IT IS CUSTOMARY for most websites to start with a short manifesto explaining just what kind of site you have stumbled across… but let’s not get too philosophical about this. I am in favour of hospitable restaurants; inventive chefs; local ingredients; eating fresh food; shopping carefully. I am against over elaborate presentation on the plate; dumbed down food television; blunt knives; and anybody who takes photographs of everything they eat. I don’t much like those dim sum chickens feet. I am a great fan of sweetbreads and pork scratchings. I think that beer gets a raw deal in the context of gastronomy. I usually side with comfort rather than style. This site is mainly about food and restaurants but it also touches on trends and books. I hope that it can be dipped into and that it reads like a magazine rather than a diary - I make a great effort to avoid just writing down where I have been and what I have eaten. Please feel free to use the “Contact” page to send brickbats, bouquets, corrections and comments. Welcome aboard, and as our American cousins would have it…Enjoy!

Hot Picks

THE WORLD'S FIFTY BEST RESTAURANTS is one of Restaurant Magazine’s most valuable assets – from humble beginnings it has grown ever more impressive until last night (30th April 2012) saw its tenth birthday celebrations. Every year there is a gratifying amount of press coverage and every year the Fifty Best’s tentacles reach out to new cuisines across the world. Hats off, this is a contender for the World’s best ever PR vehicle. Every year people argue about the voting and every year the system of panels and votes gets more complex and more arcane. It is the simplicity of the idea that is so magnificent. This is a LIST… Read More...

Questions of Taste

You cannot help feeling slightly flattered when you are asked to “open” somewhere. So while trying to avoid any trace of smugness I am happy to mention that at 11 am on Saturday 26 May I have been invited to formally open the new look, larger, refurbed Revills Farm Shop and Tea Rooms. Revills has always been known for asparagus and on a couple of occasions Darren has been able to find a box of good stuff for me at the very end of the season when most shops are just selling “grass” – thin but tasty. Asparagus is one of the great seasonal treats, but this year… Read More...