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Blessed are the cheese makers.
Sunday May 19th, 2013Up early in the morning to walk through dappled light to the dairy that’s nestled by a babbling brook. The cheese makers’ life? Well not exactly, as Nick Harman finds out
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The RAW boat rocks up
Friday May 17th, 2013Sustainability is at the forefront of this month's RAW the artisan wine fair’s mission, yesterday the Mil'Pat came to London from Brittany – a carbon neutral cargo ship delivering six tonnes of cargo, including 3,000 bottles of wine, to the capital ready for the event on May 19-20 at the Old Truman Brewery. And obvs FP was there to help welcome the boat,drink the wine and eat some cheese!
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Bibigo
Friday May 10th, 2013Nick travels to Korea in safe hands with Bibigo, Fast paced, fair priced and rather stylish it's ideal for snacking in Soho
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This little piggy went to Brockenhurst
Thursday May 9th, 2013Tempted out of his London comfort zone to the wilds of the New Forest, Nick Harman visits The Pig, named sustainable restaurant of the year by Restaurant magazine 2012
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Donald Russell Toad in the Hole and Mini Lamb Roasts
Monday April 22nd, 2013Purveyors of mail order meat to the masses, Donald Russell now offer an easy Toad in the Hole as well as mini Lamb leg. We put both in our oven to see what came out
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Hello Fresh - adieu meal monotony
Tuesday April 16th, 2013Hello Fresh is an idea for budding cooks with little time. Every week the chefs create recipes that are claimed to be easy to prepare. They then source the required ingredients from independent British suppliers. We cook up and consider.
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Sushinho, City
Tuesday April 2nd, 2013The original Sushinho was really more a bar with food than a restaurant, and so dark I had to view the menu by the light of my mobile phone. In this Sushinho the bar is thankfully downstairs, allowing the restaurant to be just that.
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The Amalfi Coast - Katie and Giancarlo Caldesi
Friday March 29th, 2013Chic and sun-kissed, Italy's Amalfi coast nestles between sea and mountain and is home to some seriously delicious food. Katie and Giancarlo Caldesi have created a book that brings a bit of that dolce vita back to the UK and Nick Harman meets Giancarlo to discover more.
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Carrara Restaurant at St James Theatre
Sunday March 17th, 2013Covent Garden and Shaftesbury Avenue around 7pm are packed with pre-theatre diners wandering about in increasing desperation trying to decide where to eat. Many, if not most, are concerned about delays and will opt for a chain serving steaks or burgers. The food may be boring but it’s worth it for the reassurance of speed. St James, the first purpose-built theatre complex to open in London for 30 years, has a solution; a brasserie downstairs, a restaurant upstairs and shows for all sorts
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The Shed, Notting Hill
Tuesday March 12th, 2013With cooking that has the flavours, charm and simplicity of a Brawn or a Terroir, and a style that makes you smile despite yourself, The Shed has plenty to recommend it to locals. Even scenesters should find it’s well worth pedaling the single geared bike over to Notting Hill for.
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The Malt House
Monday March 4th, 2013Times change and pubs are dying. Conversion into the sort of place the Bosis have created seems the only way to avoid demolition or conversion into flats. With easy to digest prices for above average cooking this could easily become a regular haunt for locals. All in all quite a result for Fulham and clearly premier league stuff.
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Where Chefs Eat- A guide to chefs' favourite restaurants
Tuesday February 12th, 2013Of course few normal people, when pressed, can actually name even five working chefs and odds are they would mostly think of Ramsay, who isn’t in the book and Blumenthal who is, despite being more of a James May of food these days. But if you’ve heard of Harald Wohlfahrt, ‘in 2005 he was awarded the German Order of Merit’ then you can now find out what he likes for breakfast.
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Textures, tweezers and Thermomixes. Madrid Fusion 2013
Monday February 11th, 2013Another year, another Madrid Fusion. Nick Harman goes to see what chefs are cooking up this time as they bring their tools, their tricks and their taste in tattoos to Europe's premier culinary showcase.
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Clockjack
Saturday February 9th, 2013The chicken skin was, as we guessed it would be, terrible. Greasy, lank and tasteless. Fit only to be peeled off like a soggy condom and as quickly discarded. The unseasoned meat was moist, verging on wet, and tasted of not much at all, not even chicken. The menu boasts that Clockjack’s marinade is a special secret recipe. The secret may possibly be that it’s just tap water.
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Footy, fish and fear of frying. Madrid Gastronimica
Sunday January 27th, 2013San Sebastian may have all the headlines when it comes to food, but Madrid can still make the grade. And when you get tired of tapas, there's the museums and art. With Gastronomica Madrid 2013 now on, Nick Harman hit the city streets to see what's on offer.
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The Bowler's Meatball Cookbook - Jez Felwick
Friday January 18th, 2013Isn’t mince just magic? Doesn’t need chewing and is so versatile. Use it in your spag bol or chile con carne, shape it into a burger, stuff it into peppers or roll it into balls. The last option is the one Jez Felwick feels is best and considering he’s done all right out of these balls, who can doubt him?
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STK
Tuesday January 15th, 2013How do you like your steak? I don’t mean rare, medium or ruined, I mean what kind of ambience do you want? The university educated, job in the media, parents in the shires, style of Hawksmoor, or the school of hard knocks, what bloody parents, making a fortune at the bank, style of STK?
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Chez Gerard- Bishopsgate
Tuesday January 15th, 2013It’s very City inside - J and I being the only people in the restaurant not wearing ties. Downstairs is a busy bar while upstairs there’s a la carte on offer. It’s a bit of a climb up there as the lift only takes one person - presumably it was designed by the same people who make the escape pods for Bond villains.
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Divine Vegan Desserts - Lisa Fabry
Tuesday January 8th, 2013Vegetarians eh? Blooming nuisances that they are, always checking you haven’t used non veggie stock in their soup or slipped some gelatine in their jelly. If there’s one thing worse than a veggie round for dinner though, it has to be a vegan. They won’t eat anything that isn’t 100% made of plants.
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Marque. A culinary adventure -Mark Best and Pasi Patenen
Monday December 31st, 2012This is ultimately a book you will in fact probably never cook from but you will enjoy enormously. It will make you want to search out restaurants that take the care, the creativity and the time that Marque does to deliver a dining experience beyond the norm. You’ll eat with renewed appreciation of what it takes to be a chef at this level and you’ll savour every morsel because you’ll have a very good idea of just how very hard it was to create.