Douglas Blyde

website: www.foodepedia.co.uk
email: Click for Douglas Blyde email

A former documentary man, Douglas Blyde is utterly gripped by gastronomy: driven by a love of good taste and fascinated by that almost nocturnal, nervously energetic breed known as chefs. He longs, one day, to own a pristine restaurant, boutique hotel, almost mythically revered vineyard and a vast chocolate factory

Freggo
Friday July 3rd, 2009
Timely for our heat-wave. Bedecked in purple, marble and mirrors and brought to you by ‘Gaucho’ Freggo represents the first U.K. outlet of the South American staple, known there as ‘Freddo’.
My Path: Richard Bigg of Camino
Saturday June 27th, 2009
Richard Bigg, 46, has been described as ‘the grand druid of hip hangouts’. He founded Shoreditch’s ‘Cantaloupe’ bar in 1995 followed by ‘Cargo’, ‘Market Place’, ‘The Big Chill’ and ‘Camino’. He lives in Sussex with his wife and two young children. Douglas Blyde meets him at Camino in Kings Cross, London, in his Observer Food Monthly’s Bar of the Year 2008, over silken octopus, gooey croquettas and succulent veal belly…
‘40:30’
Friday June 26th, 2009
Expecting ‘Pea’ and mint soup, my father looked startled when he received almost bare crockery (albeit by Thomas Keller). He soon relaxed when this was flooded at table with chilled, softly textured liquid that captured the verdant spirit of an English garden. It came with a crusted tuille of polenta and fresh, yielding Parmesan custard, served separately. Inspired and invigorating
Franco Manca
Sunday June 21st, 2009
Noisily chatting in a great many accents, the long queue of hungry customers snaked towards a funk of odours. Amidst the scaly perfume of a fish counter beached in sunshine.They came for this: the cosy, welcoming, tempting aromas of sourdough momentarily torched at 500 degrees…
Is Prosecco Worth Prosecution?
Monday June 15th, 2009
Our man with a taste for wine Douglas Blyde looks beyond the bubbles in the land of Prosecco. A cheap alternative to champagne? Maybe we've been drinking the wrong stuff
No. 20 at Sanctum Soho Hotel
Sunday June 14th, 2009
Past 3D cameras and an increasingly famous commissionaire, ‘No. 20’ is the restaurant at Soho’s ‘Sanctum’ Hotel. This is London’s answer to Paris’ boutique ‘den of opulence’, the Hôtel Costes. Chic and shiny, dining room details include crocodile-skin chairs (not crocodilette), taut, bronzed banquettes, glass sheathed pillars and positive photo panels by the MOD’s official artist, Xavier Pick.
China Tang
Saturday June 6th, 2009
Five months after the actual event, I was being treated to a birthday dinner at The Dorchester’s Cantonese, ‘China Tang’ which takes its name from Sir David Tang, clothes designer, gold-miner and cigar aficionado – Cuba’s Honorary Consul no less.
The Company Shed
Friday May 22nd, 2009
If Kirsty Young invited me to name my desert island dish rather than disc, I would probably say “shellfish”, which seems apt. A recent craving for crustaceans took me to Essex, but not as you know it. Colchester’s Mersea Island is just five miles by two of tidal salt marsh
River Cafe
Monday May 11th, 2009

The River Cafe is now apparently, 'legendary'. Our reviewer swims against the critical tide by suggesting it may be for all the wrong reasons
De la Warr Pavilion
Saturday May 2nd, 2009
Bexhill on Sea may not be as well known a foodie destination as Bray or Marlow, but it may just have the most unique restaurant of them all. At least when you look at it.
Real Food: Health and Happiness
Monday April 27th, 2009
Philip Lowery, Director of the Real Food Festival, talks to Douglas Blyde on time travel, ‘ros boeufs’ and guilty Ginsters pasties…
Fat Duck Restaurant
Tuesday March 24th, 2009
Three days following a fun lunch at Heston Blumenthal’s revamped ‘Little Chef’, I was at ‘The Fat Duck’ for the strangest lunch of my life. Linen guides rate it the world’s second best restaurant and despite it being in Berkshire, one guide even describes it as ‘London’s finest’.
The Double Club by Fondazione Prada
Saturday March 14th, 2009
I ventured to ‘The Double Club’ on a double date. The west meets the Congo (and vice versa) in this temporary venture, produced by Prada. Down a dark cobbled alley behind Angel tube, it was an unlikely find. A Victorian warehouse is awning to three spaces woven by artists and graced by fashionistas. The mind behind is Carsten Höller, a German gripped by Congo-mania..
Corrigan's Mayfair
Monday March 2nd, 2009
Richard Corrigan’s life has been defined by pathos. From tending roots, shoots and sorting cows from sows, to tussling chicken-crazed foxes, he rose from the bog where electricity was anathema, to cook for the Queen. In rehabilitating dowdy ‘Bentley’s’, the barrel-tummied Nimrod also roused interest in food ‘from our islands’. An almost evangelical ingredientism continues to eat into his latest venture.
To Your Heart’s Content
Monday February 9th, 2009
Foodepedia travels to southwest France to learn more about the most heart friendly wines in the world – and to influence their future blends.
Tastefully Driven
Monday January 19th, 2009
“In my experience there is still a gap between bloody awful food and food which is superb,” Bob Farrand, the director of The Great Taste Awards talks to Douglas Blyde on celebrating distinctive British flavours, a surprising connection with Robert Maxwell, and his appetising vision for 2012.