Month: November 2017

I’ve been cheffing in restaurants for the past few days trying to get my knife skills back up to speed before I head off on my cooking trip to California.…

At this time of the year, a lot of people give up the sauce for a month after the port and gin festive excesses. Some go on diets, or give…

I am glad that Nathan Outlaw has been awarded a second star in the Michelin Great Britain and Ireland Guide 2011. The former Rick Stein acolyte has worked hard for…

Restaurant Rule Number 358: Don’t leave insulting messages about customers on the bottom of emails. Anyone who saw Michel Roux’s Service may have despaired at the idea of taking a…

Last week I told you about the green smoothies I’ve been making, which came about after I took a wrong turn at the end of the corridor and found myself…

When Channel 4 launched its Big Fish Fight, I was going to write a blog about how Hugh, Gordon, Heston, and Jamie had as much chance of changing a nation’s…

In my last blog, I talked about sustainable fish and the Big Fish Fight and how many fish and chip shops were passing off cheaper species as cod and haddock.…

A few months back I trifled with the idea of getting a voluntary cooking job at a homeless centre. I was missing the cheffing, and thought it might make a…

From food and travel book Down And Out In South East Asia I have just arrived in Thailand for a SE Asia food tour, and after one night in Bangkok,…

My Lonely Planet guide claims Kanchanaburi’s night market has the best hoi tod (fried mussels in batter) in the whole of Thailand. Even though the guide has a fairly comprehensive…

I have just got back from a rather mercurial evening involving delicious sea snails and the evil tuk tuk drivers who plague the streets of Chiang Mai. I’d headed out…

Last night I spent the evening working in a restaurant kitchen in Chiang Mai with my two new cheffing chums (let’s call them Dave and Si because they deserve their…

I have some sympathy with Jamie Oliver when he talks about Britain’s youngsters being work-shy, “wet” children who get their mothers to stick up for them. But what he says…

I am continually flabbergasted by what goes on in restaurants. I’ve seen and heard about things in kitchens that would never be accepted in any other trade. Sexual abuse, racism…

Whenever I go abroad I like to eat what the locals eat. It gives you a much truer reflection of a country’s cuisine and eating habits. Sometimes I go into…

I am writing this as I wait to board a plane back to Bangkok after spending eight days in Chiang Mai chatting to monks, visiting temples and narrowly avoiding becoming…

Yesterday I had a great day in Thailand’s Rayong Province – an area where tourists are thankfully as rare as nine baht notes. I travelled there with my ex-pat friend…

Imagine the confusion. It could happen to anyone. You pay millions to global rap star Jay-Z to perform at your celebrity-studded wedding and then an outdoor catering firm from Newcastle…

There has long been a perception that Michelin stars are becoming increasingly irrelevant in these belt-tightening times. So it will do nothing for the tyre guide’s credibility and fading reputation…

Police are investigating a possible food poisoning link between the deaths of a British couple and a New Zealand backpacker in Thailand. Pensioners George and Eileen Everitt died in the…