When Willie Harcourt-Cooze first burst on to our TV screens in 2008, immersed in a bath of chocolate, it was the stuff of children’s books. This was a man so passionate about chocolate that at the start of his journey, he sold his home in London and moved to Venezuela where he bought a cacao farm – Hacienda El Tesoro. Qin Xie reviews his latest book.
Willie’s Chocolate Recipes
Recipes taken from Willie’s Chocolate Bible, published by Hodder & Stoughton (£25)
Hard Rock Cafe 150 Old Park Lane, London W1K 1QZ
Before the burger became fashionable and big steaks become big draws, you only had one choice for a for a fix of American easy-eating. The Hard Rock Cafe. Joanna Biddolph fails to find her flared jeans to wear for the occasion but otherwise enjoys travelling back to the 70’s for a plateful of nostalgia.
Manseng and Musketeers
Is it fair to compare an offspring’s prowess with their parents’? Amidst visits to artisan producers of maple syrup coloured, orange and prune scented, addictively supple Armagnac in the drink’s 700th year, I tipsily ventured to the respective restaurants of father and son, Éric and Pepito Sampietro, deep in France’s Gers.
Hard Rock 150 Old Park Lane, London W1K 1QZ
If only I could get into my loft – piled high from the entrance to the back – to dig out diaries from my late teens and early 20s. Did I first go to the Hard Rock Café between school and travelling or after I got back from my not quite two year north American trip?
Elena’s L’Etoile, 30 Charlotte Street, London, W1T 2NG
Elena’s L’Etoile, with its bistro charm, kicks out naughty frills and Frenchness like the can-can. Its eclectic and Art Deco decoration includes random brass wall inlays and two stained glass windows inserted in the ceiling. Pictures of actors and slebs – not all visitors – plaster the tobacco-coloured walls. Diners are respectable, good-humoured, full of bonhomie.
Marmite marketing drives one loyal user insane
The trouble with Marmite marketing started when they handed over the concept, and a large sum of money no doubt, to the Social Media marketers, the ones who sit around sockless in Hoxton, talk a lot of impenetrable jargon about Web 2 and attempt to grow beards before the hormones are ready to oblige.
Dining with Bisol Prosecco at Le Cafe Anglais
When Harrods officially opened the doors to the new Wine Shop on the 16th of November, Bisol threw a little celebratory dinner party to celebrate its new display in the champagne section. Qin Xie attended the celebrations and rather enjoyed the proseccos.
When You Entertain, family friendly recipes to share with Coca-Cola
Open mind or not, I won’t be converted to drinking Coca-Cola any time soon, but this book has left me very open to its possibilities as an ingredient. When You Entertain charmed me with cheery presentation, accessible recipes and its ethos that good food is for sharing.
Top Five Turkeys, the most popular and best free range fresh turkeys on sale this Christmas
O come all ye serious foodies, if you’re planning to be the host with the most this Christmas you need to be ordering your favourite feathered friend right now.