Dear London, where everyone is welcome.\u00a0<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

With a family hailing from your East End, you have never not<\/em> been a part of my life\u2014and my goodness, we have grown together. It\u2019s been quite the ride so far, eh?\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I have played rock ‘n’ roll in your dive bars in Camden, guided hundreds of visitors through your political and royal heart and held exhibitions for homeless artists in abandoned buildings in Mayfair. I have worked in restaurants in your oldest market (1,000 years of history… not bad at all!), studied in one of your famous universities down in New Cross and spent summer evenings with good conversation and amazing picnics in the wilds of Hampstead Heath. I have bar crawled with my diverse group of friends from Stoke Newington to Dalston on a Saturday night (always finding the coolest places in the back of pool halls or behind anonymous doors), adored and detested in equal measures the rush hour on your underground system (the first in the world<\/a>), enjoyed music and art and culture in every nook and cranny of your sprawling, wonderful self\u2026 and I have eaten. My, how I have eaten.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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The thing is London, and I hate to break it to you, you still do not have the best reputation around the world for your cuisine, particularly in comparison to other leading cities like Madrid, Paris or Rome. But it\u2019s okay\u2014we know this isn\u2019t true, right?\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

You are a city of 2,000 years, of empires rising and falling, of immigration, of conquering and being conquered, of expansion and destruction, of industrial revolutions and both historical and modern access to fantastic produce, both from at home and much much further afield. Of Kings, Queens, pirates and nobles, bad-boy princes and punk rock princesses, penniless artists and well-to-do merchants, of tradition and progress. Of nine million people from all over the world, speaking over 300 languages and practicing many different faiths, bringing their culinary traditions and blending them with the historic gastronomic traditions of our isles.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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