Darwin Centre, Natural History Museum
create food & party design hosted their 8th Annual London Venue Dinner at The Darwin Centre, Natural History Museum on 5th April.
This is a unique event when venue managers from London's most prestigious venues have the opportunity to chat with their peer group.
2011 is a special year for create, who are celebrating their 10th anniversary and the museum provided a stunning backdrop.
Guests were enticed upstairs to The Tree Gallery past the legendary diplodocus by a green wash pathway of stunning lighting, courtesy of Wise Productions. With its grandeur and the dramatic sweep of the imposing staircase, the Central Hall is a magnificent introduction to one of London's most celebrated museums.
160 guests sipped a crowd pleasing prosecco and cucumber cocktail under the awe inspiring shadow of The Tree, a 17-metre-long, wafer-thin section of an entire 200-year-old oak tree, including the roots, trunk and branches, inlaid into the gallery ceiling.
Dinner was served in The Darwin Centre, a two year old new area in the museum, which is dominated by the curvaceous 8-storey cocoon, creating a unique and contemporary setting with views of the landscaped gardens through a wall of glass.
The dining table was arguably the longest ever used for a formal dinner - 160 feet long and 4 feet wide, awash with spring bulbs and impressive floral arrangements which saw a repetition of metre tall curved glass vases displaying stems of white blossom and magnolia, intermittent with globe vases of cat grass and small bunches of white narcissi tied with white grain ribbon. Florist, Mary Jane Vaughan, created the most amazing trellis of spring branches, spreading 3 feet above, down the entire length of the table.
Under green and white lighting with a giant leaf shaped break up the cocoon adorned with projected floating butterflies, guests dined on an amuse of semolina pasta filled with ceps and wild garlic and a main course of cannon of new seasons Sussex lamb, dauphinoise potatoes and spring vegetables.
Guests were asked in advance what were their favourite desserts of the last 10 years. Desserts served, included banofee pie, lemon tart, Ile flottante with crystallised rhubarb, hot chocolate fondant with dark chocolate sauce and hot marmalade bead and butter pudding. An ice cream sundae stall and cheesecake display with a variety of toppings was served with J Charpentier Rose Champagne.
