In case you missed it, the Good Food Guide has been saved. In 2021 the latest owners Waitrose, announced they were ceasing publication and after 70 continuous years in production, it was a blow to committed restaurateurs and diners alike who respected the GFG for its honesty and independence. Now it has been bought by Code Hospitality. Never heard of them? Nor had we. They run a lively subscription website for the hospitality industry with features about food and travel, members discounts and job vacancies. This is all good news for GFG fans because it means Code will be publishing online as w ..read more

Today, 26 November we are mourning the dreadful fire that broke out yesterday evening at the Star Inn one of our long-time favourites and destroyed a considerable part of the building We have learnt that the police are saying the fire was started deliberately. Andrew has declared they will rebuild though it could take a year or more. We send Andrew and his team our commiserations and our very best wishes. We know he will build better and stronger. If you don’t know the Star Inn you can read our review on the front page ..read more

My friend and colleague, the food historian Laura Mason has died of cancer aged 63.   Laura was an accomplished cook, a writer and an eminent food historian. Her most notable work Traditional Foods of Britain (in collaboration with Catherine Brown) is an inventory of some 400 traditional foods, their origins, history and production. In a work of impressive scholarship, Laura reported on everything from kippers to kale, Bath buns to Borrowdale tea bread, pork pies, stuffed chine, ham and haslet. It is an invaluable reference for anyone interested in the origins of British fo ..read more

Another chance, if you missed it, to read Mandy column in Saturday’s Yorkshire Post about Food Circle, York: “We grow. We supply. We cook. Food Circle: a social enterprise working to create a sustainable and fair food system. Community powered. Nature led.” Something rather special is happening in York. A quiet revolution, you might say. Twice a week, in a playground outside Tang Hall community Centre you’ll find a market selling fruit, veg, meat and oil from small scale food growers and makers. Food Circle was started 3 years ago by Joe Fennerty, whose experience working in fine dining kitche ..read more

If you have an interest in food and travel and haven’t yet found Somebody Feed Phil on Netflix, then go there now for the refreshing new and funny voice of Phil Rosenthal. He’s a producer and a scriptwriter for a US sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, but in this Netflix series he travels to cities across the globe eating out mostly at street stalls, sometimes at high-end restaurants. He’s very likeable and funny and he loves his food. Add to that the sites of Marrakesh, Venice, L.A. and the rest and it’s a pleasing antidote to being locked down at home.  After exploring Venice, we find him i ..read more

Mandy interviewed the Yorkshire Sherpherdess, Amanda Owen for the Todmorden Book Festival. She began by declaring ‘there can’t be anyone who hasn’t watched Our Yorkshire Farm’, well there can and it’s me. But I’ve watched it now and I’m a total convert. Oh boy, what a delight. A lovely family, gorgeous Yorkshire landscapes, beautifully filmed. One question Mandy asked was how on earth do you feed a family of 11 every day ? The answer is in Mandy’s food column in Saturday’s Yorkshire Post. If you missed it, here it is. Two Amanda’s for the price of one. ‘There can’t be anyone in the land who ha ..read more

It’s no surprise but with great regret that one of our all-time favourite places is closing for the foreseeable. Alisdair and Aimee’s message is posted on Instagram “It is with sadness (but determination) that we have decided to preempt the inevitable and close from Monday 2nd November. This will be for a currently unknown length of time (not forever), but until we can trade again in conditions that are not restrictive to the point of being unsustainable. Anyway for the remaining days of October (and one in November) we plan on seeing as many of you as we can and enjoying it thoroughly. Then w ..read more

Mandy has long championed Pextenement cheese, it’s made just down the lane from her house in the Pennines. You can read all about it here. Cheesemakers are having a hard time under lockdown. Animals continue to produce milk so cheesemaking has to go on regardless. With restaurants shut, small cheesemakers like Pextenement are left with more cheese than they can sell. You can best support them and help keep them afloat by buying their cheese. Pextenement’s lovely fresh brie style Pexommier – cows milk, pasteurised and organic – is on special offer until the end of the month. It’s usually £6.50 ..read more

We gave you the shortlist of the Guild of Food Writers awards and tonight under lockdown conditions, the winners were announced. If you want to know about the best food and drink writing, the best broadcasts and the best new writing, take a look at the winners. Guild of Food Writers Awards 2020 ..read more

Bars, restaurants and food shops are doing their best to provide food and drink under lockdown conditions. It’s hard now and it’s difficult to think how small independents will fare going forward. Ordering a takeaway or click and collect will help these businesses survive.  In York Kiki Burton of Cardamom & Dill is offering a Friday night three course vegetarian supper. She is also the best resource for knowing what other food deliveries are available in the city both restaurants and shops. Her list Nourish York is updated daily. Newly added is Skosh of York whose Bokkusu is a takeawa ..read more