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Category Archives: BRITISH

BBC gives Coren a mouthful

 
Chicken's testicle with that, sir?

Tomorrow sees the launch of new BBC programme ‘The Supersizers Go…’. Two celebrity guinea pigs will go back in gastronomic time to experience the development of British cuisine at first hand. They will sample delicacies ranging from pig snout to hare’s gall bladder, washed down with the tipple of the time.

One half of the time travelling foodie duo is none other than restaurant critic Giles Coren. His dining pal for the series is comedienne Sue Perkins. Together they test fare from twelve periods of history, including Regency, Victorian, and Edwardian eras, as well as dishes from the Second World War and the Seventies.

The show has an educational purpose: to discover which dishes our modern diet could benefit from, and to learn from the mistakes of the past.

But that does not stop the programme from having fun, as it films the duo stifling their gagging reflex and forcing down pig jelly and glands while dressed to the nine in the costume of the age. Continue reading →

 

Life is pucker for Sainsbury's

 
Lovely jubbly: everyone's a winner

Jamie Oliver has been credited for the revival of the fortunes of supermarket Sainsbury’s.

Shoppers are responding to the new advertising campaign featuring the chef preparing simple meals for under a fiver. Analysts report that more consumers are buying the products promoted by Oliver.

The supermarket, the thrid largest chain in the UK grocery sector, last week annouced a 28% increase in profits. It predicts further growth by 2010 despite the forecasted economic slowdown.

 

Celebrity chefs argue ethics at Real Food Festival

 
Fight Club: the battle continues

Last night saw celebrity chefs including Jamie Oliver, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Delia Smith debate the impact of mass-produced food on the environment with the public.
While Jamie and Hugh continued to campaign against battery farmed hens, Delia defended the cheap meat they provide to poorer families.
The event, which took place at the Real Food Festival, was also attended by industry experts including Mark Price, managing director of Waitrose and Tim Lang, professor of food policy at City University and winner of the Observer Food Monthly’s 2007 lifetime achievement award.
While environmentally friendly chefs and restaurants were praised for their efforts to avert a crisis in food supplies, others were named and shamed for refusing to take heed of the warnings of experts. Continue reading →

 

Five times Fifteen for Jamie's charity empire

 

Five in a row: Jamie’s magic number

Jamie Oliver plans to join the increasing number of top chefs heading north when he opens another branch of his Fifteen restaurant chain in Leeds.

This latest restaurant, which will open in 2009, will help teams of disadvantaged youngsters from the city and surrounding area to train as chefs and turn their lives around.

Jamie’s first Fifteen restaurant has so far produced five groups of skilled chefs who have gone on to work at restaurants in London, New York, San Francisco and Sydney. With the London branch of Fifteen going from strength to strength, Jamie has since launched similar projects inMelbourne, Amsterdam, and Cornwall. The latter won Best Location in this year’s Observer Food Monthly reader awards.

Leeds will be Jamie’s fifth venture, and the addition of Fifteen will be yet another feather in the city’s culinary cap. Last year it was listed in Which? Good Food Guide’s top five cities to eat out in. It already boasts Raymond Blanc’s Brasserie Blanc and will welcome back native Marco Pierre White when he opens Frankies with jockey Frankie Dettori in a few months time. Continue reading →

 

Record-breaking El Bulli wows the world for the third time in a row

 

Ferran Adrià shoots…and scores

The man who taught Heston everything he knows has once again topped the list of the world’s best restaurants, scoring a gastronomic hat-trick.

Ferran Adrià’s El Bulli, which has won Restaurant magazine’s San Pellegrino World Restaurant Awards four times since they launched in 2002, closely beat his protogé’s The Fat Duck to the top prize.

Heston, who trained with Adrià , need not be too bitter. His restaurant, which won the top spot in 2005, was the only UK eatery to feature in the top ten, and came a respectable second place. The chef’s closest British rival was Gordon Ramsay’s eponymous Chelsea restaurant, which climbed eleven places to number 13. Continue reading →

 

Whatever happened to Graham Newbould?

 

He was once the Royal Chef par excellence – who prepared Prince Charles’ meals every day. But then he left the Royal employ, and spilled the proverbial beans in a series titled “Secrets of the Royal Kitchen.” He was suddenly famous, but the attention was too much for him. Equally suddenly he disappeared. Now chef.co.uk needs to talk to him urgently – please ring 07971 543703 if you know his whereabouts.

The cook – one of 20 chefs responsible for the Queen’s diet – soon learnt that cooking for the monarch included the royal pets.