Posts in Eating
Brawn For The Brain

I was fortunate enough to dine at Brawn recently and I enjoyed some of the best food that I have eaten in quite some time. An exceptional dish of grilled duck hearts on fresh broad bean purée was followed by an equally delicious confit rabbit leg served with wet polenta and a delicate gremolata.

Read More
848 - The Number Of The Feast

After the excesses of Christmas, midway between the joyous fervour of well intentioned resolutions and the pay cheque that will once again allow you off the wagon, January can often seem to be the longest of months. What better way to shake off the malaise than by maintaining the level of decadence to which one has recently grown so accustomed?

Read More
Pic Of The Bunch

It's not often that a cookbook impresses me so much that I want to write about it. Le Livre Blanc, by Anne-Sophie Pic, is just such a rarity: a jewel when viewed from every facet. From the stark modernity of the laser-cut, purposely-undersized slipcase and the pages' silver edging to the arresting beauty of the food within, this book encapsulates everything that haute cuisine aspires to be.

Read More
Sugar And Spice And All Things Rice

Saké. Everyone knows what it is. It’s Japanese rice wine, right? Well, that’s only partly correct. It is actually closer to a beer than to a wine in its method of production, and its range of styles and its combinations of savoury and sweet flavours make it ideal to drink with food.

Read More
That's Amarone

One of the funny things about the creative process, at least as far as we left-brainers are concerned, is that what you end up with can often bear little resemblance to that which you set out to create. The travelling is more important than the arriving; the artistic endeavour more significant than the resulting artwork. Even more bafflingly, this is perfectly acceptable. Try to run a business that way and see what happens.

Read More
Floyd On Food

“Greetings, fellow gastronauts.”

That was the familiar salutation of the much-missed Francophile gourmet, Keith Floyd. Whilst he undoubtedly had his demons to face, his knowledge and love of food and wine were an inspiration to me when I was young and his straight talking approach was a blessed relief from the insipid inanity of most other television cooks of the time.

Read More
A Weekend To Remember

It took my dad literally seconds to decide where he would like to spend his 65th birthday weekend; it didn’t take him very much longer to rustle up a few Ryanair tickets and to book a hire car. Eventually the weekend rolled around and we hopped on a plane to Bergamo before following the autostrada right into the heart of the Valpolicella region.

Read More
Ditching The Expense Of Bordeaux

Thanks to Ben and Mark at the award winning Hanging Ditch Wine Merchants for organising a very enjoyable and interesting Bordeaux tasting dinner earlier this month at the St. James’s Club. Given their ethos of quality being paramount I knew that the wines on offer would not disappoint, but the objective of keeping the wines affordable was going to be more of a challenge.

Read More