Hi, so you've chosen not to defend your title in 2014.

WfD: Well yes after the fiasco of what happened last year, I have decided to take time out. I'd prefer to watch.

TTT: So last year you organised the competition ... 

WfD: Yes ...

TTT: And also won it? 

WfD: Yes. I did nothing wrong though; but the bribery and corruption scandal afterwards was very upsetting. I just didn’t think I was going to win with a salad, and when I did, well, I was shocked and horrified. So embarrassing. I am still suffering post traumatic stress from that.

TTT: I am sorry to hear that. Aside from winning did you enjoy taking part in the Top Tooting Cook competition?

WfD: Yeah, it was great. I don’t get out much, what with me agrophobia, but this gave me an opportunity to meet loads of local people, swap ideas and recipes and take part in something that was fun. I loved it. I’d do it again, but, no I won’t cos it won’t be fair on all the other cooks out there.

Well there you have it. Meet local foodies, learn something new and have fun. All are welcome to join in and take part in this great event - the best dishes will win some fantastic prizes. It is totally free and with over a dozen contenders already signed up to take part, this year looks set to be even more competitive than last.

For further information or to enter email malsaraw@gmail.com

"I Never Thought A Salad Would Win"

 Top Tooting cook reports "Crushing Shame"

The Top Tooting Cook competition was a resounding success at the weekend with a dozen entrants and a wide range of dishes carefully tasted by our judging panel of Claudia Ruane (Director of Abel and Cole), Rex Osborn (Labour Councillor), Mark Watson (Chair of Sustainable Bungay) and Hoosen Randeree (Deputy Head of Gatton School) to whom we are very much indebted.

However, no one could have predicted that all the assiduous judging over forty minutes would result in the clear winner being "What's For Dinner?" with her Jazzy Garden Salad. All fine so far. However, scandal broke when it became clear that "What's For Dinner?" was actually competition organiser, Malsara Thorne, who now takes up the story. 

Spot the winner!

"It’s taken me a while to come to terms with what happened at Sunday's cooks' competition. When the judges finally came up with a winner, horror of horrors it turned out to be me!  To be crowned Top Tooting Cook in front of the good people of Tooting, after so many had spent hours over a hot stove was not what I had imagined in my craziest dreams. I was too embarrassed to accept any prize bar the hat I had made for the winner, ... that fitted me perfectly! 

My Embarrassing Moment of Victory

I confessed my shame and embarrassment to my boss who said: "you mean to say that you organised a cookery competition, set the criteria for scoring and won it by producing a salad? Did you pick the judges as well?!" No! I did not pick the judges or offer any bribes and yes, that is exactly what happened, I never thought a salad would win! I am sure if the judging criteria had been on taste alone, I would have been nowhere.

Lessons have been learnt, next year the scoring system will be simplified and “What’s for Dinner?” will not be featuring!

Well done to Mal who deserved to win despite her embarrassment! Recipes from the day can be found HERE

Who Will Be Top Tooting Cook?

Would you like to see the 'competition rules' for the Top Tooting Cook challenge? Please click here.
And you can still join in: please call Mal on 07980 611704 if you are interested to take part, or to find out more.
Or email malsaraw@gmail.com
All welcome to cook!