Food 2018 – White Horse, Kings Sutton

Saturday, October 20th 2018 – The White Horse, Kings Sutton With the increasing shortage of quality restaurants in our area, every so often we strike it lucky, and find a gem. Now that the Roade House, the Vine House and Cameron’s Kitchen are all gone, we need a high-ish end establishment for the more special…

Food 2018 – Hibiscus, Northampton

Saturday, October 13th 2018 – Hibiscus, The Derngate Theatre, Northampton It’s true – if unkind – that when thinking of Northampton the last thing that comes to mind is fine dining, but with the county’s annual food and drink awards coming up in a couple of weeks, and the announcement of the Restaurant of the…

Food 2018 – Game Dinner, Le Gavroche, London

Monday, 8th October 2018 – Game Dinner, Le Gavroche, London I’m a massive fan of Michel Roux Jr and his cooking style, which is basically proper French cooking taken to the extremes of refinement, nothing flash, nothing “molecular”, nothing outré or extreme, just the best possible ingredients, cooked to perfection. However, as a consequence, it’s…

Theatre 2018 – King Lear, Duke of York’s Theatre, London

Saturday, September 29th 2018 – King Lear, Duke of York’s Theatre, London We swore after our 2016 “Year of Lear”, having seen Michael Pennington, Sir Anthony Sher and Dame Glenda Jackson all give superb if wildly different interpretations of the role, that we would spare ourselves the gloom of it for a while and would…

Recipes 2018 – Recipes (Uzbek Plov)

Thursday, 27th September 2018 – Recipes (Uzbek Plov) Following on from recent posts about food in Kyiv and Ukraine, here’s a pair of recipes for plov. Both will probably easily serves 10 people, or possibly more, depending on hunger levels. Uzbek Plov – Recipe 1 Ingredients 1 kg moderately fat lamb 1 kg medium grain…

Travel 2018 – Kyiv, Ukraine, Days 2 and 3

Tuesday, 18th September/Wednesday, 19th September 2018 – Kyiv, Days 2 and 3 Day 2 was manic and intense work-wise, and the only sightseeing that was done was from the seat of a mini bus taking us back and forth from the hotel to the office, mostly while stuck in traffic that wasn’t much going anywhere….

Travel 2018 – Kyiv, Ukraine, Day 1

Monday, 17th September 2018 – Kyiv, Day 1 Finding myself in Kyiv for a 2-workshop and meeting session with the rest of the 12-strong team I am part of, the London contingent (two of us) were on the ground and in our hotel about 3 hours ahead of everyone else, so with the dispensation of…

Food 2018 – The Hopping Hare, Duston

Tuesday, 11th September 2018 – The Hopping Hare, Duston This was one we’d been meaning to try for a while, having heard good things about it on the grapevine. There was a rumour the chef had once worked at the late lamented Roade House, and that he was in good form here. We were keen…