Travel and the Call of the Familiar

I’m a part-time adventurer when I travel in the sense that I like to go back to familiar, favourite places again and again rather than new all the time. My current ‘again and again’ place is probably Turin, where I went in March for the third time in as many years and can’t wait to […]

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Fegato alla Veneziana

While I was gathering the ingredients together for this dish I heard the sad news of the death of Antonio Carluccio, the great Italian chef, who did so much to bring good Italian food and an appreciation of it to this country, which he made his home over 40 years ago. I have many of […]

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Travel Gourmet’s Top 5 City Breaks

    I’ve been writing this food and travel blog for nearly six years so it’s not surprising that I often get asked where I most like to travel to, and which are my favourite restaurants (usually referring to hometown London). Most of my travelling is city breaks: 3 or 4 nights in the heart of […]

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TV Review: Rick Stein – From Venice to Istanbul

OK. 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 […]

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Orso Restaurant Regional Dinner: Veneto

I’m really loving Orso Restaurant’s regional dinners. We’ve been to Piemonte and Tuscany and last night we were transported to Venice. As regular readers will know, Venice (aside from my hometown of London) is my favourite place and I go there about once a year. And, of course, the food of Venice is some of […]

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Lunch at Locanda Cipriani, Torcello

It was great meeting Bonifacio Brass, owner of Locanda Cipriani, last Thursday and interviewing him for the blog. I’d eaten a light lunch there two years previously when I visited beautiful Torcello for the first time and when I was talking to William Goodacre of Tastes of Italy last December about Torcello and the Locanda, […]

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Interview with Bonifacio Brass, Owner of Locanda Cipriani, Torcello

I’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 […]

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Venice 2015: The Rialto Area of Venice

I love the Rialto area of Venice and while at first thought it conjures up visions of many tourists crowding across the famous bridge; traffic jams on the Grand Canal as water taxis, vaporettos, speed boats and gondolas all compete for space; and stalls full of tacky souvenirs at inflated prices, you need only walk […]

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Venice 2015: A Visit to Castello Carboncine Wine Estate

In the water world of Venice, it’s easy to forget that terra firma lies not far away, just across the Lagoon. After landing at Marco Polo airport on Monday and taking a water bus straight to San Stae and my hotel, I hadn’t been on a road or seen a car for over 48 hours by the time […]

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Venice 2015: Trattoria alla Madonna & Venice by Night

 I’ve passed the Trattoria alla Madonna many times but with its situation very close to the Rialto Bridge have always thought of it as a bit of a tourist trap. Then a few weeks ago I saw an article about a new book on the food of Venice by a respected food writer and one of […]

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