See what food and wine will be served to those attending the BAFTA 2018 film awards in London, and also our report on how the menu is decided.
BAFTA 2018: What the stars will be eating and drinking
The EE British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) are on Sunday 18th February 2018.
The Menu
The starter is a vegan choice, a first for this year; a celeriac cream and apple jelly, with pickled celeriac and apple, golden raisins, seeded crackers and toasted hazelnuts.
This is followed by the main of lamb cutlets and slow cooked lamb shoulder, roast garlic and thyme jus and potato gratin. Vegetarians will have sweet potato, bok choy, ginger and coriander parcel, with a coconut, mango and chilli salsa.
Dessert is always made with Hotel Chocolat, one of the sponsors. This year it is a 76% supermilk Nicaragua Chuno pebble, sesame and nigella seed brittle and salted caramel chocolate ganache (pictured top).
The vegan celeriac starter. Credit: BAFTA.
The wines
The guests will be drinking Champagne Taittinger Brut Réserve NV, in BAFTA branded bottles.
With the meal, they will have Villa Maria Private Bin Sauvignon Blanc 2017 and the Private Bin Pinot Noir 2016.
How they choose the menu
BAFTA Chef Anton Managanaro and Grosvenor House Executive Chef Nigel Boschetti discuss what they would like to put forward for menu ideas. There is input from some key partners, too; for example, the dessert is always made with Hotel Chocolat.
‘We start planning the menu around September or October for the BAFTAs,’ said Boschetti told Decanter.com.
‘We have menu tastings – sometimes two – with key planners from BAFTA.’
‘Consideration is given to the previous year’s menu, so as not to clash or repeat, and dishes are selected from three or four starters, mains and desserts.’
‘The menu needs to be built around British food, and be seasonal. Colour is also important on the BAFTA menu too – the food needs to look elegant and with some colour.’
The final menu is passed on to Villa Maria, to then select the wines to go with it.
The BAFTAs in numbers
More than 2,300 bottles of Champagne Taittinger will be opened over the BAFTA weekend – equivalent to twice the length of the Eiffel Tower.
An etimated 2,046 bottles of Villa Maria will be served over the course of the weekend.
To make the main course, it will take 1850 lamb cutlets, 144 kilograms of potatoes and 72 kilograms of kale.
For the Hotel Chocolat dessert, it will take 45 kilograms of super milk chocolate, 10 kilograms of salted caramel and 10 kilograms of dark chocolate.
