Taste Festivals & Diageo: Where Drinks, Cuisine and Culture Collide

IMG's Taste Festivals, the world's favourite culinary celebration, announced an exclusive global partnership with Diageo, the spirits company behind some of the world's most-loved brands including Johnnie Walker, Tanqueray, Ketel One, Ciroc, Don Julio, Bulleit and Zacapa. The announcement was celebrated with an event at London's Margot restaurant with industry leaders including world-renowned chef Alex Atala, celebrated food writer Andrea Petrini, Manoella Buffara and Lauren Mote toasting to this first-of-its-kind collaboration, pushing the boundaries between food and drink.

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Top mixologists will join forces with the world's leading chefs to create experiences like never before, educating culinary and cocktail lovers on combining food and spirits with diverse ingredients, flavours and recipes for every occasion.

Festival-goers around the world will be treated to immersive experiences from iconic Scotch Johnnie Walker, legacy-rich Ketel One vodka and bartender's favourite gin Tanqueray, to name a few. One moment they'll be donning an apron in a replica of Johnnie Walker's original grocery store, learning how to build cocktail ingredients to enhance the natural flavours of the spirit. The next they'll be sitting in the Ketel One Vodka Kitchen shaking up the perfect quirky Bloody Mary to recreate at home with friends, or stepping into the Tanqueray bar for an aperitif before watching the city's best chefs and bartenders demo side by side.

As well as at Taste festivals, there will be exciting new opportunities to experience how cocktails and dishes come together at Taste Tuesdays - a new monthly international in-restaurant event series, and Taste Residences - exclusive chef's table experiences.  

Scotch Category Director and Managing Director of Diageo Reserve, Cristina Diezhandino said: "We are excited to announce a partnership between Diageo and Taste, which explores and celebrates a new age where the worlds of food and drink come closer together than ever before.

"I've increasingly seen people from across the world demand more from their food and drink. They want to know what their ingredients are and where they have come from. They want to know how their food and drink has been prepared, learn how to do it at home and overall, be offered a more immersive experience." Diageo Global Reserve Commercial Director, Anya Haarhoff said: "This partnership, which will run over multiple years, offers both food and drink aficionados experiences like never before, all in the same venue, and we're excited to place some of our most loved brands like Johnnie Walker, Zacapa and Tanqueray at the very centre of it. We're thrilled to work with Taste Festivals and bring these exciting experiences to millions of food lovers across the world."

Justin Clarke, SVP & Managing Director of Culinary, IMG, said: "People are becoming increasingly interested in flavour profiling and experimentation of spirits with meals. We're combining Diageo's most-loved brands with our global Taste Festivals platform to unlock exciting, immersive new experiences that celebrate the very best of food and drink together.

"Whether through our festivals or new Taste Tuesdays and Taste Residence events, we cannot wait to explore and share top chefs and mixologists' latest recipes, tips and trends with audiences all over the world." 

Taste Festivals are attended by more than 500,000 people annually across cities such as London, Milan, Athens, Amsterdam, Dublin, London, Moscow, Rome, Sydney, Sao Paulo and Hong Kong.

The launch event to celebrate the partnership was held in London on Friday 11^th May and was attended by some of the food and drink industry's leading experts, with food created by Manoella Buffara and cocktails by Diageo Global Cocktailian, Lauren Mote.

NOTES TO EDITORS 

ABOUT DIAGEO  

Diageo is a global leader in beverage alcohol with an outstanding collection of brands including Johnnie Walker, Tanqueray, Zacapa, Buchanan's and Windsor whiskies, Smirnoff and Cîroc vodkas, Captain Morgan, Baileys, Don Julio, Ketel One and Guinness.

Diageo is listed on both the London Stock Exchange (DGE) and the New York Stock Exchange (DEO) and our products are sold in more than 180 countries around the world. For more information about Diageo, our people, our brands, and performance, visit us at http://www.diageo.com.

Visit Diageo's global responsible drinking resource, http://www.DRINKiQ.com , for information, initiatives, and ways to share best practice.

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ABOUT IMG 

IMG is a global leader in sports, fashion, events and media, operating in more than 30 countries. The company manages some of the world's greatest sports figures and fashion icons; stages hundreds of live events and branded entertainment experiences annually; and is a leading independent producer and distributor of sports and entertainment media. IMG also specializes in sports training and league development, as well as marketing, media and licensing for brands, sports organizations and collegiate institutions. IMG is part of the Endeavor (formerly WME | IMG) network.