Anita Pati

Anita Pati

Anita Pati grew up scoffing her mum's superb Indian cooking while learning few of the requisite skills herself. Now a freelance journalist, her love of food and flavour mixed with her critical eye make for a writing romance. From Eritrean caffs to jars of shrimp-infused chilli oil, if it has punch, Anita is somewhere in the vicinity.

  • Patak's Curry Club

    Monday November 8th, 2010

    The Patak Empire strikes back from the dusty shelves of Asian grocers nationwide. Those purveyors of pickles have teamed up with Masterchef winner Dhruv Baker and wine expert Suzy Atkins to launch a curry club from their website.

  • Sienna, Dorchester

    Thursday October 28th, 2010

    Chef Russell Brown is showing us a crippled lobster with one claw. Once a warlord, it now lives in an oxygenated tank in a fish processing plant. These mighty fallen are part of the Dorset fishing haul that makes up the Michelin-starred chef’s menu at his Dorchester restaurant, Sienna.

  • Canadian ingredients at L’Atelier Des Chefs in London

    Sunday October 3rd, 2010

    We’d come to L’Atelier des Chefs cookery school to learn about Canadian ingredients hosted by the Canadian Tourism Commission. And despite the Canadian chat about syrups of birch and maple, berries of cloud and lingon, almost every attendee was neck-craning for the fiddlehead ferns.

  • 'Hand-picked' by Harvey Nichols

    Thursday September 16th, 2010

    The idea of Handpicked is that head chef Jeremy Bloor from Harvey Nick’s OXO restaurant takes the press to visit one of his suppliers, in this case, his cheese one. Towny girl Anita Pati tags along avoiding cowpats and gets to  eat a locally sourced al fresco lunch in a field with a load of random strangers.

  • Tom's Kitchen, Somerset House

    Thursday September 9th, 2010

    Tourists will enjoy Tom’s Kitchen with its elegant décor and views down a terrace to the Thames. And the food, on the whole, is good. But it won’t blow you away – which is not what he wants. He wants you to stay.

  • Tempo

    Thursday August 26th, 2010

    Tempo, with its barley-coloured walls and splendid turquoise upholstered chairs could seem formal when empty. But as a Regency drawing room in a listed building, its cornices, fittings and curves substituted any lack of warmth. Perhaps the waffle ceiling and square arch could be more sympathetic but they also showed boldness- like the food.

  • Hi-diddly-hi, it's Flanders again!

    Thursday August 19th, 2010

    We've been to Flanders a lot this year, but that's because there's a lot to see. Anita Pati went there and developed a soft spot for a local fromage, sampled some rather strong beer and discovered the dubious delights of cheese on meat.

  • Boisdale of Belgravia

    Wednesday August 4th, 2010

    While Boisdale says it’s in Belgravia, it’s also two minutes from Victoria Coach Station. But why quibble with this old Scottish establishment, destination cigar lounge, whisky bar, jazz club and comfort to wealthy barflies?

  • The Art of Pho Julian Hanshaw

    Thursday July 22nd, 2010

    Pho – as you cosmopolitan lot might know – is a beefy, noodly, minty broth – much loved in Vietnam and in the screechy badlands of London’s Dalston. The Art of Pho, as fewer of you might know, is a surreal, original and quirky graphic novel inspired by Vietnam’s food, set in Ho Chi Minh City.

  • Nicely Nigerian -Akhaya Cookery School

    Friday July 16th, 2010

    On hearing about this beginners’ day-long course, I hotfooted it, via sweltering tube, to cool and leafy Hampstead. The African cookery school Akhaya is run by Jenny, a young woman of Nigerian descent just setting up business. We were welcomed with fresh mint and rooibos tea as well as charming applause the second we individually stepped through the doors.

  • Riverford Travelling Field Kitchen in a yurt

    Thursday July 1st, 2010

    If you thought Yurt was a noise kids made when confronted with broccoli, then you'll be surprised to discover the truth. Anita Pati eats a fabulous dinner in Riverford Farm's marvellous traveling tent of eco-gastronomy.

  • Apsleys Summer Tasting Menu launches

    Monday June 21st, 2010

    Can you eat at a high level and still stay healthy? From the look of most restaurant critics the answer is an emphatic no, the men so fat of chin they've given up shaving out of fear of cutting their own throats. Anita Pati has no desire to end up like that so she was happy to hurry along to Apsley's to  try Michelin Star Heinz Beck's healthy summer tasting menu

  • Leong's Legends, Bayswater

    Tuesday June 15th, 2010

    The dish of tongues is speaking and we’re playing deaf. S and I are trying not to look at the grey curls of muscle, the Sichuan duck tongues, that S has ordered. They are arch and taut, twisted in a last quacky screech and hold horror in their sinews. And they are cold. And, in the ultimate diss, they are sprinkled with sesame seeds.

  • Tamarind Spring Menu

    Wednesday June 2nd, 2010

    The Michelin-starred subterranean Mayfair restaurant has launched its spring menu, . At the moment there’s a lunchtime deal where you can get three courses for £18.50, £28.50 with wine, if you fancy.

  • Maker's Mark -make mine a bourbon

    Sunday May 23rd, 2010

    Gosh, everything’s a masterclass these days. If it’s not pointing Dutch bricks in wigwam stylee, it’s (very three years ago) butchering a cow or slicing gouda into helicopter blades. I plumped for a more traditional lesson – the master distiller of Yeehah Maker’s Mark (that redneck waxed bottle found on the top shelf), givin’ us all the lowdown on how the corn-rich distillate came to be a bourbon

  • Clotted cream at Browns - and a top scone recipe too

    Monday May 17th, 2010

    Anita Pati has her fill of Rodda's clotted cream in all its naughty glory when she meets the makers at Browns Hotel. Chef Fabien Ecuvillon whips up some delicious patisserie for her and shares his scones  recipe with us.

  • A foodie weekend in Aberdeenshire

    Tuesday April 27th, 2010

    Venison and whisky lord over the menu when Anita Pati takes a foodie trip of Aberdeenshire. And the cock pheasants spar while the Cairngorms twinkle. What else in a land where monarch of the glen, stovies and a warming dram bring a welcome fit for royalty?

  • Inamo,London

    Thursday April 22nd, 2010

    “Maybe we’re not the demographic they’re aiming at,” says C, kindly. I am grasping and confused, sensory faculties aghast, mind rollicking. OK, it’s not quite that bad but I feel a bit luddite here at Inamo, the hi-tec Soho restaurant where the menus are interactive, and you can webcam into the kitchen from your table top.

  • The Mall Tavern

    Monday April 19th, 2010

    All in all, we enjoyed. There did seem to be a tendency to fritterise… were the ‘70s solely a decade of breadcrumbs? But Jesse’s keen, the place is rammed, the menu keeps changing and everyone looks jolly. It’s fun, reasonably-priced and will surely draw votes this election.

  • Monsieur M, Shoreditch, London

    Tuesday April 6th, 2010

    There’s a parade of rickety cutesy and authentic Vietnamese restaurants clustered down the Shoreditch end of Kingsland Road in London’s Hackney. They’re cheap, run by Vietnamese people – many originally refugees – and functional. Shoreditch’s fashion pack use them to chow down before drinking or just as a reminder of their hols to far off lands. But round the corner, in the beautiful Grade II listed Shoreditch Town Hall, Monsieur M is mounting a challenge to them all.