Michelin stars in their eyes?

Some restaurant owners will tell you privately that a Michelin Star can be an annoyance. Suddenly the place is full of restaurant nerds who keep taking pictures of their food, make obsessive notes and act like Wookie fans at a Star Wars convention. They supplant the regulars and make a noise.

Let them eat Foie Gras

Word filters through to the countryside that once more the forces of repression, philistinism and Stalinism are on the march. Even down here far from the seething hell that is London we hear the crunch of their sandals on our soil, the rustle of their Guardian colour supplements and the unmistakeable whiff of self-serving sanctity in the air. I refer of course to the move to ban foie gras.

All things Scottish at Prism

Coax away the chill this month with a fortnight feast of quality Scottish food and drink from Monday, 19th until Friday, 30th January. Including toasty hot toddies in the Prism Bar, special whisky cocktails and most of all, a fantastic tasting menu devised by Head Chef Richard Robinson in order to celebrate the best of Scottish produce. Richard’s tasting menu will be accompanied by whisky, specially selected by whisky creator and master blender Rachel Barrie.

The Drawing Room restaurant

Down at the far Western end of Portobello Road things haven’t changed much since I used to do my shopping in the All Saints Road in the late 1970’s. The shopping was a bit furtive and didn’t actually involve any shops though, if you catch my drift maaan. Here is a nice neighbourhood restuarant, The Drawing Room.

Bombay Brasserie Restaurant

The Bombay Brasserie has only been open a few days following a large and no doubt expensive, refurbishment. The chairs look so spanking new that you (or at least I) rather regret wearing jeans and I discreetly check my rear for any protruding felt tip pens, chewing gum, cat hairs etc before sitting down. All around the walls memories of the previous interior line up – ancient black and white photos of Bombay life, mostly featuring well-fed Princes in their Raj heyday.

Tastefully Driven

‘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.

Great offers in great restaurants

Feeling a bit poor? Eating out off the menu? Fear not our Foode friends as these very nice places have got some very nice offers for you all. So why not dine out and damn the economy!

Cooking up a storm for Chinese new year

Great recipes from Cherry Valley Duckling mean the Chinese New Year is now the perfect opportunity for budding Nigella Lawson’s and Gordon Ramsay’s to learn new culinary talents and create their own ‘STAGS’ – Stay at Home Gourmets