SHAFTESBURY-born private chef Philippa Davis will be back in the West Country for Christmas, but in the run-up to the festive season she has been cooking in the south of France … Chilled milky blue light rested over the Alpilles mountains as I drove towards my final pre Christmas job down in the south of…
AS you may have heard, Denhay have ceased production of their illustrious cheddar, following in the footsteps of Cranborne Chase and Windswept Cow, fellow Dorset cheese-makers who pulled the plug on their cheese activity in recent years. George and Amanda Streatfeild made the decision with a heavy heart, but thankfully the other wing of their business, Bacon, will continue from strength…
TRAVELLING chef Philippa Davis from Shaftesbury has been working in Israel and her latest postcard recipes reflect the delicious cuisine of this ancient land where so many culinary and religious traditions meet … My first adventure out was a food tour of Jerusalem. Taking the road from Tel Aviv we travelled down the same paths…
JAPANESE-born cook Teruko Chagrin, who has lived in North Dorset for many years and used to write a column for the Blackmore Vale Magazine, now teaches Japanese cooking to small groups, and gives classes at Luke Stuart’s White Pepper Cookery School at Lytchett Matravers and for Christine McFadden at Little Bredy. In the first of…
TRAVELLING chef Philippa Davis can find herself anywhere from Provence to the isle of Skye, from deer-stalking in the Highlands to the watery landscape of Chichester Harbour where she was catering for a shooting party … “There is nothing half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats…….” so Ratty exclaimed to Mole…
A new monthly column by Justin Tunstall of Town Mill Cheesemonger, Lyme Regis BEING a cheese judge brings mixed blessings. While it’s an honour and invariably stimulating to spend a day with one’s fellow judges, discussing the qualities of a selection of cheeses, not all of the cheeses submitted are up to snuff. Sometimes a…
TRAVELLING chef Philippa Davis spent Hallowe’en in Scotland where she swopped the spooky delights of pumpkin pie for the deeper and more complex seasonal flavours of a traditional breakfast. Guests on shooting parties in the Highlands usually expect a cooked breakfast, often a comprehensive menu including scrambled garden eggs, streaky bacon and avocado or black…
FOOD awards proliferate, from broadcast media to local newspapers, but there are a handful that represent the zenith for food businesses, food and drink producers, restaurants, pubs, growers and retailers. They include the BBC Radio 4 Food Programme awards, the Guild of Fine Food’s Great Taste Awards, run from the Guild’s HQ in Gillingham, and…
ONE of the joys of an English autumn is the game and we are lucky in the Wessex area with the number of excellent independent butchers and game specialists from whom we can buy local pheasants, partridge and venison. If you don’t have a good local specialist, ask at Somerset or Dorset Farmers Markets (see…
EASY Bean, based on a farm in South Somerset, has launched a new “bean” inspired, gluten-free range this autumn. Company founder Christina Baskerville has added the new Chickpea Crispbreads to her pioneering range of one-pot meals which she launched six years ago. The Easy Bean mission is to produce tasty, healthy and convenient food that…