Veg and the City: Rosewood London's Slow Food and Living Market

In the courtyard of a luxury hotel in the heart of urban London, a food revolution has begun. A relative newcomer on the London hotel scene housed in a 1914 Edwardian Belle Epoque building at High Holborn, The Rosewood London Hotel might seem like an incongruous location for a farmers' market, but it's all part of Rosewood London's food philosophy. Amandine Chaignot, the newly-appointed executive chef at Rosewood London, is spearheading a drive to increase the hotel's use of local food producers starting with a Slow Food Brunch, which uses ingredients sourced from the Slow Food and Living Market that sets up shop in the hotel's courtyard every Sunday.

Globally, Rosewood's A Sense of Taste initiative is designed to introduce its guests to unique experiences - including local food culture - whether they're in California, Saudi Arabia or the Virgin Islands. While Rosewood London is still working on building its Partners in Provenance programme, which will see its chefs sourcing ingredients from local farms and producers, the Slow Food Market is a first step towards its ultimate goal.

At present, Rosewood London's market is the only dedicated Slow Food Market in the UK: all of the vendors have been vetted to ensure they adhere to the Slow Food movement's principles of good, clean and fair food. Many of the stallholders are based in London and the Home Counties, and they're a diverse bunch: the range of produce on offer includes salmon smoked in Stoke Newington, organic milk and butter from East Sussex and beers brewed in Bermondsey, as well as honey from urban bees kept on rooftops within a stone's throw of the hotel.

The 'eco-chic' reclaimed wood stalls, a bespoke design for Rosewood London, evoke the weekend markets of continental Europe where it's not unusual to do the weekly shop from dozens of local merchants rather than one supermarket as we Brits are rather more accustomed to. This is all part of Rosewood London's plan to create a community hub for London's 'Midtown' area (Bloomsbury, Holborn and St Giles) which is often thought of as being rather quiet at the weekends. Local residents will drop in to 'shop and schmooze' at the 30 or so stalls while their children play in the supervised crèche, and perhaps stop in at the Mirror Room or Holborn Dining Room for a Slow Food Brunch.

It will, of course, take time to change the ingrained shopping habits of notoriously difficult to please Londoners, but by turning its courtyard over to these carefully chosen producers each Sunday Rosewood London is certainly leading the charge.