Since the Brexit vote and the resulting downturn in the value of the pound, I’ve been spending more time in the UK. This year I took acid for the first time in Cornwall (oh yeah forgot to mention that in the post), drank whisky in Oban, floated about on the Norfolk Broads, ate vegan in Stockport, ate puddings in Aberdeenshire, and walked around Winchester…
Food
Warming Aberdeen recipes: Cullen Skink and Sticky Toffee Pudding
Findon, near Aberdeen, is known for the Finnan haddock, which makes the best Cullen Skink. I had a delicious bowl of this soup at The Silver Darling restaurant, overlooking the harbour. Aberdeen competes with the Lake District and Canada to claim that this is where Sticky Toffee Pudding was invented. Here are my versions of these comforting warming dishes,…
An Indian supper club in Bombay
I started my underground restaurant almost ten years ago. I couldn’t afford to set up a restaurant of my own (average cost to set up a restaurant in London is around a million quid), so I decided to use my own home. Ruminating on the idea since visiting Cuba in 2000, things really took off…
Halloween recipes
We think of pumpkins as an autumnal North American food, although I was disappointed to discover that they usually buy canned when baking pumpkin pie. There is a wide selection of pumpkins and squashes: from giant pin cushion style of Turban Squash, to spaghetti squash, or the dense sweet flesh of acorn squash and butternut….
My visit to the spaghetti factory in Italy’s most famous pasta town, Gragnano
Gragnano, pasta town, Italy Have a good look at packs of pasta next time you go food shopping. You’ll see that many of the best brands are made in Gragnano, a hilltop town south of Naples. Last year I visited Gragnano, specifically the factory Pastificio Dei Campi, which, according to Italian food experts that I know, is…
Food in Madhya Pradesh
Here are a couple of recipes that I learnt while travelling in Madhya Pradesh plus some general thoughts on Indian food. Everything is Indian in India. That’s part of what is so great about travelling here. Unlike most of the world where high streets are identical, India is just so bloody Indian. Especially the food….
Aberdeen and the Shire
I’m falling in love with Scotland. Over the last year I’ve visited Glasgow, Oban, and the World Porridge Championships in the Highlands. This summer I discovered Aberdeen and the surrounding area. In the past this town has had a mixed reputation (the writer Paul Theroux described it as ‘a cold, stony-faced city, over-cautious, unwelcoming and smug’)….
The British Organic Carrot supper club
This summer I’ve been working on a fantastic project-British Organic carrots. I’ve driven over two thousand miles, all over the UK, to visit organic carrot farmers from Inverness to Cambridgeshire, via Norfolk, Aberdeenshire and Shropshire. I’ve learnt about the dedication and hard work it takes to be a farmer. I’ve met some great characters and…
British Army catering, visiting 167 Catering corps in Grantham
“An army marches on its stomach” Napoleon The military is responsible for many advances in food technology: it was Napoleon that put out the call to invent a method of canning. French chef Alexis Soyer created the Soyer oven for British troops during the Victorian era, which lasted from the Crimean war until the Falklands…
The Allotment, winner of Best Vegetarian restaurant 2018
Chef Matthew Nutter and his partner Siobhan gave birth to a restaurant and a baby on the same weekend. I reckon if they can handle that, they can handle anything. The restaurant in question, The Allotment, has just been voted Britain’s best vegetarian restaurant. However it would be more accurate to say it is the…