Here is a little piece I wrote for ALCS on my marmite cupcake recipe rip off (click here) on the etiquette of naming your sources when writing a recipe. If you are a published writer or journalist it is worth joining ALCs, the Authors and Licensing Collecting Society. It costs nothing to join as your…
Archives for August 2015
Travel: Zotter’s Chocolate Factory in Austria
Joseph Zotter at the back of his chocolate factory in Styria, Austria. All eyes were fixed upon the gates. ‘There he is’, someone shouted. ‘That’s him!’ And so it was. Mr Zotter was standing all alone just inside the open gates of the factory. And what an extraordinary tall man he was! He had a…
Where to buy vegan products in London
Top Ten vegan shops in London When one of America’s top vegan cook book authors, Terry Hope Romero, came over to do a supper club with me, she was very impressed by the selection of vegan products sold in the UK, particularly the range of vegan cheeses. The United States takes veganism very seriously and every…
Travel and food: Spaghetti Vongole on the Ile de Ré
Foraging for clams at low tide to make campfire spaghetti vongole Driving through the margarine sunflowers of Charentes-Maritimes I get to possibly my favourite place in the world….the Ile de Ré, a pale sunlit island off the Atlantic coast of France, a lengthy bridge ride from former Huegenot stronghold La Rochelle. If you don’t have…
My secret tea at an 18th century house in Spitalfields
No gaudy colours, no blowsy cupcakes, no glitter, no flash, no electricity but demure serving girls, candle-lit rooms, a rented pineapple symbolising welcome, stood proudly inside a large silver punch bowl serving a refreshingly alcoholic Regency Punch, a recipe from MsMarmitelover’s Secret Tea Party. David, stern custodian of Dennis Severs’ ghostly Georgian house in Spitalfields, greeted…
Travel: Sète market, Sètois food
Fishmonger at Sète market, South of France One of my worst lapses as a mother was in Sète, a clammy but atmospheric port in the Languedoc of France. My three year old was playing next to the shore and, excuses, excuses, having been driving all day in an un-air-conditioned car, having slept badly, in a…
Vegetarian BBQ recipe: baked plantain with chilli, lime and coriander
Since I got the Big Green Egg, I’m basically doing all my cooking outside, even when it’s raining. Let’s face it, it’s not a proper British BBQ unless you are carrying an umbrella as well as tongs. Great thing about a BGE however is that you can close the lid if it is pouring down,…
One to One: my interview on BBC radio 4
In case you missed it, here is the link to the interview that was broadcast yesterday on BBC Radio 4 (my radio station of choice!). In it I explain the idea behind supper clubs/home restaurants/pop ups to football pundit Adrian Chiles.
Travel: Fete du village in the South of France: bulls, guinguettes and apero-mousse!
Camargue Cowboy Almost every weekend throughout the summer in the South of France there is a fete du village. People go to their own village party but they also go to the surrounding villages. I happened to be visiting my friend Juanita in Aigues Vives, near Nimes while the local fete de village held a…