Farewell Floyd
The 5pm team was saddened to hear of Keith Floyd’s death last night. A pioneer among TV chefs, he blazed a trail, usually with a glass in hand, for many of today’s best known pot-bashers. A larger than life character, he led...
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Food heroes on film
Meryl Streep discovering the joy of food in the film Julie and Julia Much as I enjoyed being provoked by Borat earlier this year, it’s good to see that you don’t have to be an equal opportunities offender to draw a good crowd at the Box...
Slumdog beats and banquet
Dancing will be on the menu at the new Slumdog bar and kitchen Following on from a chat with Charan Gill, we have more details about his new Slumdog venture on Sauchiehall Street. As the former owner of the massive Ashoka brand of Indian...
Eat the weekend away
The Scottish Food and Drink Fortnight moves onto the main courses this weekend with eatBute and the East Renfrewshire Food Festival. On Bute, this means food and craft fairs, cookery demos, market tours with chefs and tasting sessions. The...
Fancy a dram?
Whisky heads will be nosing their way towards the Thistle Hotel in Glasgow this Saturday for the annual Whisky Live event. The event has shrunk a bit from previous years and is now held on just the one day which is split into two sessions...
Service with a smile
Tales of waiting staff venting their frustrations crop up fairly regularly but this one in the Mail is fairly spectacular. ...
Fungi update
My pride and joy We still have some way to go before we reach The Good Life levels of self sufficiency but our fungi-growing experiment is going well. Five days after activating our mini-mushroom farm, the first woodland oysters have...
Master of the quiz
Following on from yesterday’s link to C4’s foodie quiz, the ever fab Guardian Word of Mouth blog have launched their own version here. I can see these food quizzes becoming the next weapon in dinner party one upmanship. Never...
Wine mark-ups corked
If ever you needed proof that London’s restaurant economy operates on another planet then take a look at this report on the Big Hospitality website. Bob Bob Ricard restaurant, which opened earlier this year, has capped the mark-up on...
Building a cocktail
At the risk of sounding obsessed, the weird and wonderful Bompas and Parr boys are at it again. I’ve blogged about them a fair bit on here in relation to the Hendrick’s Carriage of Curiosities but, strange as that experience...
Food fight
Did anyone else watch Channel 4’s Food Fight Quiz last night? I loved the first round in which the competitors had to name ten different variations on an ingredient in under twenty seconds. Team captains Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall...
Table manners alive and kicking
No texting at the table, me hearties Back in July, we reported on Debenhams launching their civilised dining campaign. Upset at the idea that people were buying more forks than knives, the campaign was supposed to highlight the importance...
Beware the biscuit tin
Is a pretzel a biscuit or would it come under some more obscure sort of classification? A baked savoury product, perhaps? I’m only asking as I thought that after a pretzel nearly caused the premature demise of the former president...
Hey, good looking, what you got cooking?
Just come across a couple of American articles that I liked. First up is this Time Q+A with Frank Bruni, the man who has just stepped down after five years as restaurant critic of the New York Times. I really don’t envy his reviewing...
Farming fungi
Inspired by this Alex Renton article in The Times, I thought I should get on with cultivating the mushroom grow-box that I bought at the Foodies Festival a fortnight ago. Mr Renton is a keen fungi-forager and, while I like the idea of...
Lego cookies
This lego cookie roller might actually be the most awesome thing ever. I know we’ve gently mocked some kitchen gadgets in the past, but I really think this is a must-have. And as if I wasn’t excited enough...