ON the first stage of our home-bound flight from Alaska, from Anchorage to Seattle in Washington State, I got into one of those unpredictable, expansive conversations you sometimes have on a plane. The passenger next to me was a courtly old man who clearly wanted to chat. He was in his late 80s and a…
If you were among the thousands of cheese lovers who headed to Sturminster Newton for this year’s record-breaking Cheese Festival, you probably bought a selection of the delights on offer, took them home and put them in the fridge. Wrong! Here’s how to do it … Dude, where’s my cheese? THE size of fridges has…
by Simone Sekers IT’s raining again, and so I am searching through my collection of tattered recipe books for something to do with the glut of mulberries we are enjoying. These are fruit about which much is written in terms of flavour, but little in terms of what to do with them. Many people don’t…
SOME of the finest food and drink producers from Dorset and Somerset were at the 2015 Gillingham and Shaftesbury Show, offering sparkling flavours and warm feelings despite the wretched weather. For the first time, this year saw a Dorset Farmers Market marquee with several of the best-known market members selling their wares to crowds who…
THE New England seaboard is famed for its lobster, so Philippa Davis thought she should learn a little more about this delicious crustacean as well as cooking and eating lobster after lobster for her Boston clients. Theoretically, a lobster can live forever. They have an enzyme called telomerase, which prevents the DNA from becoming damaged…
WHATEVER the weather, you are guaranteed hot stuff at Littlebredy on Friday 21st August, when cookery writer and teacher Christine McFadden, aka the Dorset Foodie, is running her Cooking with Chillies class. The one-day session, from 9.15am to 3.30pm, is a must for chilli heads! Participants will be cooking and tasting a fascinating range of chillies…
ONE of the great pleasures about shopping at farmers’ markets is that you get to know the people who make the food you are buying. This is stating the obvious, I know, but it never ceases to amaze me that there are those out there who are prepared to work punishing hours, to forego holidays,…
THE Soil and Culture series of events at Bristol’s Create centre continues on Saturday 25th July, with a day focusing on living soil and healthy food. Part of the continuing Soil and Culture programme of the Exeter-based Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World (CCANW), the Create series runs every weekend, with an exhibition…
A WIMBORNE-based business has become Dorset’s first producer of micro herbs, a nutritious super-food that packs a real punch in terms of flavour. Nine different varieties of micro herbs are being produced by chefs for chefs and are being supplied by HydroPhoria to restaurants across the UK. They are also available to consumers exclusively from…
GIN is big news these days – gone are the minimal choices in pubs, off-licences and on supermarket shelves. Nowadays, you can be baffled by the variety and you certainly don’t have to settle for a boring generic gin and tonic, tasting of nothing much unless you add some fresh lemon. You have not only…