Fairhills, a progressive Fairtrade wine brand, is using Fairtrade Fortnight 2009 as a way to urge its customers to think about ‘what’s in a glass’. This year, Fairhills is investing over £220,000 in Fairtrade projects across South Africa, Argentina and Chile. In one glass of Fairhills wine, drinkers can not only enjoy fruity reds and whites, but they can also be assured that 5p from every glass will go toward helping people in South Africa, Argentina – and now Chile, which has just this month been awarded Fairtrade accreditation.
The Scandinavian Cookbook -Trina Hahnemann
‘A good cookery book should always be covered in food stains,’ laughs Trina Hahnemahn when I tell her about the sorry state of my copy of her excellent The Scandinavian Cookbook. It’s a book so packed with recipes that leap off the page and demand to be cooked that I’ve had a hard time keeping my sticky hands off of it.
Vegetarian Chefs of the Future Contest
The °Cordon Vert School is on the look out for the new vegetarian chefs of the future and is offering them the chance to show their potential by taking part in an exciting culinary competition. The Vegetarian Chefs of the Future Contest is open to all chefs, vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike. It will culminate in the finalists’ live cook off with two winners being named Vegetarian Chefs of the Future 2009.
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.
Toby Carvery restaurant
We sample a Toby Carvery and report back that surprise surprise it’s really not bad at all, especially when you have a hungry family to feed
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.