The author recounts a memorable dining experience at Chef Hélène Darroze's restaurant in London's Connaught Hotel, celebrating a friend's 40th birthday. The meal featured exceptional seafood and pigeon dishes, paired with fine wines. A visit to the kitchen enhanced the experience, culminating in exquisite cheese and dessert selections. Overall, it was a remarkable culinary journey ..read more

We recently travelled to Paris, a city that I’ve passed through quite a few times recently (usually en route to Champagne) but not spent any real time in four over a decade. The occasion was to celebrate my wife’s birthday and I was on the lookout for a venue to suitably celebrate in. I did consider the ’showy’ option of the starred restaurant in the Eiffel Tower, but I quickly opted instead for Marsan par Hélène Darroze. Chef Hélène is one of the food scene’s absolute icons, and the fact that she is a woman made it an even more appropriate way to celebrate the wonderful woman in my life. I ha ..read more

Social media hype works. This is the new way that you find about things that are great. You find people whose opinions you trust. When one of them raves about something you clock it and think ‘interesting…’. Then a few more people do the same and it becomes something that you think you have to participate in to see what all the fuss is about. This is why people spend money now on social media advertising and influencers to help spread the word about their wares. It works. Mountain restaurant on Beak Street in Soho was one of those places for me. I was aware of its opening, it was part of the s ..read more

I am a lucky boy… I have been very lucky in my life to have dined at some of the greatest restaurants in the world. On my 30th birthday, Isabelle took me to the legendary The Fat Duck, which was just mind-blowing in terms of its culinary wizardy. On my 31st birthday, she took me to Noma, which completely made me re-examine what I am looking for in a dining experience. When it came to planning my 40th in California, I knew that we were going to be in wine country for it and so left the planning of the actual celebration to her. I’ll be honest, I was expecting that we would head to the French La ..read more

There are places that I hold a mild curiosity about. Then there are places that I’ve wanted to go to for a while. Lastly, there are those small number of places that I knew I absolutely had to make it my mission to go to. ‘Core by Clare Smyth’ was firmly in the latter category and had been long before it received its third Michelin star. I had read the rapt reviews in the press, and looked on with envy at those people I know who were lucky enough to get a table. Finally came my turn. We sold our house earlier this year and, for the moment anyway, had some money that was burning a hole in our ..read more

Sometimes there are restaurants that you aren’t aware of and then suddenly you find that you see references to it all the time. Trivet is one of those places. It feels like my Instagram feed has been full of posts from people either raving about the food there, or attending incredible looking wine events. So, when I was looking for a place to go to for a nice lunch with my wife a week or so ago, this was the first place that I looked into. As soon as I looke at the website I knew that we had to go there. It’s run by Jonny Lake, ex of The Fat Duck; it got its first Michelin star last year; and ..read more

I think everyone has a cuisine that they have a bit of a blind spot with. A food group that they don’t look to with as much eagerness as others. I would say that Chinese cuisine is that for me. When it comes to looking for restaurants, takeaways, food deliveries, or even things to cook a home, for some reason I don’t look to Chinese cuisine with as much gusto as say others. I think this is caused by two main factors: firstly, the proliferation of not very good Chinese takeaways that served sticky, sweet, MSG-riddled, non-decript food in my youth; secondly, my ignorance of what Chinese cuisine ..read more

Restaurants are open again! Hurrah! What a treat to be able to go out again to restaurants. To enjoy that convivial atmosphere, to pore over the wine list looking for something unusual or interesting, to have friendly discussions with knowledgable and personable waiting staff, to taste the exquisite craft of the highly-skilled chefs, to not having to wash up after dinner (!), to share this experience with friends and family. Everyone knows that the restaurant trade has had a terrible year, truly an annus horribilis with no real vestiges of support from the government. This isn’t the ..read more

As a lover of fine food and great wine, there are few more exciting places that you can visit in London than Hide restaurant in Mayfair. This is a collaboration between legendary chef Oliver Dabbous and Hedonism wines (a wine shop in Mayfair with the most incredible wine list – for example bottles of Chateau d’Yquem going back to the nineteenth century). I visited there recently for a blow-out meal to celebrate getting my bonus – and boy, this is the place to go for a blow-out meal! As you would expect the wine-list is simply stellar, essentially the wine list is the wines available from Hedon ..read more

My “list” of restaurants that I want to visit has a nasty habit of growing at a greater rate than I can cross them off. One of the restaurants that has been on my list almost since I started it is Cheltenham’s “Le Champignon Sauvage”, a restaurant that has a reputation for doing top-quality food with wonderful produce and a much-vaunted wine list. A recent trip to the Cotwsolds gave me the perfect opportunity to pay them a visit and to cross this particular restaurant off “the list”. The restaurant is set in what looks a little like a cottage, on a rather quiet road, in a rather quiet part of ..read more