On 3 September 2022 it will be The Tasting Quarter’s 20th birthday. Looking back at the last 20 years, I wonder if the last week of March 2020 was the most memorable. I can see from our records that the first national lockdown was declared on 23rd March 2020, and I remember well the 7 days it took us from this date to make our business virtual. The speed of this conversion surprised us, but what surprised us more was the demand that followed.
Today I’ve been reflecting on these 7 days, and comparing them to the 7 months it’s taken us to develop our latest tasting – The Futurologist Gastronomist. This new event has been by some margin the biggest block of research we’ve ever undertaken for an event, I’m very grateful to our food technologists, assistants, hosts and designers for their invaluable help in making it what it is. I can’t remember being more excited and engaged by an event format’s development.
So what is the new tasting? Many things. The overarching theme of course is the future of food, but the sensory elements of the event draw on our collective senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. Inclusiveness is key - the event has been developed for multiple dietary requirements and contains none of the 14 major allergens listed by the food standards agency. It’s also alcohol-free (unless you want the future of wine or the future of cocktails add ons, which can be tailored to each guest in an event).
The event can be hosted virtually, in person or in a hybrid set up.
It’s been a long time coming, but it’s the future.
Our new event – The Futurologist Gastronomist – the sensory fine food tasting game
Pip Martin is the Founder of The Tasting Quarter, a Corporate Wine Tasting & Specialist Events Company. After management positions in Harrod’s Foodhall, Pip became Corporate Events Manager at Richard Branson’s online wine merchant, Virgin Wines, where he hosted over 200 wine events in a little over 15 months for companies including BBC, Morgan Stanley, PricewaterhouseCoopers and JP Morgan. Since 2002, via The Tasting Quarter, Pip and his team have produced and hosted tastings in South Africa, Dubai, Morocco, Ireland, Holland, Belgium, France, Germany, Denmark, Finland and Switzerland for groups of 10 to 3000+. He has run virtual, hybrid and AI augmented tastings for companies including AVMI, Oracle, Adobe, Google and Cisco. He also counts all the Magic Circle law firms in the UK as repeat clients for in-person events. Pip’s media work has included wine presenting on Sky One’s Taste programme and BBC1’s Saturday Kitchen. Writing credits include wine articles for Condé Nast’s Gourmet Travel and Esquire.
