La Bourse et La Vie may not be one of the most well known restaurants in Paris, at least as far as tourists from London are concerned, but it is one with pedigree. After ten years of running Spring (sadly just closed – it was superb) American chef Daniel Rose has opened up La Bourse…
Fine Dining on a Budget - The Rules
Of course part of the reason for the rise in street food is that on the face of it, it’s very affordable. But here’s the thing, we’ve all been to a street feast or some such other place with the thought that we can get a few good, high quality street food dishes and a…
Harry’s Bar Florence
Among the famous inventions of Cipriani at Harry’s Bar in Venice is, of course, the Bellini, a heady mix of pink Italian peach purée mixed with prosecco. But Harry’s Bar Florence has at times laid claim to being home of the Bellini. The Florence bar is set on the great River Arno that cuts the…
Infusing Vodka
When we talk about flavoured vodka, what comes to mind? Skittles? Smirnoff Lime? That curiously fluorescent bottle of something that you picked up from an off-licence on your way to a house party when you were nineteen? You know, the one that tasted like lemon-scented bleach and made the wallpaper curl. I think we can…
Food Crimes - Bananas
In this, the second in the series, of food crimes, banana dishes of the 1950s take centre stage. The first article on jelly and jelly set salads is here. So back in the 1950/60s my grandfather was a pilot for BOAC (BA these days). As was then typical by nature of the job, he’d go…
How not to Piss off Londoners on the Tube
The London underground is the worlds oldest subterranean transportation system moving some 4.8million people through its lines daily. Without it, London would grind to a halt; but it only manages to do its job thanks to the unwritten rules that have developed among Londoners. Suffice to say, if you break just one of these rules…