This weekend London's Hyde Park was host to a gastronomic feast. 40 of the capital's top restaurants gathered under the summer sun to feed the many. Iain Overton went along to have a nibble.
Some things change when you become a parent, I have learnt. And one of the main things that drops off your social life is the joy of eating out. Or at least eating out, eating posh nosh.
Eating at friends is one thing - where you can thrown the little 'un in a travel cot and tuck in. But adding up the cost of a meal at The Ivy and then throw on top the costs of a baby-sitter, a taxi and a few drinks to follow, you soon realise that the salary of a journalist won't lend itself to such extravagances.
So it was a nice to know that my wife, toddler and I could eat to our heart's content in the capital's finest this weekend at Taste of London without making me take out a second mortgage.
The idea is a simple one. Taste of London is a giant food fare
where, with tokens called Crowns, you can glide from food stall to food
stall, sampling the best of the best.
It was with regret, then, that the whole affair left me cold.