Imli cookery classes add spice in the kitchen

At Imli, an Indian tapas-style restaurant in Soho, executive chef Samir Sadekar has launched a cookery class to help the uncertain get to grips with cooking Indian food, including using Indian spices. So I Joanna Biddolph whizzed up Wardour Street with a spring in her step on what was an unusually lovely morning, keen to test her taste buds.

Butchery in the city

With news of the fourth National Butcher’s Week (13-20th March) arriving in Qin Xie’s Inbox, she had an epiphany. She should, and need to, learn about those cuts of meat by exploring some of the best butchery classes right on her doorstep. After one or two train/tube/bus rides, that is.

A Flare for Food

‘I just sort of got fed up with fiddly food,’ he says leading us up the stairs to his first floor kitchen. ‘I wanted to get back to simple, fun food.’ As well as the Chicken Kiev, whose origin is as much a mystery as what goes into the hideous things that call themselves Kievs in the supermarket, he does Gala pies and Arctic Rolls too, all things that appeal to the 70’s schoolboy in us all.

Making Japanese cocktails at Watatsumi

Have you been to Watatsumi? It’s a bit fishy in there. No, not in that “there’s something suspicious going on” sort of way but rather, they’re a bit fish obsessed. Qin Xie was recently invited to an evening of cocktail making at Watatsumi, the high-end Japanese restaurant at The Club Quarters Hotel.

The Savoy Grill, London

Andy Cook is putting the grill back into The Savoy Grill, with best of British cooking that is not a homage or a pastiche but just proper dishes done with style and flair and a sense of British achievement and proud British produce. Nick Harman joins Andy in the kitchen to salute the flag.