Travel tips-Restaurant reviews-Recipes
I’ve fallen in and out of love with Nigella Lawson cooking on TV. When she stormed on to our screens way back in 1999 with Nigella Bites, it was mesmerising. After the rather dour seriousness of TV cooks like Delia Smith, Nigella was revolutionary; her attitude to food was a revelation. Cooking for our families, […]
Read MoreIn this new TV series on Channel 4, Michel Roux Jr puts eight out-of-work people with disabilities through a 4-week intensive course to work in the catering industry. They will live together, train together and work together for the 4 weeks. The catering industry is, of course, one the toughest environments to work in: long […]
Read More‘Fings ain’t wot they used t’be’ goes the old Lionel Bart song for the hit London stage show of the same name in the 1960s about East London Cockney characters. According to that doyenne of cookery writing Prue Leith, cookbooks aren’t what they used to be either. ‘In my day you could still buy a good […]
Read MoreOK. I am officially envious. Bright green with envy! Rick Stein has just embarked in his new TV series on BBC2 on a road trip from Venice to Istanbul. If someone were to say, What’s your dream road trip? Then I’d be pretty likely to come up with this one. However, if I can’t actually […]
Read MoreI’ve been wanting this book for about a year; pretty much since it was published in 2014, but I was trying to be good and not spend £25 on a new cookbook when I already have about 200 on my shelves. Then I looked at it again in a bookshop recently, fell in love all […]
Read MoreRegular readers of the blog will know how much I love Kew Gardens, which are local to me, just a couple of miles down the road. I’m currently recording a ‘year at Kew Gardens’ in mainly photos on the blog, month by month, and feel so privileged to have these world famous gardens on my […]
Read MoreFew things excite me more than the combination of food, Italy and art, so it’s not surprising that the beginning of a new Italy Unpacked series on BBC2 tonight got me very excited indeed. Art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon and chef Giorgio Locatelli first got together on TV for the series Sicily Unpacked three years ago. Such a […]
Read MoreIt’s been a long time – 3 years! – since I wrote up my own Top Ten Cookery Books and since then I’ve often thought I should add more from time to time. I’m a cookbook addict and am always adding to my already huge collection because fashions in cooking change and while I hold […]
Read MoreI consider myself extremely fortunate to live close to the world-famous botanical gardens – Kew Gardens. As the gardens are only a couple of miles from my house it’s a place where I regularly go for a walk and my Friends of Kew Gardens ticket (£65 a year) gives me unlimited access so I can […]
Read MoreMy friend Lucia thought I’d enjoy the elBulli exhibition at Somerset House and got us tickets. It was a rather strange concept: going to an 18th century London house of one-time formal splendour to see an exhibition about one of the world’s most extraordinary and creative restaurants and chefs. It really didn’t seem the right […]
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