This was the first time I have drunk Champagne throughout a meal and I have to say, it was a brilliant thing to do. I’m not, by any means suggesting that you might pair each of your courses at a restaurant or around your dining table, with different Champagnes as a regular thing; it’s a little decadent. But it’s a fun thing to do,
Tom Aikens joins forces with Long Clawson Dairy to produce new cheese cookbook
Celebrating its 100th birthday in style, 2011, marks the centenary of Long Clawson Dairy, a Leicestershire based co-operative started by 12 farmers to produce Stilton Cheese. And to mark the occasion the dairy has teamed up with Michelin starred chef Tom Aikens to produce a cheese-orientated cookbook. Taking you though each of the decades since the 1910’s, there is a chapter dedicated to each ten-year period with an interesting mix of history and some recipes inspired by the times and also the various cheeses that they produce.
Fried turkey Egg with Spring vegetables
Spring has officially begun today, and this cooking video features Mark Hix (chef, restaurateur, writer and former competitor in Great British Menu) making a great spring dish – fried turkey egg with spring vegetables.
Vanilla Nice. Nielsen-Massey Vanilla Bean Paste
Nielsen-Massey are best known for producing vanilla extract; a bakers’ kitchen staple and the antithesis of that nasty synthetic stuff, vanilla ‘essence’. Now they’ve come up with another ‘alternative to vanilla pods:’ Vanilla Bean Paste.
Wyck Hill House Hotel and Spa
I’m in two minds what a hotel with flagpoles at the entrance is trying to say. On one hand it denotes grandeur, prestige, an assurance of quality, on the other it smacks slightly of international conference chain, of ‘fur coat, no knickers’ showboating.
African Fusion Cooking – Nina Gaskell
Nina’s book is clearly a labour of love and has a genuineness about it all too often missing from Chef cookbooks (bit of an ego trip) and the pro cookery writers (middle -class women with too much time on their hands and friends in publishing).
First Indian Cocktail Bar in London on Dean Street
Zenna Bar is London’s first Indian cocktail bar, found underneath The Red Fort, a pretty good Indian restaurant. Prior to this launch the venue hadn’t reached anywhere near full potential, averaging small weekly numbers of guests and takings. Now the bar has an atmosphere and is starting to create an identity as new life pulses through its veins.
The Rivington Grill, Shoreditch, London,
Rivington Grill isn’t fine dining of course but it’s not downmarket either. Some dishes verge on the self-mocking and ironic, even by Shoreditch’s high standards, but the cooking is capable in a way that that is all about the ‘operation’ rather than just the chef and that’s no bad thing in our current celeb chef obsessed culture.
Zilli Green , Soho , London
The latest restaurant from Aldo Zilli, the Italian chef behind Zilli Fish and Zilli Café. Zilli Green is vegetarian and gets its main inspiration from traditional Italian dishes fused with other styles of food from around the world. Not your typical sit-down restaurant, Zilli Green differentiates itself from the competition by offering a buffet as well as the standard menu.
The National Cafe brings Flanders to London
The National Cafe has a new menu of food from Flanders to celebrate the Flemish artist Gossaert and his works on show at the National Gallery. There’s not a mussel in sight but, as we found out, there’s plenty of clever, tasty cooking and a range of deliciously dangerous beers.