Food and Drink

Until recently, I was under the impression that the link between ‘gluten-free’ and flavour was strictly forbidden. Over the Summer I took part in a six-week low FODMAP research diet, completely eliminating gluten (amongst other things) from my day-to-day life. Unsurprisingly, this turned out to be very difficult when visiting restaurants and after four weeks the overbearing cravings for food with even the slightest hint of excitement became impossible to resist and the diet was left incomplete. The problem was...

Well it appears I'm your secret chef. To protect the innocent, the guilty and myself, not quite everything I tell you will be entirely true. Being a secret chef is something I know very little about. However I have spent two decades being a private chef for High Net Worth (HNW) and Ultra High Net Worth (UHNW) clients all over Europe and on super yachts. What I have become experienced at is keeping secrets. Being a private chef basically involves...

Smoked cocktails have become increasingly popular over the past year, and with Bonfire Night just around the corner – there’s no excuse to avoid getting involved with the trend at home. This twist on the classic Manhattan, from Dalston's Behind This Wall, combines rye whisky, sweet vermouth, pisco and herbal liqueur with cold apple cedar smoke. It’s by no means the simplest drink to recreate at home, though the extra effort is guaranteed to impress guests this weekend. Alternatively, the...

Sour Brexit negotiations could lead to UK pubs boycotting European produce according to Wetherspoon’s founder Tim Martin, but what would a purely British-stocked pub look like? Brexit negotiations are well up in the air following a High Court ruling that the government must consult MPs before triggering Article 50, and there’s still a lot of uncertainty over what sort of Brexit we will have, which will have big implications on how businesses operate across the channel. But staunch Brexitier Martin’s...

Three minute pizza toasties are set to hit supermarket shelves in what could well be the greatest food innovation since sliced bread. The square Pop Tart-shaped snack comprises of a thin base topped with cheese and tomato and pops straight into your toaster with no fuss - taking no more than five minutes from package to plate. Forget spending twenty minutes sat drooling in front of the oven, forget feeling guilty for munching down an entire pizza on your own for lunch,...

Strength: 6.7% Brewed: Akureyi, Iceland Named after the Icelandic word for “unique” – Einstök Brewery is located within the fishing port of Akureyi, 60 miles south of the Arctic Circle. Boasting some of the Earth’s purest water, which flows from rain and prehistoric glaciers through the Hlíðarfjall Mountain and ancient lava fields, thus allowing the brewery to craft some truly brilliant beers. Three beers currently make up their core range, including a truly remarkable white ale (perfect with a slice of orange), an...

Anyone who has been on any tour tour of any brewery or distillery will know that the “water source” is what separates that brand from any other. It’s the same old codswallop every time. They regale notions of terroir, locality and the illusion that their patch of land on God’s green earth was their divine calling to create a spirit so worthy that even the angles take a share. It usually goes something like this: “Only the purest spring water...

Vegan food sales are up by a whopping 1,500 per cent in the past year, according to new figures released to coincide with World Vegan Day. More than half a million people in the UK now say they follow the vegan lifestyle, which is  up by 260 per cent in the last ten years, and a third of the population identifies as 'flexitarian', which simply means they are cutting down on their meat consumption. There is a lot of people switching...

With plenty of exciting restaurant openings constantly taking place across the Capital, here’s our pick of the best new restaurants arriving in London over the coming month. Sakagura - Mayfair Joining the likes of Momo and Gordon Ramsay’s Heddon Street Kitchen, just behind Regent Street, Sakagura is the latest restaurant opening from The Japan Centre Group. Opening in collaboration with the team behind two Michelin-starred The Araki, the restaurant will have a Southern Japanese focus and will mainly serve ‘Washoku’ and Hakata Yakitori skewers....