Travel tips-Restaurant reviews-Recipes
Just over a week ago, an Italian friend Antonella got in touch to say she’d like to introduce me to a Sicilian chef. With my love of Italy and Italian food, meeting a Sicilian chef was an offer too good to resist and the next day I found myself sitting in the Knightsbridge branch of […]
Read MoreI’ve been visiting Venice for over 30 years, most frequently in the last ten. Yet it took me until two years ago, in April 2013, to make my way across the Lagoon to Torcello. I’d been to Murano and Burano but not the tiny Torcello island. When I read about its peace and tranquillity and […]
Read MoreNot far from Sloane Square, in Pimlico Road, you can experience a little bit of magic: you can walk through some glass doors and find yourself transported to beautiful Tuscany. Exposed red bricks on one wall, a wooden floor, Tinello – tinello is Italian for dining room – combines chic sophistication with informal homeliness in a […]
Read MoreIt was a grey, wet morning as I arrived at The Shard, Western Europe’s tallest building and designed by the architect Renzo Piano. It’s visible from way across London and is simply magnificent in its design and the way it draws your eye from literally miles away. As I emerged from London Bridge station it […]
Read MoreIt was back in December 2011 that I first interviewed exciting young chef, Shaun Dickens, for my Top Ten Cookery Books series. Shaun had arrived at Fallowfields, a country house hotel in Oxfordshire, a few months before with ambitions to turn round the restaurant – and he did, earning it 2 AA rosettes pretty quickly. […]
Read MoreI had the slightly weird experience early last December of sitting in one of my favourite haunts in central London – Joe Allen in Covent Garden – and seeing the owner of a favourite local restaurant heading across the room to say hello to me. Suddenly Twickenham met Covent Garden. For only days before it […]
Read MoreBarely five minutes walk from Victoria station in a remarkably quiet location is The Goring, the only family-run 5-star luxury hotel in London. Just a couple of years past its centenary celebration, the current CEO, Jeremy Goring, is the 4th generation of the Goring family to run this beautiful hotel. The Single Gourmet Traveller doesn’t […]
Read MoreI’ve always loved going to the Tate Modern restaurant for lunch; not only is the food always excellent but the view is stunning. Situated at the top of the Tate Modern building, the floor-to-ceiling windows allow bright light to fill the restaurant and give out to a view that spans a prime area of London […]
Read MoreRebecca Mascarenhas has been running top restaurants for 26 years. Her first restaurant, Sonny’s in Barnes, soon became a favourite destination in SW London. In 1986 when it opened, Sonny’s was groundbreaking, offering a new way of eating top-quality food locally; you no longer had to travel into central London to eat really well. But […]
Read MoreI recently wrote about the fabulous Sam’s Brasserie in Chiswick and how I love its combination of great food and an easy, relaxing yet sophisticated ambience. It’s just the kind of place I love to eat so I was delighted to be heading there this morning to meet Sam Harrison – yes, it’s his brasserie! – […]
Read More