Black Food Festival: London's food scene is headed to the dark side

On Instagram, food lovers have their own palette; the pink blush of rare steak, Capri-orange egg yolks, wasabi greens. But Newton’s third law has made it to social media too, and for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction: #blackfood has been tagged almost 20,000 times. It’s also flown one food blogger around the world.

Regina Boros, 44, brings her Black Food Festival to Bethnal Green’s Oval Space on Sunday, where street traders and restaurant pop-ups will serve pasta, sushi, beer and more besides — all the colour of tarmac.

“I just noticed on Instagram that a black version of a dish can be very popular and very exciting,” Boros says. “I just see it in the comments, you know; I realised that there are so many likes and shares, and I just followed the reactions.”

If it seems a slight premise, that’s because it is. Few foods are naturally black — some seeds, olives, liquorice, blackberries (arguably a bloody purple), and garlic, if it’s aged to be. But by adding activated charcoal, squid ink or CBD oil — Boros says they avoid food colouring — even the most ghostly offering can be blackened. Leaving things in the oven too long works as well.

That it’s a novelty isn’t lost on Boros, who’s written about food trends for almost a decade. “It was very, very popular from the beginning. But I didn’t expect such a good reaction because I believe the festival is generally a bit weird.”

Weird, perhaps, but with worldwide appeal. Boros launched the first festival last year in her home city of Budapest and has since gone to Berlin, Tel Aviv, New York and Helsinki. Usually, she says, they draw “around 1,000 people, sometimes a little bit less, sometimes a little bit more”. Only 700 came in sceptical New York, while Helsinki was “a little bit too popular” with 1,200 crowded ’grammers turning out.

Each incarnation has served something different: Boros says the festival “accepts any kind of vendors”, so long as they fit the theme. She contacts potential traders directly, working with a “partner in each city who is a little more familiar with the local gastro industry”. London is due blackened coffee, cocktails, wine, temaki, tacos and more.

Charcoal has coloured ice cream, croissants and burger buns, but dishes are most successful when a trader taps into the city’s culture, Boros says. A blackened version of Finnish speciality karjalanpiirakka — a kind of pastry — was a hit in Helsinki: “This was very, very nice and a very big surprise for the Finnish audience.” In New York, Covet&Devour made a lollipop using CBD oil for the colour; the locals loved it.

Besides her blog — “a hobby” — Boros worked in marketing before the festival became her full-time job. She’s long been into its theme. “I love the black colour, black clothes,” she says. “And I love this so-called ‘dark culture’ as well; my favourite music was The Cure and Joy Division when I was a child. I love this style.” After London, which she says will be hard to crack — “a very, very colourful place, very nice events and programmes, where it’s quite difficult to show something new” — Boros has been successful enough that she will open in Kenya and Estonia, and she dreams of Japan. By all accounts, then, she’s in the black.

Sunday September 22, Oval Space, E2 9DT, tickets £12, blackfoodfest.com