L’Chaim! Kosher food and drink festival is a corker

If you are trying to get hundreds of Jews together, it helps if you have plenty of kosher food and wine.

That is probably why Kedem’s 18th annual Kosher Food and Wine Experience attracted throngs of guests to the Sheraton ballroom in Park Lane this week. In the vast subterranean event space, hundreds of attendees gathered to sample the best kosher wines and spirits from across the world.

The food, not even the main event, comprised an impressive spread reminiscent of a particularly opulent bar mitzvah.

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The wine flow at the 2023 Kosher Food and Wine Experience (Photo: Leivi Saltman Photography)

There was a full-service salt beef bar, a sushi station and a range of immaculately presented desserts, all provided by Arieh Wagner, the high-end kosher caterer, who provided the kosher food at King Charles’s coronation.

More than 40 suppliers set out their stalls at the event, including big names from Israel such as Barkan and Carmel, as well as smaller producers, including Flam, whose range of Tuscan wines was a big hit with the crowd.

The event showcased ingenuity across the board from producers, with new kosher versions of popular grape varieties, including a particularly crisp Sancerre from Sieva Bokobsa, a Jewish-owned winemaker based in France.

Outside of wine, there were several artisanal spirit producers at the event, from Israeli bourbon whisky makers to a supplier of parev cocktail base, including pina colada for those with more tropical tastes. The big brands were also represented with Glenfiddich showcasing a range of barrel-aged single malts.

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Guests gathered for the 2023 Kosher Food and Wine Experience (Photo: Leivi Saltman Photography)

Kedem Europe, the wholesale and import business that has hosted the UK’s largest kosher wine event since 2005, said French wines were a particular favourite this year.

Benjamin Gestetner, the general manager of Kedem Europe, said: “Everyone who tasted our line-up of premier wines from France was delighted, and the feedback we had on them was that they tasted better than ever.”