NOMA REDUX

19/20 In a ferment – René Redzepi and his team mark out new territory with the old élan. Top, top grub. Top, top service. Top, top price. Topping all round. ‘That was so good,’ I said to the young lady who came to clear away the dishes that had until recently contained a ragout of […]

US & THEM

Last weekend Bee Wilson wrote a characteristically intelligent and lucid piece in the Guardian extolling the virtues of another characteristically intelligent and lucid writer, Nigella Lawson. In particular, she praised the merits of How To Eat – ‘For those of us who love How To Eat above all other food books, what it offered was […]

FINAL VEG PLOT DISPATCH

In the basket are the last of the carrots, Manchester; a decent all-rounder, but they haven’t shaken my faith in James Scarlet Intermediate, an old Victorian variety, and Jaune de Doubes, a legal immigrant, my current favourites. Along side them are a heap of two climbing beans, Stortino di Trento, the stripy ones, and a […]

VESPISTAS

Hang on a sec. What’s going on here? Imitation maybe the sincerest form of flattery and all that, but, really, First Jamie Oliver, in his latest series, Jamie Cooks Italy, hops on a Vespa with his buddy, Genaro Contaldo, and whizzes around the place, cooking up storm as they go. How original, I thought with […]

TINKLE CRUNCH

My uncle John was responsible for much of my education in matters of cocktails. He gave me my first sip of a martini. (I was seven and reacted with understandable shock and revulsion that I managed to master some years later). He taught me how to make an Old Fashioned and always maintained that the […]

DISPATCH FROM THE GARDEN FRONT – TOMATOES

It’s been a better-than-average year for my tomatoes. If you grow them outside, without benefit of glasshouse or polytunnel, as I do, I think you have to see them as an autumn fruit, But with our long, hot summer, they blossomed early, fruited early and ripened early. Well, earlier, if I’m honest – I’m still […]

TOM KERRIDGE BAR & GRILL

16.5/20. Classic Kerridge. The power of a heavyweight, exemplary technique, the touch of an angel. Big place, big flavours, big pleasure. Big bill. Tom Kerridge has ventured forth from the fastnesses of Marlow, where he has but an impregnable fortress of eateries through the Hand & Flowers, The Coach and The Butcher’s Tap. Tom Kerridge’s […]