Cannellini & porcini mushroom soup, created by Arthur Potts Dawson. An Italian twist to the traditional mushroom soup, which is warming and hearty for those chilly British evenings.
Yeo Valley Organic present a cooking master class with Arthur Potts Dawson
The lower ground floor lecture theatre in Waterstone’s, Piccadilly was the setting for aYeo Valley Organic Master Class recently. The main feature of this was a cookery demonstration by the executive chef of Acorn House restaurant, Arthur Potts Dawson, in which he used Yeo Valley produce as part of the make up of each of the dishes he prepared.
Babur celebrates 24 years in style
To help them to celebrate their 24th ‘Birthday’ Babur have created a themed tasting menu for their customers. The concept was developed by Babur’s head chef, his idea inspired by each year representing the number of hours in a day and the four meals: breakfast; lunch; dinner and midnight snack, that you might have during the day. This is a limited opportunity as the menu is available only till the end of August, and is well worth trying – we heartily recommend it.
Saltoun Supper Club
‘The Saltoun Supper Club’ takes place each week at Arno’s home in Brixton, converted into a prop for pleasure dining. The décor bears testament to an artists eye – a nude of a tall, girlie figure by Tracey Emin clings, arms by sides, to the hall wall; on the stairs, a moneybox by Gilbert & George invites financial fuel with the words, ‘pay up and f*** off’.
Damian Allsop’s latest creations
Damian Allsop Chocolates, known for the avant-garde chocolate collections made using a unique water-based (rather than cream-base) recipe, launched their latest creation, ‘CLOUDS’ at the end of June. Do try them
Thai Festival takes off
The UK’s most popular Thai event, the biannual festival in Surrey, is fast approaching and this yea’s extravaganza promises to be better than ever with over 40,000 visitors expected. The event is organised by Mudita Trust, a UK registered Charity supporting the secondary education of boys and girls from some of the poorest villages in Thailand helping prevent them from entering into the sex trade and instead using education as a tool in helping them make a better future.
Gourmet Burger Kitchen – now quality comes bite sized
Never ones to turn down a free lunch we happily took delivery of a sample bag of GBK’s new smaller lunch burgers at the office. At this point we should perhaps tie ourselves up in moral knots about the propriety of being ‘bribed’ in this way, but we won’t. GBK took a chance – if the burgers and fries had turned out to be crap we would have said so quite happily. Instead we liked them a lot.
Bite me. Vanilla Black does discount Gourmet Veggie
My brief experiment with vegetarianism foundered on the large rock that is a bacon roll. At 6 a.m your defences are down and the waft of ketchup is too much to resist. Maybe I would have stayed loyal to the cause had there been dishes like the ones Vanilla Black are creating.
Enjoy a cocktail from The Secret Garden
Forget bottled cider †according to London’s top mixologists there’s only one way to have your apples and pears this summer and that’s mixed with Cazadores, Mexico’s national spirit. The official cocktail of the boutique festival tipped as one of this summer’s hottest tickets (Secret Garden Party of course), the Secret Garden Margarita is available now in award winning London bars such as Green & Red and Quo Vadis.
Mango Tea – Mango Tree does the afternoon nicely
‘You have to mash the bananas by hand, squeeze them through your fingers. you can’t use a blender.’ Mark Read Head Chef at Mango Tree and at Awana is telling me how to make Thai Banana cake accompanied by hand gestures reminiscent of someone milking a particularly recalcitrant cow, ‘you want the lumps,’ he says. ‘Like Guacamole?’ I suggest. ‘Exactly!’