Head Chef at Papillon eBays himself for Christmas

If you google the name of the head chef at Papillon, you’ll see it listed in many languages you might not be able to read: Chinese, German, Vietnamese, and French to name a few. David Duverger isn’t just the talk of the London, he seems to have gotten the attention of much of the world. It isn’t everyday that a well-known chef decides to eBay himself off for Christmas to raise money for a charity.

Cooking Lessons – Daisy Garnett

It’s really rather hard to get a handle on this author. She comes across at first as the usual boarding-school educated, Catholic, upper middle class girl who thinks the correct term for the evening meal is ‘supper’, is rather inclined to be matrician with the housekeeper and has swanned through life in general. So far then this book is ideal to give as a present to your aunty this Christmas.

Red pepper soup with Gruyere croutes

Spending almost a year in a dark, dank cave is generally not to be recommended. However, it is this long period of hibernation in this unusual environment which is key to making Emmi Kaltbach’s Le Gruyere and Emmental cheese so special.

Black Boy Inn combines a feast with Christmas shopping

On Wednesday, 3 December, the Black Boy Inn in Milton will offer a feast made from local produce alongside the opportunity to buy gifts directly from producers. And for this shopping trip, all under one roof, no umbrellas will be needed. The Black Boy Inn’s head chef Kevin Hodgkiss has prepared a menu using entirely local seasonal produce, including “Upton Smokeries” goose breast with berry salsa & shaken oak sweet honey mustard dressing, or “The Meat Joint” made with rosemary & redcurrant sausages. Guests will be able to try the “Country Deli” Christmas pudding or “Oxford Cheese Company” cheese board. With Homemade mince pies served with handmade Grand Marnier truffles, the dinner alone is an event not to be missed.

Can’t be there for the holidays? Send a turkey instead

Eversfield Estate has gotten together with local Devon farms to put together Christmas hampers filled with local meat products and all the trimmings for Christmas meals. The Eversfield Deluxe Christmas hamper has enough home-produced organic meat to feed six-eight people for the entire holiday season.

Caviar and Cigars fill luxury food boxes

Nothing pleases a foodie more than opening their door to a delivery person carrying a food hamper full of everything they love. Caviar House will design a gift box exactly to your specifications, pulling fresh from their shelves just what your loved one was dreaming about as they were writing their Christmas wish list.

The Hat and Tun

Bang off Clerkenwell’s Hatton Gardens at the Hat and Tun (Hatton Tun – punny, no?) is Ed and Tom Martin’s latest addition to their empire, a funny cross between Victorian East End boozer and English country pub.

So we have the ubiquitous dark, wood-panelled walls hosting haphazard stuffed pheasant, wild boar and badger heads. Then – on the counter – a jar of pickled eggs, a tureen of cauliflower soup, mushy peas in a vat.

Number Twelve

The clergy and food, what is it eh? Across the world priests of all denominations have been traditionally depicted as being as well fed and corpulent as a restaurant critic. It shows in the names of dishes like the Middle Eastern Imam Bayaldi, ‘the priest fainted’; either at the deliciousness or at the thought of how much olive oil went into it. And here on Santino Busciglio’s excellent menu at Number Twelve are strozzapreti, or ‘Priest Stranglers’.