Food fest frenzy
Spring is showing vague signs of arriving: the daffs are in bloom, the clocks have gone forward and the central heating only needs to be switched on for 23 hours a day. All of this means that the food festival season will...
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The name’s Bond
It is never wise to big a place up without eating there first but I’m intrigued by the menu plans at Bond No 9, a new bar and restaurant in Leith. The bar opened in one of the port’s old bonded warehouses back in December but it has taken...
Spam, Spam, Spam
As you are all aware, entries for the 2009 SPAM Cook of the Year have to be submitted by the end of April. The best three SPAM recipes from each of seven UK regions are then put to public vote with the seven winners going forward to the...
New Roux
April Fool’s Day is perhaps not the most auspicious date on which to launch a new restaurant but super chef Albert Roux is nobody’s fool and Chez Roux, his new venture at the Rocpool Reserve Hotel in Inverness, is certain to make a...
Everybody needs good neighbours
Thanks to the smoking ban, cheap supermarket booze and increasing legislation, the idea of the local bar for local people seems to be dying on its backside. Fortunately, the neighbourhood bar looks like it could run for some time. So,...
Recipe Tweeting
As an enthusiastic recreational cook I’ve been using the internet as a recipe source for ages, I swap recipes with friends over email and I can’t get enough of recipezaar, so imagine my delight to discover that there seems to be...
Tasty Telly
Chefs on the fourth series of The Great British Menu will start sharpening their knives on BBC2 tonight. Having previously cooked banquets for Her Maj; the British Ambassador to France and for Heston Blumenthal, the winners of this series’...
Reasons to be cheerful
At the moment, there can’t be many people in the catering trade who are rubbing their hands with glee and planning to buy a holiday home on Mustique. However, it’s not all doom and gloom out there by any means. ...
Them's the jokes, volks
Crude national stereotyping would have it that the German sense of humour is, at best, under developed. If you were to believe the stereotype then a Germanic boozer would not be the first place to look for laughs. This...
The thousand dollar dinners
I’m not sure if this article about the most expensive restaurants in America demonstrates perfect or disastrous timing. It was published last April, just a few months before several high profile American banking institutions...
Pot Noodle Doner Shocker
You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to know that these are not the happiest of times for restaurants. One of the latest to close its doors is the Grassroots Café in Glasgow. Just a few months short of the caff’s tenth...
Your twistin' my melon man!
I’ve never really like water melons, it always seemed like too much hassle for something with virtually no taste to speak of. On the other hand, these perfectly sculpted melons are simply amazing. What possess some one to spend so...
Topless down under
National stereotyping is a terrible thing but you have to admire the Australians for coming up with a beer so typically saucy, so un-PC and so cheeky that it might have been invented by Sir Les Patterson, Australia’s...
A quest to make everything taste like bacon
Like bacon, just wish it was more … spreadable? Well wish no more! At last someone has stepped up and made the bacony condiment we’ve all been dreaming of: Baconnaise. It’s mayonnaise but with that great bacon taste and...
Back to the future
As everyone bunkers down against the economic chill, sales of childhood comfort food are booming. Bisto Gravy, Birds Eye Custard and Fray Bentos pies are among the heritage brands reported to be flying off the shelves. Arctic...
Eat on the wild side
According to the Evening Standard, a Chinese firm which catered for last year’s Beijing Olympics is bidding to cater for the London Olympics in 2012. Specialising in Szechuan cooking, the South Beauty Group is planning to...