Richard Corrigan’s legendary restaurant, Bentley’s, on the border of Soho and Mayfair has now opened an elegant al fresco dining area. Beautifully furnished with comfortable chairs, marble tables, navy parosols and plants, visitors can unwind with special dishes taken from the critically acclaimed Oyster Bar menu or simply enjoy a glass of wine. Seasonal dishes on the menu include Baked plaice with Jabugo ham, pea & marjoram broth, Belvelly smoked eel with crème fraîche & potato pancakes, Dublin Bay prawns with tartare sauce and of course a range of fastidiously sourced oysters.

Tucked away from the hustle and bustle on the newly pedestrianised Swallow Street, Bentley’s al fresco area offers a peaceful respite and can seat up to 24 people. The al fresco area does not accept reservations which makes it the perfect place to call by after a long day in the office, celebrate a successful shopping trip or maybe an impromptu glass of something. Orders are taken from noon until 10.30pm each day and until 10.00pm on Sunday.

If the British Summer weather does not appeal and al fresco dining does not fit the order of the day, guests are invited to the Champagne Bar to enjoy exceptional live piano and jazz music every Wednesday from 7.30pm until 11.30pm and every Thursday, Friday & Saturday, from 8pm to Midnight.

Almost 3 years after restoring Bentley’s to its former glory – Bentley’s is now in its ninetieth year - owner and renowned chef Richard Corrigan, who has famously hung up his chef whites from the BBC’s Great British Menu after winning the competition two years in a row, has ensured that the restaurant still retains its critical acclaim and position as one of the most exquisite restaurants in London serving oysters, fish and seafood in much the same way it has since 1916.

Take a bite of culinary Copenhagen and the Nordic region. For the fourth time, Copenhagen opens its doors to the food festival, Copenhagen Cooking, from 22 – 31 August.

Good food is an important ingredient in any holiday. The discerning gourmet traveller deciding to try the tastes of Copenhagen, will never be disappointed.

Danish cuisine blends European influences with its traditionally excellent dairy produce, organic vegetables and fruits and high quality local ingredients from sustainable farms and the surrounding waters.

This year the Danish capital has been awarded no less than 12 stars. This puts the city above Rome, Berlin, Vienna and every other Scandinavian capital when it comes to quality gourmet restaurants.

Let’s take a look at what’s cooking:

Noma has since 2007 been awarded two Michelin stars. It is based in a converted 19th century warehouse in the up-and-coming harbour area of Christianshavn. Its chef, Rene Redzepi, has brought back to Copenhagen the best of what inspired him whilst working in world class restaurants like El Bulli in Barcelona and The French Laundry in California. Here he combines these influences with finest ingredients from the Nordic countries and presents dishes full of taste and regional flavour. At Noma you are not likely to find Fois gras, sauces based on red wine or olive oil on the menu. Instead delicacies such as horse mussels and shell fish flown in from The Faeroe Islands, lamb and berries from Greenland etc. are on the food agenda

The Paul restaurant is located in the most beloved part of all Copenhagen, Tivoli Gardens. A pleasure park with extensive gardens, a lake and live music, it is the most visited attraction in all of Denmark. The restaurant’s classic glass exterior and original designs were created by the famous Danish designer Poul Henningsen during the mid-forties. Its past glories as a favourite of Danish royalty, Hollywood actors and the local in-crowd has most certainly been revived thanks to this its charismatic chef. And no wonder, Essex-born chef Paul Cunningham has gone from strength to strength since arriving in Denmark. His cuisine serves a blend of French inspired dishes with delicious Danish specialties.

Formel B in the Frederiksberg area is well worth getting on the waiting list for. Book one of the 32 tables at this stylish Modernist decorated restaurant and enjoy their now famous 6-course dinner menu which is replaced every 2 weeks.

An interesting newcomer to the Michelin Guide this is year is Restaurant Geranium, a totally organic restaurant, this year receiving its first star. It is located in the Kings Gardens in the heart of Copenhagen

Nimb, has just opened in Tivoli Gardens, too late to be Michelin rated this year, but a hot newcomer nevertheless.

The large Moorish style façade of Nimb with its towers and minarets have been brought back to its former glory. This now a luxury suites-only hotel, offers a gourmet restaurant, bar, vinoteque, dairy and its own chocolate factory. The renowned hotdog stands of Copenhagen will get some serious competition from Nimb’s Gourmet Hot Dog Stand. You will this summer be able to buy hand made sausages, brioche and homemade ‘remoulade’. Danish traditions dictates, that this should be accompanied by cold chocolate milk, in the case of Nimb, it will be made of Danish Summerbird chocolate and milk from the in-house micro dairy – all organic.

And there is much more cooking than the above mentioned in Copenhagen these days. Other great restaurants include, Kiin Kiin on Møllegade in the district of Nørrebro – the first Asian restaurant in Denmark to receive a Michelin star. www.kiin.dk as well as the “classic” the Kong Hans Kælder which had has its star for so long now that people simply take it for granted. Kong Hans is known for its traditional French cuisine and is located right in the centre of Copenhagen near Kongens Nytorv and Strøget.

Copenhagen celebrates Good Food too…
… with its own Copenhagen Cooking Festival, this year it takes place 22-31 August.

:plate: :chef: :wine:

[SIZE=+1][SIZE=2]The York Food and Drink Festival will run for 10 days in September, celebrating the best of regional and world food in the heart of historic York.

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The 'Buckinghamshire Restaurant of the Year 2008’. Milton Keynes restaurant celebrates first birthday with The Buckinghamshire Foodie Award!

Jonathan Todd, owner of The Plough in Wavendon, had a second reason to celebrate at his restaurant during a black tie dinner for the restaurant’s first birthday celebrations on Wednesday 16th July.

Restaurant Guide publisher, Paul Allen, from The Foodie Square Guide, awarded The Plough Wavendon as ‘Buckinghamshire Restaurant of the Year 2008’.
The annual award – in its sixth year – was bestowed upon the restaurant as voted for by the readers of The Foodie Square Guide.

Paul Allen commented: ‘The restaurants we feature in The Foodie Square Guide are recommended to us by our readers. Nominations are received from the readers and restaurant-goers – across Buckinghamshire and beyond - throughout the year and the annual ‘Restaurant of the Year’ award is announced in July.’
‘We are extremely pleased’ he comments further ‘to see The Plough Wavendon achieve this in their first year of trading. We take into account all of our customer comments and feedback and this is used to determine the winner of the award. Jon Todd, Grant and his remarkable team have done Buckinghamshire proud with their attention to detail from the food and wine, to the landscaped areas. Congratulations to them on becoming Buckinghamshire Restaurant of the Year 2008’.

Jonathan Todd, owner of The Plough Wavendon commented: ‘We are extremely proud of The Plough’s latest award. It is a testament to the commitment and ideals our restaurant offers the diners, here in the Milton Keynes countryside.
‘Grant is passionate about the food and service we deliver’ he comments further ‘His support for local businesses, and in turn the local economy allows him to further enhance his position as one of the region’s leading chefs: Something that I, as a successful Milton Keynes businessman, fully appreciate and support. He can justifiably be proud of this award – it is voted for by the public and is a glowing confirmation of their support in what he does.’

Chef Grant Hawthorne commented: ‘It’s been my ambition to become the best restaurant here at The Plough Wavendon. I have been given an amazing opportunity to do so and I’m extremely grateful for the support of Jon in helping me to achieve this.’
He comments further: ‘Our award-winning, fine dining restaurant in Milton Keynes is where my passion and demonstration of the art and craft of cooking is to be found. I’m humbled by the guest’s recognition and respectful of the honour that goes with this Foodie Award. What a wonderful first birthday surprise!’

Grant recently launched his 9-course summer Degustation menu, with the added option of having a flight of wines to match each course.
He comments: ‘The Plough’s complimentary luxury transport; 400 bin wine list and some of the UK’s Best Dishes are to be found a mere 7miles from Central Milton Keynes. The tasting menu simply adds to our fine dining experience.’

The Plough Wavendon is open daily from noon, and its menu includes an affordable business set lunch along with a pre-theatre dinner served between 5.30pm and 7.00pm.

for The Plough in Wavendon - www.theploughwavendon.com

The claims of the “Bollywood Burner”, creation of top chef Vivek Singh of London’s Cinnamon Club is being put on the line as “the World’s Hottest Curry” in the XXX Extra Strong Mints ‘Can You Handle the Heat’ Challenge as part of National Curry Week in November.

Top curry chefs throughout Britain are being asked to produce a dish that can blow the mind in terms of heat when initially eaten but will not cause any lasting effects or health damage.

“This is subtly different from simply producing a hot dish that sears the lips, burns the throat and causes Delhi Belly,” said organiser Peter Grove. “Top chefs are masters of spicing and can produce the effect of tremendous heat on eating to satisfy even the most adventurous without any adverse lasting effects.”

For many years the “Curry Hell” dish created by the late Abdul Latif in Newcastle upon Tyne has been widely regarded as the curry to make you hurry, confirmed annually when brave souls accept the Curry Hell challenge. Rukon Latif disputes the claims of Vivek Singh’s Bollywood Burner and is being invited to join in the National Curry Week event to re-assert his dish’s dominance.

The ‘Can You Handle the Heat’ Challenge will take place at World Food Market at ExCel in London’s Docklands 26-27 November and top chef Udit Sarkhel of Mango & Silk and ex of Sarkhel’s and Bombay Brasserie, will be offering the carefully researched and built, benchmark dish on behalf of the sponsors to be challenged by Vivek’s new dish and those of other chefs around the country.

The XXXMints ‘Can You Handle the Heat’ Challenge is the centrepiece event for National Curry Week which is operated annually to raise funds for charity. The lead charity for 2008 will again be Oxfam.

:chef: :plate:

East Midlands Food and Drink Festival returns to Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire, 4-5 October 2008



The award-winning East Midlands Food and Drink Festival will take place at Brooksby Hall near Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire from 4-5 October 2008. The UK’s largest regional food and drink festival will spread over 50,000 sq ft of covered marquee space at the site, will feature over 200 exhibitors from around the region, and is expected to attract over 20,000 visitors this year.

Top celebrity chefs including Clarissa Dickson Wright, Rachel Green and Anjum Anand from the BBC’s ‘Indian Food Made Easy’ will lead on the celebrations by hosting talks and demonstrations throughout the two-day festival.

The theme for this year's festival is 'Diversity: Food and Cultures of the East Midlands’. Besides traditional delicacies such as Melton Mowbray Pork Pies, Bakewell Pudding and Stilton Cheese, the East Midlands has a wealth of foods from communities that have settled in the region since the second world war. Leicester won the coveted accolade last year of 'Curry Capital' of the UK and Melton Mowbray’s gastronomy has been enriched by its large Polish population. The festival will celebrate this diversity in food with demonstrations of gastronomy from a range of different cultures, many of whom will also display their art, dance, music and crafts during the weekend.

Advanced tickets are priced at £6 for adults (16+) and £5.50 for senior citizens (60+). Entrance for children under 15 is free. Tickets can be purchased from the Leicester Tourist Information Centre in Town Hall Square, Leicester

Festival Chairman, Matthew O'Callaghan said: “The East Midlands Food Festival has evolved into one of the most popular and progressive food festivals in the UK. The festival is a truly unique celebration of food and drink, combining the great rural cuisine and culture of Melton Mowbray and Leicestershire, with the diverse gastronomy of the region as a whole.”

:plate: :wine:

Following its outstanding success last year, 2008 will see the return of Felbrigg Hall’s Chilli Fiesta and summer fete, in what is hotting up to be the highlight event for the property this summer.

When it comes to the finest in food and hospitality products and services, nothing will be left off the menu when Fine Food Australia 2008 celebrates a ‘sensational milestone’, its twenty-fifth birthday, in Australia’s culinary capital, Melbourne.

A classic British lunchtime dish gets a modern makeover to adapt it to the workaholic, desk-bound lifestyle of today’s average British worker and latter-day “ploughman”.

Leading Cheddar brand Pilgrims Choice has redesigned the Ploughman’s Lunch to make it the ideal lunch for the average “ploughman” of today. The resulting Plough-On Lunch has been designed with the desk-bound office worker in mind: it can be eaten whilst typing and is intended to be consumed over two sittings, the bulk at lunch time and the remainder as a mid-afternoon snack, helping the worker to keep “ploughing on” between lunch and dinner.

The traditional Ploughman’s Lunch was perfect for giving the typical British worker of yesteryear the calorific and nutritional needs to keep him going through back-breaking, high energy burning labour. Today the average British worker, identified by Pilgrims Choice1 as a thirty-year-old male working in financial and business services, has swapped physical labour for sedentary stress. The average worker today will typically spend 87% of his 9¾ hour working day seated at the computer, performing deskbound activities, such as emailing, telephoning and PC based work. Even the 80-minute round-trip commute will be spent sat behind the wheel of the car. Pilgrims Choice, therefore, felt that the Ploughman’s Lunch needed a makeover to make it nutritionally more relevant to the needs of the British worker of today. Whilst the new recipe contains many of the basic Ploughman’s ingredients (cheese, bread and pickle), the Plough-On Lunch has changed in the following ways:

From cheese-filled platter to cheese-filled pitta

The traditional platter of cheese, bread, pickle and salad garnish has been replaced by two healthy wholemeal pitta pockets, cut into four halves and filled with a tasty, colourful and satisfying combination of grated Pilgrims Choice Extra Mature Cheddar, diced red pepper, chopped celery, sweetcorn and chutney. The ingredients are combined together in a delicious dressing of Greek yogurt, balsamic vinegar, a handful of torn fresh basil leaves or a pinch of mixed herbs and coarse ground black pepper. The result is a substantial, nutritionally balanced lunch that’s high in fibre, lower in saturated fats, providing one of the three daily calcium portions and at least five portions of fruit and vegetables in two sittings.

Designed to be eaten whilst typing

The use of filled pitta breads enables the Plough-On Lunch to be eaten whilst typing or working at the desk. Research1 reveals that the typical lunch break lasts just 19 minutes for British workers and, with just 1 in 3 offices offering a designated place to sit and eat lunch, the majority of workers tend to eat lunch at their desk, with almost 7 in 10 choosing to continue to work and eat at the same time.

Designed to be eaten in two sittings

The Plough-On Lunch has been designed so that it can be eaten in two sittings. This takes into account the typical 6½ hour gap between lunch (12:47hrs) and dinner (19:22hrs). Three pitta halves should be consumed at lunchtime, with an accompaniment of ten olives, pickled onions or gherkins, six cherry tomatoes and a fresh apple. Men are encouraged to add 25g of peanuts on top for added fibre, protein and a dose of healthy unsaturated fats. The final pitta half should be consumed around three hours later, alongside an accompaniment of a handful of grapes. Eating the Plough-On Lunch in two stages helps avoid the temptation of unhealthy convenience foods during the mid-afternoon “slump” and on the way home from work.

With a hint of the Mediterranean

There is a wealth of research to suggest that the Mediterranean diet can be cardio protective and health promoting. Taking a leaf from the olive tree, Pilgrims Choice has incorporated ingredients such as olives, Greek yogurt, nuts, balsamic vinegar, basil, fruit and vegetables to help adjust the nutritional balance. Consequently, the Plough-On Lunch is more conducive to cardio-protection.

Nutritionist Azmina Govindji, who worked with Pilgrims Choice to create the Plough-On Lunch, says of the redesign, “The traditional Ploughman’s Lunch of cheese, white bread and a salad garnish constitutes a meal that is high in fat, saturates, sodium and calories, whilst being low in fibre and unhealthy unsaturated fats. Nutritionally, cheese has many benefits: it’s an excellent source of protein and minerals such as calcium, and so plays an important role in keeping teeth healthy and bones strong - vital considering that in the UK 1 in 3 women and 1 in 122 men over the age of 50 will be affected by osteoporosis. The new Plough-On Lunch fits well within Guideline Daily Amount (GDA) expectations, is tasty, colourful and filling. Cheese is still on the menu and by using grated Extra Mature Cheddar, we have packed in flavour with less saturated fat per serving. Our research tells us that 75% of sandwiches are made at home, so we have ensured that the Plough-On Lunch is easy to make at home the night before. Best of all, by using everyday ingredients the cost is kept low and at £2.59 (for both lunch and a snack) the Plough-On Lunch represents better value than many shop-bought sandwiches - perfect for those of us feeling the credit crunch.”