Food and Travel June 2015

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HOT LONG WEEKENDS Italy, Croatia, Greece, Turkey, Spain & Portugal

UK food festivals Gourmet traveller

Latvia Devon

An insider’s guide Fresh twists on

Salads 48hrs in

Seville

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JUNE 2015

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ADVENTURES BEST UK BEACHES FLIP MAGAZINE OVER

Editor’s letter 64

Editor Renate Ruge Creative director Angela Dukes Deputy editor Mark Sansom Consultant editor Ian Belcher Editorial assistant Blossom Green Sub-editors James Williams, Nick Mee, Jo Lamiri Research assistants Imogen Lepere, Karolina Wiercigroch Designer Kelly Flood Guest sommelier Vanessa Cinti Publisher Gregor Rankin Account director Ross Lipsett Account managers Tim Broad, Tony Franks Marketing executive Tam Hashim Account executive Manon Voisin Subscriptions 01737 457 155 [email protected] bit.ly/fandtsub Switchboard 020 7501 0511 Email [email protected] Twitter @FoodandTravelEd Web www.foodandtravel.com facebook.com/FoodandTravelEd

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unshine, welcome back! Don’t you just love all that comes with the real start of summer? There’s the scent of newly mown lawns, strawberries and cream at Wimbledon and corks popping at barbecue feasts where those late light evenings seem to stretch on forever. Cherries are in season too. Discover delicious ways to cook jellies and jams with their plump, sweet fruit on page 20. Craving fresh green leaves? Try some fantastic hearty salads on page 58. It’s time for food festivals too, so we’ve put together a tempting list of delicious dates all around the UK on page 87. Seafood comes into its own around the British coast in June, and top chef William Drabble is fishing for native lobster on page 19, while on page 46 there’s a great catch of fish recipes from gumbo and halibut steaks to skate with a nutty butter courtesy of former MasterChef winner and Dorset champion Mat Follas. Road tripping around Devon in a vintage VW Camper, we taste farmfresh cream, crab straight from the boat and meat reared by farms who care for their animals. The Latvian capital, Riga, is an exciting emerging destination packed with gourmet discovery for Michael Raffael on page 28. Then soak up inspiration for long weekends in the hottest spots right now on page 77. And finally, turn to page 26 now to see who made the shortlist for our Reader Awards 2015 – have your say today because every vote counts.

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WINNER PPA Independent Publishing Company of the Year

WINNER PPA Publisher of the Year

Contributors

Renate Ruge Editor Food and Travel, Arabia John Taylor, managing editor [email protected] Food and Travel, Germany Renate Ruge, editor [email protected] Food and Travel, Mexico Cecilia Núñez, editor [email protected] Food and Travel, Turkey Mehmet Tel, editor [email protected]

Food and Travel magazine is published by Green Pea Publishing Ltd, The Business Centre, Suite 51, Ingate Place, London SW8 3NS (020 7501 0511). Colour reproduction by F1 Colour (020 7620 0644). Printed by PCP (01952 585585). © Green Pea Publishing. All rights reserved. No part may be reproduced without the prior written permission of the publisher. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the publisher. While every care is taken, prices and details are subject to change and the publisher can take no responsibility for omissions or errors. Unsolicited manuscripts and photographs are not accepted and will not be returned. UK basic annual subscription rate for ten issues (postage and packing free): £44. Europe and Ireland: £49.50. Rest of the world: £69. Green Pea Publishing Ltd is a registered data user whose entries in the Data Protection Register contain descriptions of sources and disclosures of personal data.

Slawek Kozdras

Vanessa Cinti

Imogen Lepere

Travel photographer Slawek has shot for the likes of Polish travel title Poznaj Swiat, won awards from the Telegraph and Guardian, and visited five continents in the past two years. This month, he went to Riga in search of caraway cheese, waffles with caviar and layered honey cake. His images (page 28) made us fall in love with the Latvian capital’s spires, parks and beautiful cooking.

Born in Turin, guest sommelier Vanessa Cinti brings a wealth of experience to CUT at 45 Park Lane, with a dash of Italian charm. Accredited as an Advanced Sommelier by the Court of Master Sommeliers, Cinti has also worked at a number of top restaurants, including Wolfgang Puck’s Spago. Her list at CUT has the largest selection of American wines in the UK. Cin cin.

Our newest recruit comes with a typically youthful passion for travel. Having spent a month in Copenhagen, summer in Paxos and four months in Nepal, we’re advising she plumps for non-dom status after the General Election. In this issue, she combines her love of beaches with quality pubs, in a feature for our Kids supplement. FOOD & TRAVEL

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June 2015

RECIPE INDEX STARTS ON PAGE 113

STARTERS AND MAIN COURSES

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114 114 115 115 115 116 116 116 117 117 118 118 119 119 119 120 120 120 121 122 122 123 123 123 123 123

Duck, cherry and tarragon salad with hazelnuts and sweet balsamic dressing Sardine rillettes with whisky and cauliflower cream Jellied ham and parsley terrine Mackerel escabeche Duck liver with seared melon Vegetable tart with young Parmesan cream Fillet of marinated salon with petis pois and wasabi mousseline Melba toast with lardo di Colonnata and Comté cheese Beetroot salad with Arabica coffee salt Halibut steaks with cider cream sauce, crackling and mash Teriyaki salmon Seafood gumbo Stargazy pie Prawn dogs with seafood ketchup Skate with beurre noisette Dillisk ravioli of Irish smoked salmon and goat’s cheese with watercress pesto Fresh dillisk pasta Gravlax with dill and juniper berries Lamb shanks with creamy ginger potatoes Free-range pork with apple, cherry and sage stuffing and apple crisps Scallop and green papaya salad with lemongrass dressing Parma ham, pear and stem ginger salad Fattoush with spiced almonds Honey-roasted carrots with citrus cream Ossau Iraty, asparagus and crouton salad Duck salad with yuzu dressing Kamut with chermoula dressing

DESSERTS AND DRINKS 113 113 114 121 122

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Cherry and rose petal jam Cherry jelly with chocolate mousse and cream Cherry, coconut and honeysuckle clafoutis Apple and lavender topless tart Salted caramel whiskey bread and butter pudding with raisins

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Italy, Croatia, Greece, Turkey, Spain & Portugal

UK food festivals

Fresh twists on

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Fortune & flavour Pra

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An insider’s guide Fresh twists on

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Croatia, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Spain & Turkey

HOT LONG WEEKENDS

FREE KIDS special ACTION PACKED HOLIDAYS RECIPES ANIMAL

£4.40

JUNE 2015

ADVENTURES BEST UK BEACHES

FREE KIDS special ACTION PACKED HOLIDAYS RECIPES ANIMAL

JUNE 2015

£4.40

ADVENTURES BEST UK BEACHES

FLIP MAGAZINE OVER

20 Cherries 28 Latvia 46 Fish

HOT LONG WEEKENDS

ripe for the picking

On the cover

FLIP MAGAZINE OVER

58 Salads 64 Devon 77 Hot long weekends 87 Food festivals

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INSIDE

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TRAVEL

ARRIVALS 8 11 12

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Hotel news New openings in France, Italy, UK and Zanzibar

Sun bursts Destination inspiration for quick sunny breaks you won’t have thought of

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Food news Scallops, salt and new products for barbecue season

Food festivals A UK round-up of the top events this summer

93

48 hours Do Baku, Salisbury and Seville in a weekend

Travel news Icelandic caves and a trip on Burgundy’s waterways

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Drinks news Manchester’s bar scene and a tequila revolution

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Restaurant news Locanda Locatelli’s makeover, plus burgers, done the French way

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Kitchen confidential William Drabble talks seasonal produce

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In season Cherries are red, ripe and ready for plucking

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Star pic Three-Michelin-star Anne-Sophie Pic creates restaurant-grade food at home

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When the boat comes in Fish recipes from MasterChef winner Mat Follas

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Emerald smiles TV cook Clodagh McKenna gets down to earth with traditional Irish dishes

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TRIED AND TASTED

Salads of substance Healthy ideas for summer that won’t leave you wanting more

Courses and deli Living off the land at the Woodspeed Cookery School and Borough’s Pulia deli

PLUS

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Food cover: Steve Painter. Travel cover: Shutterstock

GOURMET TRAVELS 28

Latvian spirit Michael Raffael tries Baltic liqueurs and hospitality

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Devon is a place on Earth Marc Millon tucks into cheese, seafood and cream teas in the South West

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FOOD

Restaurants Clos Den Sens, May Fair Kitchen and The Greenhouse go under the spotlight

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Places to stay Bedding down in Berlin, Milan, Oxfordshire, Tel Aviv and on the shore of the Lakes

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The wine column Expert Adam Lechmere unearths the mystery behind terroir-driven wines

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Reader Awards This year’s shortlist revealed. Vote now!

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Competition Win a Slow Food tour of Puglia worth £3,390

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Reader offers Free kids’ cookery classes and upgrades

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After hours Chef Nobu-san talks about his unique style and where he eats for inspiration

auténtica heritage A long and colourful history lives on in our magnificent architecture, vibrant culture and unique, unquenchable spirit. This is Auténtica Cuba. Explore it at autenticacuba.com

Arrivals

News and views from the worlds of food, drink and travel

AMALFI COAST, ITALY

Photo by Shutterstock

Don’t look down. This road has induced more than its fair share of vertigo, but the views from the top are, quite simply, magical. As June starts, the region hits its glorious pomp: ten hours of sun and 30°C heat every day along this 40km stretch. It’s also far less busy now than in July and August when Italian school holidays are in full swing and tourists from the US descend. Positano (pictured) shows the area at its blue-hued best, making it the location for many a novel or quality TV programme (and Entourage). Save the date for the Ravello Festival, starting from 21 June, where the world’s very best classical artists play at venues like the Oscar Niemeyer-designed auditorium. Or you could bag a seat at an alfresco stage with views like this one at 365m above sea level – a performance you’ll remember for ever. Stay in Sorrento to couple a visit with a northerly jaunt to Naples and the nearby ruins of Pompeii, or base yourself just outside Amalfi town itself at the ultra-luxe Hotel Santa Caterina for forays to the island of Capri. Conveniently, June also marks the time to sample the best of local lemon variety Sfusato Amalfitano, as limoncello from the previous year’s crop is unveiled. Fresh, zesty and light, we promise it’s better than anything you’ll have tried before.

FOOD & TRAVEL

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Arrivals TRAVEL COLD HEART It’s warm outside but Iceland’s latest, hotly anticipated attraction has a sub-zero centre. The man-made Ice Cave on the Langjökull Glacier, 130km northeast of Reykjavik, opens on 1 June, taking you 200m into the ice cap, the blue of the tunnel walls intensifying as you penetrate deeper, older ice. There’s a theatrically illuminated circular passage, 30m below the surface, and a function room that also serves as a wedding chapel – an essential ingredient in any modern ice attraction, apparently – along with a bridge straddling a deep crevasse. Tread carefully. Tours from £88 (including glacier ride in an 8WD vehicle), icecave.is

news

Travel NEW FLIGHTS

SPAIN Iberia Express recently launched a new route from London Heathrow to Tenerife North Los Rodeos, flying Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. iberiaexpress.com MACEDONIA Wizz Air starts flying from London Luton to Ohrid Wednesdays and Sundays from 14 June. wizzair.com

dates

Diary

TOBAGO There’s a party going on 1 June at Pigeon Point Heritage Park with the Tobago Culinary Festival. The island’s best chefs are joined by mixologists, wine experts and swathes of gourmands. visittobago.gov.tt 8

FOOD & TRAVEL

ITALY The ancient streets of Cortona, Tuscany, will be filled with knights, ladies and bowmen on 13 June for Archidado Joust, a medieval re-enactment of a local lord’s opulent wedding. giostra archidado.com

HONG KONG The Dragon Boat Festival on 20 June celebrates Chinese statesman and poet Qu Yuan, who drowned himself in 278BC. Expect a spectacular race, partying, food and legends. discover hongkong.com

You may have seen military reconstructions at Britain’s stately homes, but we guarantee you’ll never have witnessed anything like June’s dramatic bicentenary of the Battle of Waterloo. Like a Cecil B DeMille movie set, 5,000 men, 300 horses and 100 canons will recreate Wellington’s defeat of Napoleon near Brussels from 19 to 20 June. First is the French advance, then the next day the Allies’ counter attack, leading to victory. There will be smoke, noise and, this being Belgium, fabulous hotdogs. £11.50, waterloo2015.org

USA Make Music New York falls on 21 June, the longest day of the year. It’s being billed as the largest music event in Gotham, with acts from across the world performing in all five boroughs. makemusicny.org

SPAIN Every year on 28 June, the eve of St Peter’s Feast Day, thousands of locals climb a mountain in La Rioja purely to douse one another in wine. You won’t need to bring your own booze! wine-fight.com

Photos by Andrea Migliorati/Foto Gierre; Hong Kong Tourism Board; M Fasol; Cees van Roeden; Wild About Africa; Carl Pendle

WATERLOO SUNSET

USA American Airlines has just started flying from Birmingham and Edinburgh to New York JFK. aa.com

Arrivals TRAVEL

NAUTICAL NOTES It’s the perfect pairing: a serene luxury cruise along Burgundy’s waterways, and expert tuition in the region’s most precious asset. Belmond’s newly launched Wine Academy runs for three days of the week-long trip along the Bourgogne canals. Overseen by oenologist Pascal Wagner, there’s a lunch with 11 topnotch wines at Puligny Montrachet’s Château Leflaive, blind tasting at Château Pommard – home to award-laden pinot noir – and optional hot-air balloon flights. It’s not cheap. The academy, needing at least four people, adds £700pp to the cost of the acclaimed seven-day cruises, which also feature cycling and gourmet cookery classes.From £3,600pp, belmond.com

Swell safari While we pray for a bone-dry midsummer, June in Botswana’s Okavango Delta means floodwater. Lots of floodwater. Lubricated by seasonal rains in the Angolan highlands, 1,200km to the west, the inland delta fringing the Kalahari Desert swells to three times its normal size at this time of year, attracting a prolific riot of wildlife. For the next three months the extraordinary Unesco World Heritage site is best viewed from a mokoro (hollowedout tree canoe) or plane, before it subsides, swallowed by flora, evaporation and, of course, thirsty animals. Eight-day Moremi wildlife safari camping trips from £1,241pp (excluding flights). wildaboutafrica.com

Copenhagen in six stops Imogen Lepere seeks out smoked sturgeon, chic design and a little mermaid in Denmark’s cool capital

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For a potted Danish history, catch a boat from Inderhavnen (the inner harbour) for a tour taking in Queen Margrethe’s palace, the ‘Black Diamond’ – a startlingly linear extension to the royal library – and the (very) Little Mermaid statue.

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Exclusive hideaway Nimb boasts its own take on Scandi style, blending antiques, paintings and dark wood into 17 contemporary suites. Along with one of the city’s peachiest wine cellars, it has the Tivoli Gardens on its doorstep. hotel.nimb.dk

Built on a reclaimed military practice ground, the free state of Christiania embodies the idealism of the Seventies. Its hippy-haired hash dealers on Pusher Street may be no more, but Copenhagen’s town within a city is still an enclave of whimsical tree houses, veganism and rebellion.

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Noma may have worn the ‘world’s best restaurant’ crown four years running, but Copenhagen has plenty more Michelin-starred eateries. Amass, for example, offers Matt Orlando’s ‘spontaneous’ cooking; ingredients include hot smoked sturgeon, savoy cabbage, bone marrow and hazelnut. amassrestaurant.com

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For industrial chic, don your duster coat and Fjällräven bag then head to Kodbyen, packed with hip hangouts and working abbatoirs, where bluff butchers and beautiful people rub shoulders over an egalitarian Danish beer.

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Set aside an afternoon for the Harbour Bath at Islands Brygge. Its five pools are constantly refreshed by the canal’s crisp water, while the surrounding park is perfect for sipping coffee and admiring Copenhagen’s spires. teambade.kk.dk FOOD & TRAVEL

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Arrivals HOTELS

Hotel news Words by Alex Allen. G-Rough photo by Design Hotels

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OPENINGS IN… ZANZIBAR UK FRANCE ITALY

ecently opened on the island’s calm and breezy western coast, the Park Hyatt Zanzibar, zanzibar.park.hyatt.com, has its 67 rooms and suites spread between the past and present. Half are in a 17th-century Zanzibari mansion built around a lush courtyard garden, and the other in a modern building with an ocean-facing infinity pool. Guests will be slack-jawed when they see the amount of suspended crystal in the dining room where chef Teuku Syafrulsyah serves locally sourced food that nods to the island’s Arabian, Persian and Portuguese heritage. The Anantara Spa and fitness centre complete this formidable address. As expected, a refurbishment of The Goring, thegoring. com, in time for its 105th birthday was more than just a fresh lick of paint. Lining the mighty Front Hall, hand-painted wallpaper is a whimsical take on the English countryside. Georgian-style furniture complements this contemporary country manor feel that includes full-length Gainsborough silk drapes. All 69 of the rooms and suites have been updated. Sofitel Paris Le Faubourg, sofitel. com, also unveiled a new look last month, after a year-long closure and stunning renovation by designer Didier Gomez. Alongside a Parisian aesthetic in keeping with the proliferation of designer boutiques just outside, it also plays host to three-Michelin-star chef Yannick Alléno’s new gastronomic hotspot Stay Faubourg.

Clockwise from top left: Roman period living; G-Rough’s historic facade; one of its shabby-chic rooms; bedding down at Park Hyatt Zanzibar; sailing the calm local waters; its beachfront location; relax at Sofitel Paris Le Faubourg after hitting the shops

First of all, there is nothing rough about the G-Rough, a new ten-suite boutique hotel in the centre of Rome. Any surface left touched by age, any cracked glaze or mirror freckled with a copper tarnish is just so for a reason. Faded plasterwork on the bedroom walls comes in a range of delicately speckled soft pastels – subtle backdrops to the artworks that adorn them. The attention to detail is everywhere, including the furniture: a mix of brightly coloured mid-century Italian classics that pop against the antique parquet floors and faded tiles. Some rooms have mezzanine sleeping quarters, and a balcony from which to admire the rest of the space. In a few of the suites, small, sun-splashed roof terraces offer teasing glimpses of the city beyond. Downstairs, the lobby level bar is a dazzling grotto of gold tiles, cut crystal glasses and flowers blooming from blown-glass vases. And if that’s not enough, take a step outside the 17th-century building’s doors and you have Piazza Navona’s fountains and the Pantheon’s imposing architecture to admire. G-whizz. g-rough.com

Arrivals

FOOD

Grand POT LUCK Even the fussiest of guests will enjoy a restaurantquality pudding, complete with a reusable ceramic ramekin, courtesy of the professionally trained chefs at Pots & Co. On show at Taste of London (17-21 June), the range includes this fresh-tasting Passion Fruit & Orange Pot (£2/110g). potsandco.com

Straw

CANALES

A speciality of Bordeaux, canelés have been made by French artisans since the 17th century. Now Londonbased company Babelle has added a contemporary twist to the traditional teatime snack, available at Fortnum & Mason. Choose from eight flavours including Lavender, Dulce de Leche and Rum (£2.65 each, box of four £10). fortnumandmason.com

POLL

One of the UK’s remotest producers, Stag Bakeries in the Outer Hebrides gets our vote for its delicious allbutter cheese straws, flavoured with Scottish cheese, including Ayrshire Bonnet and Smoked Dunlop (£3.49/ 100g). stagbakeries.co.uk

SCALLOP KING Waitrose’s Scottish King Scallops (£29.99 per kg) are caught by small boats off the Shetland Islands. Andrew Charles of the J Charles family fishing company says cleaning them as soon as they are shucked is the secret to ensuring their lovely white colour. waitrose.com

IT TAKES Nutrient-rich with subtle umami, seaweed has long been a choice for cooks in the know and is now part of the Seaweed Seasonings range (£2.95/40g) from Cornish Sea Salt Co. Pep up a stir-fry with Fiery Sea Pepper or sprinkle Original Sea Pepper over grilled salmon, steak or calamari. cornishseasalt.co.uk

ALL SALTS

BREAKFAST in Bel-Air Entrepreneur Andrew Bredon has made it his mission to bring LA sunshine to our shores with ‘light, feel-good fast food’. Head to his new Shoreditch eatery, Bel-Air, for open breakfast sandwiches (pictured below) on San Francisco-style sourdough or wheat-free dark rye bread; ‘Muscle Beach’ steak with spinach and poached egg; or signature mixand-match salads for a healthier lunch. bel-air.co

LIGHT MY 1

fire

Making the most of the lighter evenings, we’re ready to dust down the barbecue and don our chef’s whites for an outdoor feast, starting with these sticky lamb belly ribs with a Yorkshire beer glaze (pictured). £5/475g, marksandspencer.com

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Saving you time trawling the web for prime meats, Meat Porter sources traditional, artisan cuts from many of the free-range producers that supply the UK’s top restaurants. The BBQ Box (£45) is a new home-delivery showpiece, with something for everyone, from hearty rump steaks (below) to lamb and mint burgers. meatporter.com

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Veggies won’t feel cheesed off with Marks & Spencer’s Sussex-made halloumi (£4/200g) barbecued with fresh peppers. We’ll also be offering our non-meat-eating guests butternut and smoked paprika, or broccoli, leek and cheese bangers packed with tasty Cornish Cove Cheddar (both £3/270g). marksandspencer.com

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Made in Manchester by a family-owned firm, The Great British Butcher’s British BBQ Rub (from £2.99/50g) adds a delicious smoky flavour to homemade beef burgers when mixed with fresh mince. Or smother it over pork ribs and grill until dark and succulent. greatbritishbutcher.com

Words by Heidi Ruge. Salt photo by David Griffen Photography

5 A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME Toast the summer with Luscombe’s latest soft drink, handmade in Devon by the award-winning producer. A perfect match for those longer days, delicate Damascene Rose Bubbly (£1.79/32cl) celebrates the majestic rose of the Orient. A fresh alternative to a glass of champagne, its subtle flavour is crafted using muscat grape juice, rose water and Sicilian lemon muddled with sparkling spring water. luscombe.co.uk

Keeping it British, we’ll be looking to Essex preserve experts Tiptree to top it all off. Revived after a decade, its Sweet Pepper Relish (£2.09/195g) is a flavoursome mix of red and green peppers with chunky apples and tomatoes. tiptree.com

Arrivals DRINKS I should

COCO

candidate

Mancunian

Manchester’s bar scene is fast gaining traction as the best in the UK, with The Smithfield Social the latest arrival in the timelessly cool Northern Quarter as part of restaurant Bluu. We love it when a bartender backs his skills, so Tony Lovatt’s menu of just ten cocktails resonates. Who needs a list as long as your arm when they are this good. Try the Queen Mary, a take on the Bloody Mary with black pudding and bacon; or Smithfield Punch for two, with gin, pear liqueur and pear vodka. bluu.co.uk

The tequila revolution is well underway and the drink no longer sits on the back bar, waiting to be bought and regretted. Any number of artisan pours are now available – including the latest, 1800 Coconut. It’s designed to be drunk straight to show off its long, sweet finish. Or you can serve on the rocks with pineapple juice and lime. £29.95, 31dover.com

news

Drinks

DR’S ORDERS Just opened in east London is Tonic & Remedy, a bar championing cocktails based on centuries-old recipes. The space is set over a ground floor and mezzanine, with space for dining and a kitchen manned by chef Paul Welburn. Try the apothecary cocktail: based on a herbal liqueur, cooked with rosemary and sweetened with butterscotch jam. tonicand

LEAPING SALMON

GIN HANDS Redolent of Roman summers, VII Hills comes from a trio of Italian bartenders who met at Mayfair den Mr Fogg’s (Food and Travel Bar of the Year) and vowed to create the best Italian expression of a London dry gin. Use it to make an all-Italian negroni. £35, viihills.co.uk

One of the few family-owned Champagne houses, Billecart-Salmon has just released its 2006 vintage, after being matured for eight years in chalk cellars. It’s a delicious serve with crunchy ripe fruits on the nose and white stone fruits on the palate. Serve it with scallops for an excellent alfresco lunch. £62, champagne-billecarte.com

God

OF POUR

Naming a whisky after a Norse god who lost an eye in the thirst for wisdom may seem a little peculiar, but it’s the final installment of the Valhalla Collection from Highland Park. Odin joins Thor, Loki and Freya, and the 16-year-old single malt is powerful, with gentle, smoky peat aromas. £180, highlandpark.co.uk

VINHO VERDE

in numbers

95BC the earliest record of vinho verde, mentioned by Roman philosopher Seneca.

35,000ha of vines for vinho verde across the north of Portugal. 38,000 individual growers, with many farming back garden plots 15% of Portuguese viticulture is devoted to producing vinho verde. FOOD & TRAVEL

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Imagine a fabulous choice of Viking river cruises

Provence

Imagine setting sail in 2016 from only £895pp Romantic Danube

Rhine Discovery

Portraits of Southern France

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Sail the idyllic River Rhône through Provence on this 8-day journey of exceptional beauty. Explore Vienne and Arles. Indulge in celebrated foods in Lyon. Visit historic Avignon. From your award-winning Viking Longship enjoy a new view of an ancient land. From £1,145pp

Portugal’s River of Gold

Elegant Elbe

Imperial Jewels of China

From the charming city of Porto, sail the Douro through a land of historic churches, monasteries, castles, verdant vineyards and outstanding beauty. This memorable 10-day journey includes a 2-night hotel stay in beautiful Lisbon. From £1,095pp

Grand palaces, timeless landscapes, ancient cities and picture-perfect countryside – there is a wealth of wonders to explore on this 10-day journey along the serene River Elbe. You’ll also enjoy a hotel stay in both historic Berlin and atmospheric Prague. From £1,495pp

This 14-day journey combines a cruise along the Yangtze and hotel stays in key destinations. From Shanghai to Beijing discover the Three Gorges. See the Terracotta Warriors. Explore the Forbidden City, and the Great Wall of China. Let Viking show you the real China. From £2,095pp

Call 020 8780 8594 or visit www.vikingcruises.co.uk Prices correct at time of going to print. From prices are per person and based on two sharing the lowest grade stateroom available on selected dates. Prices valid until 30 June 2015. Single supplements apply. For full Terms and Conditions please visit www.vikingcruises.co.uk/terms-conditions or call us.

Arrivals RESTAURANTS LOCATELLI LOOKS AHEAD

HAWKS

FLY NORTH

Just landed in Manchester’s imposing Courthouse building is the first Hawksmoor restaurant outside London. It took owners Will Beckett and Huw Gott years to find a site but the 130-cover space has been worth the wait. The usual stellar steaks are here, though plenty is bespoke. Shortrib macaroni and veal rump with fried oysters are great, and the poutine is a Montreal-meetsManchester chip butty, with cheese curds and extra gravy for dipping. thehawksmoor.com

Locanda Locatelli has reopened with a £1 million makeover after a gas explosion at The Churchill hotel last November. Expect the same Italian classics like lobster linguine and bean pappardelle that earned its regard. locandalocatelli.com

FRENCH FANCY We’ve had American, Indian and even Japanese burgers. Now it’s time for the French invasion. Big Fernand launched in March as a ‘French hamburger workshop’, claiming to offer 3,840 Continental combinations for its meat in an artisan bun. The cheese is the real pull, so top yours with unpasteurised French favourites like Tomme de Savoie from the Alps, oozing raclette or pasteurised Fourme d’Ambert. bigfernand.com

news

Restaurant

BLIX SPIRIT Fast becoming a restaurant hotbed to rival Soho, Old Spitalfields Market has just seen the opening of Blixen, in a former bank. It’s up there with the chicest spaces we’ve seen this year: points being added for vaulted ceilings, huge light fittings and some of the best-dressed staff in town. For brunch, don’t miss the blueberry pancakes. At dinner, squid, chorizo and chickpea stew followed by almond ice cream is a must. blixen.co.uk

Fresh out the jar ‘Reclaimed stripped wood makes up the floors and bar, while quirkier touches include Kilner jar light shades that give a nod to the name’

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or teams new to the industry, it’s a bold move to take on the renovation, design and front-of-house management of a restaurant. Lucy Brown, previously in fashion, and Jenny Quintero, fresh out of publishing, took on their Drury Lane project, Jar Kitchen, last year and have been wielding hammer, chisel and sandpaper since. The results are quite remarkable. They’ve created a laid-back space very much in the modern London mould. Reclaimed stripped wood makes up the floors and bar, while quirkier touches include Kilner jar light shades that give a nod to the restaurant’s name. In the kitchen, Dominik Moldenhauer (above, left), formerly of Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, focuses on modern British classics. For breakfast, expect slow-cooked duck egg with pease pudding, grilled ham and brioche, or truffled mushroom omelette with goat’s cheese and caramelised shallots. It’s open all day, with the lunch offering light and fresh, and a dinner menu featuring pasta made in-house and some standout fish dishes. Whether the restaurant world will be as fickle as fashion, the girls are about to find out. jarkitchen.com FOOD & TRAVEL

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Arrivals IN SEASON UK produce shines in June, says Michelin-starred chef William Drabble, who recalls a childhood spent picking fruits and fishing in rock pools

confidential

Kitchen

Interview by Renate Ruge

What I’m cooking with…

You have a dazzling seasonal array this month – omega-3-rich mackerel, broad beans and peas, earthy beetroot. It’s a fruit festival of perfect raspberries, tangy gooseberries and succulent strawberries too. Herbwise, lemon verbena is growing like wildfire in my garden in Wandsworth. We use it in a dessert at my restaurant, Seven Park Place, where cream is infused with lemon verbena’s delicate zesty flavour, then combined with yoghurt and served with raspberries (see recipe). I like to use cherries too, maybe in a warm tart where the fruit is pitted and halved, and poached in red wine and port for the filling. The British seaside is a treasure trove. I remember fishing for crabs in Cromer and shrimping in rock pools as a youngster. This month, I will make a carpaccio of scallops, served simply with cherry tomatoes and basil. We all crave lightness of flavour in summer, and you can’t beat salads with garden peas, broad beans and the last of the asparagus straight from the farm. Simple cooking is best, so you can get outside in the sunshine. I work closely with suppliers to source the best of British – all traceable and responsibly sourced. I find out what’s at its best on the day. Scallops and langoustines come from Scotland and fish is caught from the south coast in Brixham and Poole. Fish is good now: turbot, sea bass and my favourite, the native lobster. It is fantastic, with firm flesh and sweet meat – and it hails from our shores. I make a warm lobster salad with peas, beans, watercress, mustard leaves and chard and warmed new potatoes. Depending on the weather, the lobster comes

from Dorset or Scotland, its tail poached and sliced on top of the salad. Stock from lobster shells, with wine and brandy, makes for a bright red lobster salad dressing. When I was nine, we moved to Norfolk and a house in the middle of a field. I foraged for wild berries in the hedgerows – picking and eating produce there and then is the best way to enjoy it. When cooking your bounty, it’s about having respect for good ingredients. Cook them well and be creative. Seasonality is so important – food is at its best and the price is too. sevenparkplace.com

‘I foraged for wild berries in the hedgerows – eating produce there and then is the best way to enjoy it’

Who I’m using… Cornvale for meat from the Lake District, Channel Fisheries, Keltic Seafare for my scallops and lobster, Solstice in London for vegetables, and Paxton & Whitfield, the UK’s oldest cheese shop.

recipe

William’s

for June

To make my white chocolate pots with yoghurt, lemon verbena and raspberries, for 4, first bring 300ml double cream and ½ bunch lemon verbena to the boil. Cover with cling film and leave to infuse for 1-2 hours. Break 420g white chocolate into a bowl. Bring the cream back to the boil, then sieve it into the bowl with the chocolate, stirring until melted. Leave to cool slightly, then stir in 370ml natural yoghurt. Pour the mixture into 4 martini glasses, or similar, and place in the fridge until set. Make a syrup by whisking 100g sugar with 100ml water in a small pan. Add a handful of lemon verbena and bring to the boil until syrupy. Cool, then remove the lemon verbena. Top each glass with a handful of raspberries and drizzle with some syrup. Enjoy!

What’s in At its peak Asparagus, blackcurrants, broad beans, brown crab, carrots, cherries, coley, dill, elderflower, fennel, globe artichokes, gooseberries, lamb, lemon verbena, lettuce, loganberries, mint, native lobster, peas, pollack, radishes, raspberries, redcurrants, rhubarb, runner beans, sardines, sea bass, sea trout, sole, strawberries, tarragon, watercress

Also available Beetroot, courgettes, Jersey Royals, mackerel, marjoram, quail, red mullet, sage, scallops, sea kale, turnips, veal FOOD & TRAVEL

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Cherries

The juicy cherry is now ripe for picking. Partner the fruit with seasonal flowers in jellies, jam and clafoutis, says Clarissa Hyman, or use as a foil for rich duck in a salad RECIPES AND FOOD STYLING: LINDA TUBBY PHOTOGRAPHY AND PROP STYLING: ANGELA DUKES

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IN SEASON CHERRY AND ROSE PETAL JAM

RECIPES START ON PAGE 113 FOOD & TRAVEL

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WHOLE CHERRY JELLY WITH CHOCOLATE MOUSSE AND CREAM F&T WINE MATCH

IN SEASON

Sparkling pink and floral Italian brachetto (eg 2012 Brachetto d’Acqui, Contero)

Wit& wisdom ‘Never take two bites at a cherry – take it all’ is a proverb that’s been around since the 16th century. Traverse City, Michigan, claims to be the cherry capital of the world and hosts an annual National Cherry Festival in July. Because cherries have a high potassium content, they have always been recommended as a diuretic. ‘Chop cherry’ was a popular game that involved lovers trying to bite a cherry while it was still on the tree. It is thought that this is where the phrase ‘two bites at the cherry’ comes from. 22

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wise man once said it is invariably the case when faced with a bowl of cherries, you begin by choosing the best and end up by eating them all. Life may be more than the proverbial bowl of cherries, but the observation rings true; cherries ripe, cherries ruby-red and purple-black, their taut skin bursting with sweet juice, are exquisitely desirable. Unsurprising, then, to discover that scarletmouthed cherry-eating competitions were a popular diversion in Kentish gardens during the reign of King James I. According to records, one young woman managed 20 pounds before succumbing ‘to a severe illness’. A 16th-century understatement. According to a popular legend proposed by Pliny the Elder, cherries were first introduced to Europe by the general and gourmet, Lucullus. Except Pliny was wrong:

‘Tart Morello cherries are inky-dark and this makes them essential for black cherry jam, Black Forest gateau, cherry strudel and kirsch’

cherries were already being cultivated in Italy by the Etruscans, having arrived there from northeastern Asia via Asia Minor. To be fair, Lucullus might have brought back a special variety of cherry from Cerasus in Turkey, and it is an easy stretch of the imagination to trace the origin of the English word from this fruit-growing city. Turkey is still the world’s largest commercial producer of both sweet and sour fruit, but homegrown cherries are becoming more sought-after. In England, the trees are highly susceptible to our unpredictable weather, yields can vary from year to year and the growing season is short, from February to March – all factors that have contributed to the grubbing out of swathes of cherry orchards. This trend is starting to reverse, though, as consumers rediscover the pleasures of plump and juicy English cherries that grow at their best in the well-drained, sandy soil of Kent. Harvesting the delicate, short-lived fruit, however, remains an issue: ideally, it should be hand-picked to avoid damage – hence the term cherry picker – although these days mechanised ‘shakers’ are also used. Cherries belong to the genus Prunus, which also includes plums, peaches and apricots. Cultivated cherries are descended from two wild species: Prunus avium, ancestor of the sweet varieties, and Prunus cerasus, from which sour cherries come. The former, also known as bird cherry, is a reminder that one of the chief difficulties faced by the cherry grower is to harvest the fruit before the birds do. At one time, cats were raised aloft in cages to scare off thieving birds. There are hundreds of varieties of sweet cherry in cultivation: with their skin colours varying from dark red to almost white or yellow; the meat from white to dark red; the hearts white and black; and the juice from transparent to dark red. The Napoleon, a variety that is light red and yellow in colour,

DUCK, CHERRY AND TARRAGON SALAD WITH HAZELNUTS F&T WINE MATCH Earthy and fruity Hungarian red (eg 2012 Egri Bikaver, Bolyki) RECIPES START ON PAGE 113

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CHERRY, COCONUT AND HONEYSUCKLE CLAFOUTIS F&T WINE MATCH

IN SEASON

Fragrant with floral notes and light acidity Japanese sake (eg Marigold, Amabuki)

Wit&wisdom

In medieval art, cherries represented a sweet, pleasing character, and the delights of the blessed.

Native Americans used dried resin from cherry trees trunks as chewing gum and heated the sap for glue. In 1533, Henry VIII sent his Royal Fruiterer to Flanders to find new cherry varieties and bring them back to England. Cherries are rich in antioxidants and anthocyanins. The latter have anti-inflammatory properties, so can help with the treatment of gout, arthritis and sports injuries. 24

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is widely popular, as is delicately sweet, scarlet and cream Rainier. Bing, which an American grower named after his Chinese workman, is the leading variety in the US. In the UK, commonly grown varieties include large, juicy Stella, but it is worth looking out for rarer ones such as red-fleshed Merton Bigarreau and large, black Early Rivers. Sour cherries usually grow on smaller trees than sweet cherries. There are about 300 cultivated varieties, most of which are used for cooking and liqueurs. Tart Morello cherries are inky-dark, almost black – essential for black cherry jam, Black Forest gateau, cherry strudel and kirsch. Categories of sour red cherry include amarelles or griottes. The latter gives its name to a speciality of the Franche-Comté, in which each fruit is enclosed with kirsch

in a chocolate covering. The Montmorency variety was once considered the finest in France but is now a rarity despite the annual Fête de la Cerise in Ile-de-France. Crosses between sweet and sour cherries are known as ‘dukes’, or bastardkirschen in German and royale in French. The small and very sour Marasca or Maraschino cherry was originally grown in Dalmatia (now Croatia), where it was made into maraschino liqueur. The cherry stones are crushed to release the almond taste of the kernels, in contrast to kirsch, where the stones are left whole. Maraschino cherries in syrup are prepared by stoning and bleaching cherries, then adding syrup, bitter almond oil and red or green colouring. Candied glacé cherries are often dyed as well and, given the large amount of sugar, glucose syrup and preservatives added, can be far removed from the original fruit. Cherry pies have achieved iconic status in middle America – not just as a result of the 1980s film Can She Bake a Cherry Pie? but also for the fruit’s versatility. It can be made into jam, crystallised or bottled in eaude-vie, kirsch or cherry syrup. Cherries also make gorgeous desserts: think compotes, crumbles and clafoutis. Meat dishes with fresh or dried sour cherries exist in many cuisines, such as Turkish and Iranian, giving dishes a pleasantly tart flavour, while cherry soups and sauces are popular in northern and eastern Europe. The cherry has inspired poets and painters, but the strangest compulsion is the urge to spit the stones. According to Guinness World Records, the longest spit is 28.51m: by a contestant at the International Cherry Pit-Spitting Championship at Eau Claire, Michigan, USA, in 2004. Personally, I prefer to leave it to the birds.

Cherries courtesy of garsons.co.uk

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© 2015 Office of the Governor, Economic Development and Tourism.

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READER AWARDS

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It’s here – the shortlist for the fourth annual Reader Awards. Be sure to have your say, by voting for your food, drink and travel favourites at foodandtravel.com/awards

FROM THE EDITOR Over the past two months, we’ve been asking you to nominate your favourites in the world of food, drink and travel – and did you ever deliver! From the basis of thousands of entries we have compiled the shortlist for our 2015 Reader Awards, which you’ll find both here and on our website, foodandtravel.com. Now it’s the final voting round to decide who will be the winners. Simply go online and choose your favourites from the shortlisted candidates, and those with the largest number of votes on the closing date will be crowned the winners at our presentation ceremony in September. So whether it’s the tour operator that’s given you the experience of a lifetime, the hotel that’s gone the extra mile to make your stay special, or the unforgettable meal from that exciting new restaurant, visit foodandtravel.com now and get voting – because it’s you who decides. Renate Ruge

THE SHORTLIST RESTAURANT OF THE YEAR Votes in the following categories will decide the Food and Travel Restaurant of the Year

HOTEL OF THE YEAR Votes in the following categories will decide the overall Food and Travel Hotel of the Year

London Fera at Claridge’s, Hedone, The Ledbury, Lima, Pizarro (Bermondsey), Pollen St Social

Gourmet bolthole The Beckford Arms (Fonthill), Crown & Garter (Inkpen), The Great House (Lavenham), Restaurant Sat Bains (Nottingham), Tulse Hill Hotel (London)

Outside London L’Enculme (Cartmel), The Gunton Arms (Norwich), Northcote (Blackburn), Paul Ainsworth (Padstow), The Terrace at Montague Arms (Brockenhurst), The Wheatsheaf (Northleach) Timeless classic Bibendum, Chez Bruce, Le Gavroche, The Greenhouse, The River Café (all London), Champany Inn (Linlithgow) Newcomer Adam Handling at Caxton, Beast, Blacklock, Mazi, The New Angel, Spring BAR OF THE YEAR Galante, The Blind Pig, London Cocktail Club, Mark’s Bar (Soho), Morton’s, Rumpus Room, Sushisamba (all London), Bon Vivant (Edinburgh)

Rural Gravetye Manor (East Grinstead), Kinloch Lodge (Skye), Langar Hall (Nottingham), Lime Wood (New Forest), Torridon (Wester Ross) City The Berkeley, Claridge’s, Ham Yard Hotel, Mandarin Oriental (all London), One Devonshire Gardens (Glasgow) Bed and breakfast 15 Glasgow, Bryn Afon (Conwy), Glangwili Mansion (Carmarthenshire), Greystones (Oban), Headland House (St Ives), Millers64 (Edinburgh) International hotel 137 Pillars (Thailand), The Aleenta (Thailand), The Atlantic (Jersey), The Lowell (New York), The Norman (Tel Aviv), The Yeatman (Portugal)

TOUR OPERATOR OF THE YEAR Abercombie & Kent, Exodus, Gourmet on Tour, Inghams, Inntravel, Journey Latin Ameria, Kuoni, Rainbow Tours

COOKERY SCHOOL OF THE YEAR Cactus Kitchen, Eckington Manor, Leiths, Lucknam Park, Swinton Park, Tante Marie, Thyme Cookery School

SPECIALIST RETAILER OF THE YEAR Amaretto, Holwood Farm Shop, Hunters of Helmsley, Neal’s Yard, Newlyns Farm Shop, Lina Stores, Thyme & Tides Deli

SHORT-HAUL AIRLINE OF THE YEAR BA, EasyJet, Flybe, Wizz Air

BOOK OF THE YEAR Before They Pass Away (Jimmy Nelson), Best Ever Dishes (Tom Kerridge), Cracking Yolks and Pig Tales (Glynn Purnell), Duck and Waffle (Daniel Doherty), Fish and Shellfish (Rick Stein), Persiana (Sabrina Ghayour), Plenty More (Yotam Ottolenghi) CRUISE LINE OF THE YEAR Votes in the following categories will decide the overall Cruise Line of the Year Ocean Celebrity Cruises, Crystal, Cunard, Hurtigruten, Windstar River AmaWaterways, Pandaw, Uniworld, Viking River Cruises Small ship/Adventure Azamara, Hebridean Island Cruises, Oceania, Regent Seven Seas, Silversea

LONG-HAUL AIRLINE OF THE YEAR BA, Emirates, Etihad, Qatar Airways CHEF OF THE YEAR Brett Graham, Jason Atherton, José Pizarro, Marcus Wareing, Mark Sargeant, Michel Roux Jr, Nathan Outlaw, Tom Kerridge DESTINATION OF THE YEAR Australia, Greece, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, UK, USA CITY OF THE YEAR Barcelona, Edinburgh, Hong Kong, Istanbul, London, Marrakech, Montreal, New York, Porto, San Sebastian BREAKTHROUGH CHEF OF THE YEAR An industry-voted award for a UK-based chef, who will be revealed at our awards ceremony

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spirit

LATVIAN

A renaissance in artisan food and wines, innovative chefs and produce that defines the city have all helped to shape Riga’s new personality. Steel yourself for a punchy shot of the bittersweet Black Balsam liqueur in this vibrant Baltic capital, says Michael Raffael PHOTOGRAPHY BY SLAWEK KOZDRAS

Above: admiring the church spires in Riga’s Old Town. Opposite: the terrace of the 28 FOOD & TRAVEL Biblioteka No 1 restaurant

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Left to right: Latvian cuisine at Restaurant Renommé in the Gallery Park Hotel; Riga’s Freedom Monument; rye waffle with caviar at Renommé. Below: dried fish from a Central Market stall. Opposite: paddle boarding along the Daugava river

Travel information Currency in Latvia is the euro and the time is two hours ahead of the UK. Summers are warm, and you can expect average highs of 20°C in June. Flight duration from the UK is about 2 hours 30 minutes. GETTING THERE British Airways operates direct daily flights from London Gatwick and London Heathrow to Riga. ba.com Ryanair offers direct daily flights from London Stansted. ryanair.com RESOURCES Latvia’s tourist board has a wealth of information about Riga

and the country as a whole, including shopping, entertainment and sightseeing. You can also find hotels, restaurants and bars. latvia.travel FURTHER READING The Food and Cooking of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania by

Silvena Johen Lauta (Aquamarine, £15.99). A Baltic bible of classic cuisine, which contains more than 60 traditional Latvian recipes. CARBON COUNTING Return flights from London Heathrow to Riga produce 0.38 tonnes of CO2, which can be offset via Climate Care at a cost of £2.83. Donations will go towards supporting environmental projects around the world. For more information, visit climatecare.org

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‘T

hey tell me Riga is the nicest place in the world,’ wrote the composer Richard Wagner, before adding, ‘especially when it comes to earning money.’ Latvia’s capital certainly prospered back in 1837. When Wagner settled here it was the most important port in the Russian Empire. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and resulting independence, it has regained its vitality and chutzpah, to the extent that last year it was crowned European Capital of Culture. Through those long summer nights, it never seems to sleep. However much Rigans love their city – and nearly a third of Latvia’s population beds down here – their affection also extends to the landscape of forests, lakes and sandy beaches edging the Baltic Sea that surrounds them. They are citizens who have kept in touch with the myths and magic of their pagan past. A green core of parks separates the Old Town to the east of the Daugava River from one of the city’s most beautiful streets, Alberta Iela, where the extravagant jugendstil (art nouveau) apartments were designed by architect Mikhail Eisenstein, father of Battleship Potemkin filmmaker Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein. In an area small enough to navigate on foot, these masterpieces are the legacy of Riga’s past as a global trading hub that supplied hemp for ropes and timber masts for Nelson’s fleet at Trafalgar. Their elegance is a counterpoint to the city’s stark, grid-like Soviet blocks. Spared the backdrop of traffic noise, the Old Town is a quarter where music is always bubbling to the surface and echoing down alleys. By the Freedom Monument, built to honour those who fell in the 1918-1920 Latvian War of Independence, a busker squeezes his accordion. Along the Esplanade, a snake of schoolchildren on their way to choir practice bang out a Buena Vista Social Club ditty. In front of St Peter’s Church, dating from 1209, a trio improvises cool jazz for revellers drinking beer and vodka at tables set out on the cobbled square. By the Powder Tower, all that remains of Riga’s walled fortifications, folk singers look like musicians at a Breugel wedding. Theirs could be the traditional Latvian drinking song: ‘While brewing the beer/I put a bee in my pocket/So that the ale-drinkers would sing/Like bees buzzing in a hive.’ Riga’s Central Market, the largest in Europe, was built during the 1920s from redundant Zeppelin hangars. One area specialises in meat, another dairy produce and a third pickles. Maris Astics, chef at one of Riga’s top hotels, Dome, comes here to buy fish: ‘I want local, local, local. I’m here today and I’ll be here tomorrow and the next day. We can buy fish from the sea, from the lake and the river.’ This is in no way an idle boast. Under the arched roof, he can indeed find fresh Baltic cod, Arctic char, wild catfish from the Daugava river, sturgeon, pike-perch, eels and fresh, pickled or dried herrings: ‘When people go to the sauna, they take these.’ Maris prefers to buy his eels live, skewering and smoking them with wood shavings that his parents bring

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Opposite: ox consommé at Dikli Palace; Gallery Park Hotel. Below, from left: risotto at Biblioteka No 1; House of the Blackheads; Valmiermuiza beer; chef Maris Astics; Neiburgs hotel

from their farm near the Lithuanian border. This bucolic childhood has definitely shaped him, Maris explains. ‘My life was very different from chefs who have always lived in town. They don’t know how animals are raised, or what they eat, but I know everything about them from when they are born until they get to a restaurant kitchen. We had cows, rabbits, pigs, chickens. Every summer we would go to the forest for mushrooms and we would hunt deer and elk or wild boar and catch fish in the lake.’ Outside the vast covered market, fruit and vegetable stalls groan under the weight of berries. To Latvians, ‘fruits of the forest’ means just that. In season, wild blueberries, button-sized strawberries or raspberries, cranberries and cloudberries all carpet the forest floor. Foraging for these comes second only to mushrooming. The price of a kilo of chanterelles, only about £3, should be a clue as to how abundant they are. Latvia’s government-controlled Forestry Commission holds annual competitions for fungi hunters, who scavenge through the night armed with torch and knife. One of them, lawyer Janis Gutmanis, uses the commission’s app when taking a morning out of his office to unearth mushrooms. It lists 300 edible species, balanced against 30 poisonous ones, but Janis sticks to what he knows. Today, he says, the weather is too dry; it should be warm and damp. However, adverse conditions don’t prevent him from gathering enough yellow chanterelles for a meal. He still has some from the previous season, pickled with juniper berries, cloves and onion rings. Next month, porcini will be in season: he’ll dry those he can’t eat fresh, or powder them for soups. Honey is another passion for Janis. In Ramava, 20 minutes’ drive from Riga, he keeps two beehives in a cousin’s garden. With luck, they will yield enough honey for family and friends. He belongs to a generation that’s shaping the country’s future. Under communism, shelves were bare. A typical joke of the time goes: ‘Two Latvians look at a cloud. One sees the impossible dream; the other sees a potato. It’s the same cloud.’ When that era was over, people rushed to the supermarkets that were opening everywhere. Now, they skip backwards to embrace the nation’s pre-Soviet customs. Produce markets are another way of acknowledging this food heritage. In Riga’s Kalnciema quarter – a neighbourhood of wooden clapboard houses, some decaying, some restored and a few new-builds – there is a weekly gastronomic fair. It brings together characters like Gurta, who slaughters her own pigs and cures the meat in her chimney; a New Age hemp-seed butter producer; a man making sea buckthorn berry sweets; and celebrity chef Martins Ritins, who sells beef burgers from his herd of Highland cattle. At Straupe Farmers’ Market in Placis, on the main A3 road to Valmiera, the malted fruit bread baked in

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Where to eat Prices are for three courses including drinks, unless otherwise stated. 3Pavaru If this is the face of Riga in the making, then bring it on.

Relaxed, clever and tasty, it borrows tricks from other star chefs across the globe, but never loses sight of its roots. £33. 4 Torna Iela, Jekaba Kazarmas 2b, 00 371 2037 0537, 3pavari.lv Biblioteka No 1 Probably Riga’s most polished restaurant, it overlooks a park and the local materials are handled carefully and with precision. £48. 2 Terbatas Iela, 00 371 2022 5000, restoransbiblioteka.lv/en Ecocatering Telpa Sit with Latvians and barely a foreigner. Young and hip, with good, unadulterated grub. Brunch from £5; dinner £15, both excluding drinks. 8 Matisa Iela, 00 371 2037 1170, ecocatering.lv/en/ Laucu Akmens If you can find it on the map (off the A1), stop here for home cooking that’s fresh and unashamedly Latvian. £15. Limbazu Nov, Skultes Pag, Lauci, 00 371 6406 5423, laucakmens.lv Valtera Restorans Next to Dome Hotel, this bistro-restaurant has a modern setting, a dedicated chef-patron and an experienced maître d’. £29. 8 Miesnieku Iela, 00 371 2952 9200, valterarestorans.lv/en/ Vincents The flagship of Martins Ritins, who is Riga’s best-known chef and a champion of Slow Food. Ingredients are sourced from local organic farmers wherever possible and the menu changes each week. £44. Karla Ulmana Gatve 114a, 00 371 6750 0200, vincents.lv/en

Left to right: the Three Brothers houses; a fish platter at Le Dome

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GOURMET TRAVELLER TICINO

Where to shop

Opposite, clockwise from top left: gherkins at Ecocatering Telpa; garlic from Central Market; chef Martins Ritins (right); Janis Zilvers’ family estate; the banks of the Baltic; waterside at Zilvers’ place; sturgeon at Laucu Akmens; fishing near Dikli Palace

Clockwise from top left: potatoes at Straupe Farmers’ Market; winemaker Janis Zilvers; Anna Panna; Old Town; Panna’s honey cake

Anna Panna Her bespoke baking courses will teach you how to make

cakes that taste as good as those of her idol, Mary Berry. Enjoy a taste of Anna’s cooking with her Layered Honey Cake. annapanna.lv Desa & Co The shop specialises in charcuterie made from reindeer meat and its salami stands comparison with the best French, Italian or Hungarian equivalents. There’s a little bistro for sampling too. 4 Maskavas Iela, 00 371 6721 6186 Pienene It’s in the centre of the Old Town and has quality crafted products, from linen to cosmetics via ceramics, but the quality is good and the café a haven of relaxation. 7/9 Kungu Iela (opposite St Peter’s Church), 00 371 6721 0400 Riga Black Magic Bar Yes it’s a cheesy tourist shop, but Riga Black Balsam is popular in Latvia, especially in winter when locals mix it with blackcurrant. 10 Kalku Iela, 00 371 6722 2877, blackmagic.lv

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a wood-fired oven is remarkable. So is the chokeberry jam, the aged, two-year-old gouda, the buttermilk ice cream, the uniflora wild raspberry honey, the soured cream, and the cottage cheese. This renaissance in artisan production isn’t confined to food. Fruit wine makers are also burgeoning. One of them specialises in apple eiswein; another sells sparkling wine made from birch sap; Zilver winery really does make a semi-sweet lilac wine as well as a quince varietal. Beer, too, is innovative and exciting: Labietis microbrewery flavours its hoppy brews with heather, coriander, juniper and lemongrass, while Valmiermuiza brewery, based on the site of a 17th-century Swedish mansion, brews a mahogany signature beer from malt smoked over wood shavings. It tastes a little bit like Laphroaig – peaty and delicious. Bread is another staple of Latvian life. But dense, dark rye bread, its crust the colour of molasses, is more than simply the ‘staff of life’. It links old and new; it’s a wedding gift. When a couple moves into a new home, guests bring a loaf as a blessing. Eaten with caraway cheese, it helps soak up the alcohol downed during Ligo, the midsummer solstice festivities. When Iveta Ludina bought the rundown 18th-century Liepupe Manor to convert into a country house hotel, she installed a wood oven – just for the bread. It takes a day to fire until it’s hot enough for baking. ‘When I was small, if I dropped my bread, I had to kiss it,’ she says. Such reverence extends to recipes. Rupjmaizes kartojums, layered bread pudding, has as many versions as there are cooks. Combine the crumbled rye with berry juice or jam, cream or cottage cheese, that’s it. Latvia’s celebrity chefs are also bringing their nation’s food bang up to date. Martins Sirmais travels the world as a TV chef but when he’s in Latvia he cooks with partners Juris Dukalkis and Eriks Dreibants at 3Pavaru in the Old Town of Riga. From splashes of coloured sauces painted on a paper sheet at the dining table to cooks doubling as waiters, it’s the nearest thing Riga has to cutting-edge cuisine. His other restaurant is called 3 Naži (3 Knives). Needless to say, it attracts comments. ‘Until the recession struck in 2008,’ Martins says, ‘Russians financed the restaurants. They came, made designs, hired chefs and laundered the money or did it for pleasure so they could say “this is mine”. After the financial crisis they went back to Moscow.’ Martins and his two friends set up shop with second-hand furniture, a couple of coats of paint and no backers. They had the key advantage of having worked abroad. He believes that the current training for youngsters who want to cook professionally falls short. ‘Colleges still teach the recipes from Soviet times, so there are no roots for the younger generation.’ Martins’ cuisine relies on the gadgetry and cooking style of global restaurants the world over: Thermomix, sous-vide packaging and slow-cooked trickery are in evidence. So it’s disarming when he shakes a siphon like a barista and shoots frothy crab bisque over cod and scallops for a customer, or spoons hemp-seed dressing over slices of goat’s cheese.

‘At Laucu Akmens, an hour from the city, the fisherman has just brought some pike-perch

and it’s fried whole with parsnips. A buttery slab of sturgeon is lightly browned and meaty’

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Food Glossary Nearly all menus are available in English and most Latvians study the language at school. You’ll buy bread, mushrooms or berries at the markets on appearance, so there’s no need to worry about having the correct pronunciation. Aronijas Chokeberries Auksta zupa Translates as ‘cold soup’ but usually means beetroot with gherkin, dill and kefir Avenes Raspberries Erkskogas Gooseberries Janogas Redcurrants Lacenes Cloudberries

Medus kuka Classic honey cake, with a soured cream and walnut filling, between five thin layers of honey-flavoured sponge Rupjmaizes kartojums

Speciality dessert of crumbled rye bread with berry juices or jam, cream or cottage cheese Saldskaba Sourdough rye bread, often flavoured with caraway seeds Siers cheese Sour cheese, also containing caraway, traditionally eaten during the festival of Jani Upenes Blackcurrants Zemenes Strawberries

Above: locals enjoying the calming environs of Bastejkalna park. Below: storm clouds roll across a Latvian wheatfield

Opposite, clockwise from top left: chanterelles at Ecocatering Telpa; Janis Gutmanis gets his hands on the honey; the government’s mushrooming app; foraging in the forest; mushrooms near Riga; chanterelles served with steak at Valtera

Dining out in Latvia can reveal eclectic edible surprises: poached strawberries with roast veal, or rye waffles with caviar-filled pockets. Ecocatering Telpa uses organic ingredients grown on local farms and the restaurant is among the most palatable of this new wave. The entrance is an adventure in itself, taking you through a courtyard and above a bicycle repair shop. The dining area (open in summer) is a wooden gallery, clamped to the side of the building. Before it opens to the public, the kitchen prepares and delivers organic food to kindergarten. Its £5 brunch is self-service and comes with delicious salads like sticky caramelised onions mixed with berries or wild mushrooms, new potatoes baked in their skins with herbs, and the best-ever salted cucumber. On the table is one bowl of tiny carrots and another of gooseberries. Further afield, finding Laucu Akmens is a test without sat-nav. An hour from the city, it’s then 2km along a track to a campsite and guesthouse by a sandy beach. Here they serve chilled beetroot soup made with kefir, dill and pickled gherkin. This is practically Latvia’s national dish. It certainly deserves to be. The fisherman has just brought some pike-perch and it’s dished up fried whole with roasted parsnips. A buttery slab of sturgeon is lightly browned and meaty. Surprisingly, Latvia’s rollercoaster economy has had a positive effect on the modern mindset. Although the recession wiped out 20 per cent of the economy, recovery has been dramatic. The traditional outlets remain, such as the Black Magic Bar, selling the almost medicinal herbal liqueur Riga Black Balsam to tourists, but as a counterpoint to these there are sleek café-shops like Pienene, where fresh herb teas and wild berry smoothies sell alongside buckwheat pillows and edible-sounding cosmetics – ‘All day and night cream with birch and blueberry extracts.’ This new era has spawned a new breed of entrepreneurs. Anna Panna describes herself as ‘a graduate of the YouTube academy’. Daughter of a famous designer, she gives bespoke cookery courses on Latvian baking from a studio kitchen (her layered honey cake alone deserves a feature). Desa & Co, a bistro-charcuterie in a restored warehouse abutting the Daugava, is the retail outlet of a reindeer rancher, while winemaker Janis Zilvers admits that before the downturn he was planning a career in a cushy office job. Rigans learn fast, an essential skill for survivors. Martins Sirmais isn’t joking when he says: ‘My son is six and already knows more about the ingredients in the kitchen than I did when I was 16.’ They also share a ‘united we stand’ mentality. If the 3Pavaru runs out of salt (it can happen), Maris Astics at Dome helps out. This ‘work in progress’ approach is reflected in a local proverbial saying: ‘When Riga is completed, it will fall into the Daugava.’ Like its architecture, where Hanseatic gothic spires jostle with High Dutch townhouses and art nouveau apartment blocks, the city is restless and changing. Someone will soon coin the phrase New Baltic Cuisine. It will probably be an astute Latvian chef. Michael Raffael and Slawek Kozdras travelled courtesy of Latvian Tourism Development Agency. For more details, see latvia.travel

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‘Wild blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and cloudberries all carpet the forest. Foraging for these comes second only to mushrooming; fungi hunters scavenge through the night’

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Left to right: Old Town spires; youthful musicians; Riga’s Town Hall Square

Markets Kalnciema Food fair Slow Food Riga sets out its stall every Saturday in

this district with an eclectic range of producers. The best bread in Riga is on sale here, and there are titbits, such as hemp butter, worth discovering. Riga Central Market Open daily, this famed market has up to 3,000 stalls say the guide books… but who’s counting? In summer, the area outside is a riot of scents with some of the world’s finest fruit on display. Straupe Farmers’ Market Held at Placis (located on the A3, 30 minutes from the capital) every Sunday, this is a treasure trove of excellent produce and some damn good ingredients. Worth the trip.

Above: shelf life in Liepupe Manor’s kitchen; accommodation at Neiburgs. Left: the rail bridge over the Daugava

Where to stay Dikli Palace A country house reminiscent of a hunting lodge that styles

itself as a palace. It’s a romantic place to escape to, and the breakfasts, especially the potato and cottage cheese pancakes, are excellent. Doubles from £40. Dikli, Koceni, 00 371 6420 7480, diklupils.lv Dome Hotel A Relais & Châteaux hotel with tasteful rooms and an excellent restaurant, Le Dome. The latter is overseen by Maris Astics, whose cooking, especially the fish, is generous, rustic and prepared from the best produce that Latvia can offer. Doubles from £200. 4 Miesnieku Iela, 00 371 6750 9010, domehotel.lv Gallery Park Hotel This glitzy, five-star hotel has many rooms and suites decorated in a Napoleon III style, while others feature a contemporary Italian design. Doubles from £114. 7 Krisjana Valdemara Iela, 00 371 6733 8830, galleryparkhotel.com Liepupe Manor If you want to learn how to prepare Latvian bread in cosseted surroundings, this small chateau is the place to do it. Comfortable rooms and genuine antiques all around. The wine cellar is beautiful. Doubles from £73. Liepupe Village, 00 371 6728 9730, liepupesmuiza.lv Neiburgs A chic Old Town hotel that is minimalist, modern and friendly. Doubles from £112. 25/27 Jaun Iela, 00 371 6711 5522, neiburgs.com 38

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Liepupe Manor is a place created with love and we welcome you with open arms! :ust one hour from Ziga we oīer ϭϲ elegant, luxurious rooms for guests who appreciate comfort and rural elegance. tith a spa and Įrst class restaurant our guests don’t have to travel far to enjoy themselves. However, just 5 km away from the Liepupe Manor, you can Įnd sidnjeme’s seaside with its ďeauƟful white sand ďeaches and the fantasƟc sunset.

Liepupes Manor Salacgriva region Liepupe village, Liepupe LsͲϰϬϮϯ Latvia Phone: нϯϳϭ ϲϳϮϴϵϳϯϬ, нϯϳϭ ϲϰ ϬϮϬ Ϯϲϴ E-mail: [email protected] www.liepupesmuinja.lv

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StarPic

Want to create dinners with real panache? Then ask the experts. Three-Michelin-starred chef Anne-Sophie Pic shows how to make her stunning recipes without the fuss RECIPES START ON PAGE 113

SARDINE RILLETTES WITH WHISKY AND CAULIFLOWER CREAM This recipe is quick yet sophisticated. Combining sardines with cauliflower is unique and the whisky adds a punch. F&T SPIRIT MATCH Mellow, peaty, smoky and smooth whisky with just two ice cubes (eg Distiller’s Edition, Lagavulin)

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aking a dish means using all your senses. It must look beautiful, smell wonderful and make the most of all the ingredients and their textures. Cooking for those we love is important, and equally so for ourselves – to make every meal or taste a pleasure, to take the time to cook properly, to look after ourselves. There’s nothing more perfect than relaxing around a beautifully laid table with good friends, to enjoy your efforts. Yet superb presentation doesn’t always have to mean fiddly, time-consuming techniques. If you can find an unexpected spice or twist, or make steps in advance, you’ll have a lot more time to spend with the people who matter.

ENTERTAINING JELLIED HAM AND PARSLEY TERRINE Another classic I have resurrected. Starting with a really good-quality cooked ham hock from the butcher, I make a terrine that is set in a mushroom jelly and sharpened with a note of acidity. I love the textural contrast between the slightly chewy ham and the jelly, which starts off firm then melts into the palate, releasing notes of mushroom, caper and cornichon. You could vary this by using herbs or red onion pickles. F&T WINE MATCH Flamboyant and bright US pinot noir (eg 2012 Bien Nacido, Au Bon Climat)

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MACKEREL ESCABECHE Escabeche is a highly flavoured marinade: the aniseed of fennel, the freshness of coriander, the sweet acidity of white balsamic vinegar, the sharpness of lemon, the dry fruitiness of white wine and the scent of thyme and bay. This intense reduction of natural flavours, which can be varied infinitely, will make the mackerel fillets (try to find quite small ones) shine brilliantly.

IN SEASON

F&T WINE MATCH Bone-dry, light sherry with roasted nuts and candied peel notes (eg Manzanilla Papirusa, Lustau)

DUCK LIVER WITH SEARED MELON I’ve always thought that almonds and melon go well together, which is why I came up with this sweet-savoury recipe. The melon adds a fruity sweetness that makes all the difference. Searing that quickly over a high heat, without really cooking it, gives a completely unexpected flavour. F&T WINE MATCH Luscious, peach, lemon and apple notes Italian pinot bianco (eg 2011 Terlaner Classico, Cantina Terlano)

VEGETABLE TART WITH YOUNG PARMESAN CREAM This is one of my signature dishes. Here, made with spring vegetables, it is a riot of colour and full of fresh greenery. You can adapt it according to the season. F&T WINE MATCH Refined, with cherries and herbal undertones Portuguese red (eg 2010 Douro Tinto Reserva, Quinta de la Rosa) RECIPES START ON PAGE 113 RECIPES START ON PAGE 118 42

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ENTERTAINING

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MELBA TOAST WITH LARDO DI COLONNATA AND COMTE CHEESE The marriage of lardo and Comté is unusual but the result is pure, crunchy deliciousness. You need to buy a dense white loaf, nothing full of holes, to make it easy to cut very thin slices of bread. You could also try this with other combinations of fatty meats and cheese, like bacon with Gruyère. F&T WINE MATCH Rich, herbaceous, spicy, fruity Tuscan sangiovese (eg 2009 Brunello di Montalcino, Caparzo)

FILLET OF MARINATED SALMON WITH PETITS POIS AND WASABI MOUSSELINE In this recipe, the salmon is cooked in oil in the same way as for confit, a method that cooks the flesh evenly at a low temperature, leaving it incredibly soft. Don’t worry that the fish will become too oily; the oil doesn’t soak into it. F&T WINE MATCH Viscous, flinty, mineral flavours with peach, honey and spice US marsanne (eg 2010 Santa Ynez Valley, Qupé Winery) RECIPES ON PAGE RECIPES STARTSTART ON PAGE 113 119 RECIPES AND PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN FROM SCOOK: THE COMPLETE COOKERY COURSE BY ANNE-SOPHIE PIC, PHOTOGRAPHY BY MICHAEL ROULIER (JACQUI SMALL, £40). TO BUY THE BOOK AT A SPECIAL PRICE, TURN TO READER OFFERS ON PAGE 106.

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BEETROOT SALAD WITH ARABICA COFFEE SALT This salad is a winning combination of sweet and bitter. Different types of beetroot, with varying colours and contrasting textures, some cooked and some raw, are layered together and then dressed with coffee salt. The result: a beautiful, colourful, easy and elegant dish.

ENTERTAINING

F&T BEER MATCH Dark, roasted flavours with real coffee North Yorkshire stout (eg Bad Seed Espresso Stout, Bad Seed Brewery)

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Gorging on gumbo, sourcing superb skate and plating up the bounty of the sea, former MasterChef winner Mat Follas nets some favourites for you to try RECIPES START ON PAGE 113

have lived the wild life for as long as I can remember. When we were young my brother and I would swim in a nearby river, and follow eel trails across the grass on dewy mornings. As the eels were seeking new water, the unlucky ones would be caught and, in a scene reminiscent of Lord of the Flies, would lose their heads and skin and become a barbecue morsel for us. This was how I spent my formative years in New Zealand. In my early teens we moved to Auckland for a while and lived close to the sea. I had an old inflated inner tube that I’d sit in and float around under my local wharf, dodging people’s fishing lines. I’d hunt for fishing lures stuck on rocks to sell to the fishermen and would happily gorge on fresh mussels from the wharf piles as I explored. Walks on the beach nearby were to find pipis (native clams) and cockles, taken home to be cooked and eaten with some malt vinegar, a food I still love today. More than a few years on, my wife and I settled in Dorset, where I rediscovered my love of diving. Cooking had always been a hobby, but became a passion because I now had a ready audience of family and friends and a free supply of wonderful seafood and produce all around me. I opened The Wild Garlic in Beaminster, bringing some of the tastes of my youth into the kitchen. Seafood flavours vary depending on their seasons, where they’ve been caught and the age of the fish, so don’t feel you must follow the recipe measurements religiously.

I

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SKATE WITH BEURRE NOISETTE When I fished as a kid, I used to throw rays back as a nuisance fish – if only I knew then how amazing they would taste. This dish features highly on my meals to eat before you die. It’s just so simple, so full of flavour – perfection on a plate. You could halve the wing and add a side of potatoes or vegetables but I always want a whole wing to myself. The skill here is in making the butter sauce; achieving the hazelnut aroma and flavour and stopping it from overcooking and becoming acrid. F&T SPIRIT MATCH Rich and unique vintage Japanese sake (eg 2008 Junmai Daiginjo Special, Masuizumi)

HALIBUT STEAK WITH CIDER CREAM SAUCE, CRACKLING AND MASH This recipe is a real crowd pleaser; the combination of the sharpness of cider and the meatiness of a halibut steak work together perfectly. I add a nice mash and a stick of perfect pork crackling to balance the textures and to add a hit of saltiness, too. This dish is one to be savoured on a special occasion and enjoyed for all its indulgence. F&T WINE MATCH Creamy and full French chardonnay blend (eg 2009 Château Chalon, Domaine Macle)

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TERIYAKI SALMON Delicious and incredibly simple to make, Teriyaki also stores for weeks. The word refers to the sugar glaze (teri) and the cooking method of grilling the meat (yaki), so the idea is to cook the fish in the sauce until it has reduced to a tasty, sticky coating. This works well with most fish, though take care to use only a medium or low heat because the sauce can catch and burn easily due to the high sugar content. F&T WINE MATCH Spicy and fruity USA pinot noir (eg 2012 O.P.P. Oregogne, Mouton Noir) 48

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PRAWN DOGS WITH SEAFOOD KETCHUP How can any dish called ‘prawn dogs’ not be fun? Use a soft finger roll to make a tasty alternative to the usual sausage-in-a-bun hotdog. I love using a dry rub of spices and this is a fairly mild heat so do adjust the spicing and chilli to suit. Always use the largest prawns you can buy and keep the heads and shells to make the ketchup base. F&T WINE MATCH Slightly sweet and aromatic German riesling (eg 2011 Egon Müller) RECIPES START ON PAGE 113

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SEAFOOD GUMBO Gumbo is the state dish of Louisiana and as such comes with much history and pride. A fusion of French, Spanish, African and Native American cuisines, it’s a real reflection of Louisiana’s wonderful culture. There are many ways to cook gumbo, meaning you can feel free to experiment. I sometimes like to add chorizo to give it a smoky depth of flavour but this can be left out for a lighter version. You can use the same base recipe with chicken rather than fish stock for a meat gumbo. The key flavour comes from making a roux from oil and flour, okra and the Holy Trinity of onion, celery and green pepper. F&T WINE MATCH Spicy and sexy Croatian plavac mali (eg 2011 Sv Roko, Saints Hills)

RECIPES AND PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN FROM FISH BY MAT FOLLAS, PHOTOGRAPHY BY STEVE PAINTER. (RYLAND PETERS & SMALL, £19.99). TO BUY THE BOOK AT A SPECIAL PRICE, TURN TO READER OFFERS ON PAGE 106.

STARGAZY PIE This is a Cornish dish normally made with pilchards. The unique feature here is that the fish heads protrude through the pastry crust, so they appear to be gazing skyward at the stars. This also allows the oils from the fish that are released during cooking to flow back into the pie for added flavour. F&T WINE MATCH Creamy and rich South African chardonnay (eg 2012 Hamilton Russell) RECIPES START ON PAGE 113

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Ireland’s array of ingredients have long inspired TV cook Clodagh McKenna, who makes modern dishes with a taste of home

DILLISK RAVIOLI OF IRISH SMOKED SALMON AND GOAT’S CHEESE WITH WATERCRESS PESTO The smokiness of salmon, creaminess of goat’s cheese and peppery pesto are tastes that work so well together. Dillisk, also known as dulse, is a red alga that holds a subtle flavour of the sea. Using dillisk pasta for the ravioli takes this dish to the next level. F&T WINE MATCH Classic cherry and citrus with good acidity champagne (eg NV Blanc de Noirs Grand Cru, Eric Rodez)

Emerald

W

hat is modern Irish cuisine? For me, it can be summed up as clean-tasting, fresh dishes using light, subtle flavours to highlight the main ingredients, whether they are fresh fish, aged beef, mountain lamb or herb-infused creamy sauces and butter. Wild, foraged foods, such as nettles, samphire, elderflowers and so on have become commonplace in Irish cuisine. Our island has a rugged western coastline that is sprayed with Atlantic Ocean waves every day, salting the pastures and giving us some of the most fantastic food in the world. Where else can you drive along a road and be stopped by sheep crossing in front of you, while wild blackberries

SMILES GRAVLAX WITH DILL AND JUNIPER BERRIES Gravlax is such a beautiful dish. I served this at a pop-up dinner that I held in New York’s Whitney Museum for St Patrick’s Day. I was lucky enough to find an artisan poitín that had been made in Brooklyn, so I added 2 tablespoons of that to the cure – you could add whiskey, if you wish. You can also substitute honey for the caster sugar in the cure, which gives a richer flavour. F&T WINE MATCH Intense, elegant, fruit and flowers fresh Italian montepulciano (eg 2013 Marche Rosato Pinko Nero, Angeli di Varano) RECIPES START ON PAGE 113

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SLOW-ROASTED LAMB SHANKS WITH CREAMY GINGER POTATOES Lamb shanks, when cooked slowly on a low heat, become so tender and juicy. You do need to prop them with lots of flavoursome ingredients, and I love this combination of sweet and spicy cinnamon, chilli, honey and Marsala for mine. The ginger creamy potatoes add soft texture and a subtle zing. F&T WINE MATCH Rich, spicy, complex black fruit, peony and mineral notes Syrian red (eg 2007 Domaine de Bargylus)

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tumble out of the hedgerows on either side and samphire and seaweeds scatter nearby shores? Beautiful milk, cream, butter, cheeses and meat are provided by grazing animals, and fantastic seafood comes straight from the clean tidal waters. The Irish kitchen and the Irish palate have evolved so much over the past ten years or so. My influences are pulled from the wonderful places I have visited and the ingredients of the country I call home. When I lived in Italy and France, I discovered many fantastic recipes, and they became a part of my Irish kitchen when I returned home. Even the most traditional of dishes have developed over time, becoming part of the fabric of modern Ireland. You see, in Ireland, life revolves around the kitchen. Whether it’s cups of tea and a piece of cake hot from the range, a family supper, Sunday lunch, or our famed Irish breakfast, life happens over a simmering pot.

FOOD FOR FRIENDS

FREE-RANGE PORK WITH APPLE, CHERRY AND SAGE STUFFING AND APPLE CRISPS Sundays were made for this. Slow-roasted juicy pork stuffed with apple, cherries and sage to collect the fabulous flavours of the meat while roasting. You could substitute dates for the cherries if you wish, or use flat-leaf parsley instead of sage for a more peppery flavour. The apple crisps are simple to make and add a lovely texture. F&T WINE MATCH Savoury raspberry and violet with leather and mineral notes Tuscan sangiovese (eg 2009 Flaccianello delle Pieve, Fontodi)

APPLE AND LAVENDER TOPLESS TART This tart looks so pretty with the caramelised apples glimmering up at you. The lavender creates a deep, aromatic flavour, which is so good with the sweet apples. F&T WINE MATCH Apple, fennel and white pepper with pear Austrian muscat (eg 2013 Muskat Ottonel Auslese, Hans Tschida) RECIPES START ON PAGE 113 FOOD & TRAVEL

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SALTED CARAMEL WHISKEY BREAD AND BUTTER PUDDING WITH RAISINS This is so simple to make and great for using up stale bread. The salted caramel whiskey sauce is addictive and could be poured over ice cream for an Irish sundae. This can be made up to a day in advance and warmed in the oven before serving. F&T SPIRIT MATCH Smooth marmalade and crushed almond Japanese malt whisky (eg Hibiki 12, Suntory)

RECIPES START ON PAGE 113 RECIPES AND PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN FROM CLODAGH’S IRISH KITCHEN BY CLODAGH MCKENNA, PHOTOGRAPHY BY TARA FISHER (KYLE BOOKS, £19.99). TO BUY THE BOOK AT A SPECIAL PRICE, TURN TO READER OFFERS ON PAGE 106. 56

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Serving authentic Italian rice to the world since1856

Italians are known for being passionate about their food, insisting on only the highest possible quality ingredients. And that helps explain why Riso Gallo are the Number One brand in the Italian rice market. Grown in the World famous Po Valley (also known as 'Italy's Risotto Bowl'), Riso Gallo benefits from an unbeatable combination of perfect climate, ideal soil type and the region's many natural advantages - for example, the plants are fed by icy clear Alpine water which flows from the mountains. You simply cannot get a more authentic - or delicious - Italian rice. The cockerel that you see on all Riso Gallo products is an important part of our history. In the early days, the company used animal symbols to identify different rice varieties: The Cockerel was associated with best quality rice and soon became the symbol of the company itself. But despite our long tradition of excellence which dates back more than 155 years, Riso Gallo are firmly committed to meeting the demands of the future. Now run by the sixth generation of the founders' family we continue to innovate. Evidence of this can be found with new ranges and line extensions being recently added in response to a need for quality food that is quick to prepare. So thanks to Riso Gallo, you no longer have to go to Italy to find authentic Italian risotto. We offer a wide range, covering everything from traditional risotto rices, Risotto Pronto (a 12 minute risotto), Risotto Expresso (a two-minute risotto), Risotto Box (a 1 min. 30 sec.risotto), rice specialities to the gluten-free Pasta 3 cereali, now exported to 74 countries.

[email protected] www.risogallo.com

Use a little imagination and the possibilities for healthy, feel-good food are almost endless, says Nicola Graimes, whose ideas are easy on the eye and palate RECIPES START ON PAGE 113

SCALLOP AND GREEN PAPAYA SALAD WITH LEMONGRASS DRESSING Inspired by the flavours of Thailand, this light and zingy salad is topped with seared scallops here, but would work equally well with other types of seafood such as salmon, sea bass, crab, king prawns or squid. If you can’t find green papaya, you could use green-fleshed melon instead. F&T WINE MATCH Crisp, peppery, citrus and green apple Austrian grüner veltliner (eg 2012 Hinter der Burg, Federspiel, Weingut Prager) 58

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appily, the days are long gone when the most exotic salad leaf available to buy was the crisp iceberg lettuce. Now we’re spoilt for choice, with all kinds of leaves from peppery mizuna and bitter-tasting frisée to spicy watercress and lemony, sharp sorrel. A salad of soft, mild butterhead lettuce dressed simply in extra virgin olive oil and a sprinkling of sea salt, and perhaps a squeeze of lemon juice, is a simple pleasure. However, when the occasion arises, it’s good to step it up a gear and experiment with textures, tastes and colours.

FOOD FOCUS PARMA HAM, PEAR AND STEM GINGER SALAD The combination of salty, crisp Italian air-dried ham with sweet, soft pear and a zing from the stem ginger makes this quite a sophisticated salad, perfect for a special occasion or just as an appetiser. F&T WINE MATCH Refined, spicy and full-bodied Californian chardonnay (eg 2010 Russian River Valley, Rochiolo)

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FATTOUSH WITH SPICED ALMONDS This twist on the popular Lebanese salad is made with vibrant, crisp vegetables in an orangey pistachio oil dressing. Instead of the more regular addition of crisp toasted pitta bread, the salad is topped with smoked paprika-roasted almonds. If you can’t find pistachio oil, simply increase the quantity of olive oil. F&T WINE MATCH Concentrated, rich, white flowers and subtle oak Lebanese white (eg 2011 Château Marsyas)

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KAMUT WITH CHERMOULA DRESSING F&T WINE MATCH Round and spicy Californian zinfandel (eg 2010 Lytton Springs, Ridge Vineyards) RECIPES START ON PAGE 113 FOOD & TRAVEL

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OSSAU IRATY, ASPARAGUS AND CROUTON SALAD Ossau Iraty is a French semihard sheep’s cheese with a nutty taste and creamy texture that complements the earthy beetroot in this salad. Parmesan, Gruyère and emmental also work well, if you prefer. F&T WINE MATCH Complex, dark fruit and earthy stone French pinot noir (eg 2010 Santenay Les Charmes, Domaine Bachelet-Monnot) RECIPES AND PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN FROM THE SALAD BOWL BY NICOLA GRAIMES, PHOTOGRAPHY BY MATT RUSSELL (RYLAND PETERS & SMALL, £14.99). TO BUY THE BOOK AT A SPECIAL PRICE, TURN TO READER OFFERS ON PAGE 106. RECIPES START ON PAGE 113 62

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FOOD FOCUS

HONEY-ROASTED CARROTS AND SEEDS WITH CITRUS CREAM F&T WINE MATCH Fresh, spicy and pungent with mineral, ginger, pineapple and flower notes German riesling (eg 2010 F E Trimbach)

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Devon is a place on Cheesemakers, cider slurpers, fishermen and slow-food saviours all call North Devon home, as Marc Millon finds out on a VW Camper road trip visiting its choicest cuts

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARK PARREN TAYLOR

Lynmouth is one of North Devon’s most picturesque harbours and has inspired artists for centuries 64

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Left to right: Victoria Cranfield’s lemon and rose petal marmalade; the wild beauty of Saunton Sands. Opposite, clockwise from top left: Godminster brie and charcuterie at The Exmoor Beastro; Saunton Sands; Brixham soused herrings at The Swan; sunset in Woolacombe as seen from the VW Camper van

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orth Devon is the sort of place you want to meander through, explore and discover at a slow pace, perhaps in a vintage VW Camper. Why not? Ours is bright red and dates from 1971. This classic beaut takes us on a journey along high coastal roads that look across the Bristol Channel to Wales, down lanes that are narrow, winding, sometimes outrageously steep, lined with high, overgrown hedgerows; up climbs that lead to the bare and majestic stretches of Exmoor then plunge into valleys that are lush and almost sub-tropical. Along those roads and in a vehicle such as ours, it is simply impossible not to drive lightly. ‘We don’t do “hurry” here,’ says Dan the Fishman, when we arrive to meet him at Appledore’s historic harbour more than an hour late. ‘I was in Plymouth last week and it felt so strange. Everyone was rushing!’ An ex-lifeboatman, Dan is not only a fisherman and fishmonger, selling from his barrow at farmers’ markets and festivals, but he has also become an unofficial ambassador for North Devon’s sustainable fish. This means teaching children and adults how to understand, value and cook the harvest. ‘Many people in cities have lost the ability to taste real food. It’s all that rushing about. They have never had the chance to enjoy fish virtually straight from day boats or to savour grass-fed meat reared slowly on a farm. Coming to North Devon is an opportunity for people to reconnect with where real food comes from,’ he says. North Devon has always been a popular destination. People have been coming here for centuries to experience the remote beauty of places like Lynmouth and Combe Martin. Indeed, the poets Coleridge and Wordsworth walked about 50km to reach the Valley of Rocks in 1797, its grandeur inspiring the 18th-century Romantic Period in art and literature. Ever since, the area has continued to attract visitors. It is only in recent years, however, that people have come here to discover an array of outstanding food and drink. Just north of Barnstaple, we visit Broomhill Art Hotel, in a lush, wooded valley, a beautiful venue for the largest permanent

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Where to stay Broomhill Art Hotel This quirky hotel not far from Barnstaple is set within its own sculpture garden and is decorated with works by local artists. Lovers of art and nature come here to enjoy tranquillity as well as excellent local food served in the Terra Madre Restaurant (see Where to Eat). Rooms are clean, individually and originally furnished, and reasonably priced. Doubles from £75. Muddiford Road, Barnstaple, 01271 850262, broomhillart.co.uk Hunters Inn Hidden off the A39 near the sea, this surprisingly large inn resembles a Swiss chalet. Open since 1824, guests have included poets, composers and prime ministers. The pub itself has own-brewed ales, while the restaurant serves homely foods, mainly from locally sourced ingredients. Doubles from £100. Heddon Valley, Exmoor, 01598 763230, thehuntersinnexmoor.co.uk Kentisbury Grange This beautifully restored Victorian manor on the edge of Exmoor has recently gone up a gourmet notch with the launch of The Coach House restaurant by two-Michelin-starred chef Michael Caines. The chic hotel is furnished tastefully with antiques and original artwork. Doubles from £125. Kentisbury, Barnstaple, 01271 882295, kentisburygrange.com Saunton Sands Hotel This elegant art deco hotel is poised like a gleaming white ocean liner, overlooking North Devon’s best beaches. While the rooms are modern and well-equipped, service is oldfashioned in the best sense (there is a voluntary dress code for dinner, for example). This is a grand old hotel that harks back to another era, a lovely place to visit and stay. Doubles from £145. Saunton, near Braunton, 01271 890212, sauntonsands.co.uk Stoodleigh Court Coach House B&B A stylish and modern luxury bed & breakfast set in a remote and incredibly peaceful corner of mid-Devon. Rosey and Steve are welcoming hosts and the farmhouse breakfast, made with ingredients from neighbouring farms, is outstanding. Doubles from £90. Stoodleigh, Tiverton, 01398 351206, stoodleighcourtcoachhousebandb.co.uk

‘Many people in cities have lost the ability to taste real food. They have never had the chance to enjoy fish virtually straight from day boats or to savour grass-fed meat, reared slowly on a farm’

HOW TO GET ABOUT O’Connors Campers offers vintage VW Campers dating mainly from the Sixties and Seventies, ideal for exploring the lovely lanes of North Devon at a slower pace. It takes a little while to get the hang of driving these classic rides, but they are such a fun way to get around that it is more than worth it. Available for hire by the week, Monday to Friday, or for a long weekend. Prices start from £425. Highlands, Old Road, High Street, Okehampton, 01837 659599, oconnorscampers.co.uk

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Opposite page, from top left: Stoodleigh Court breakfast; Tiverton; Alex and Fiona of The Exmoor Beastro; Appledore; charcuterie at Broomhill Art Hotel; NC @ EX34; Lynmouth; Noel Corston; ribs at The Exmoor Beastro. This page, from left: its interior; lamb at Tarr Farm Inn; Lynmouth; tapas at Broomhill

‘Here, more than elsewhere, there is a strong sense of community, where people support each other and the local economy’ collection of contemporary art and sculpture in the South West. It seems fitting that the award-winning kitchen of Terra Madre Restaurant has based itself on the philosophy of Slow Food, the Italian-born movement that celebrates food that is ‘good, clean and fair’. Sitting on the terrace overlooking the sculpture park, we enjoy a lunch of West Country tapas: delicate, home-cured salmon on a bed of salad leaves and flowers picked from the garden; honey-glazed Devon goat’s cheese on a seasonal vegetable stew; Lundy crab bisque; organic pork meatballs; and local cold-smoked trout and prawn croquetas. It’s delicious and informal food that is simple and sophisticated, like the region itself. In Barnstaple, North Devon’s main town, we discover the Pannier Market, an impressive vaulted hall built in 1855 and so named because people from surrounding farms and smallholdings used to come here to sell their vegetables from wicker panniers. The Pannier Market is still in operation every day, but no longer only for food. Nearby Butchers Row once used to house more than 33 butchers selling meat from local farms. Today, just one – DA Gratton – remains. How did this small market town ever support so many butchers, I wonder? ‘Before supermarkets,’ I’m told, matter-of-factly. Here, more than elsewhere, there is a strong sense of community where people support each other and the local economy. At Barton Farm Dairy, we meet Gary and Linda Wright, who work a dairy herd of 130 mainly Holstein and Jersey cattle. ‘There is a real interest in knowing where food comes from,’ says Gary, handing me a glass of raw milk virtually straight from the cow. ‘People here are turning away from the supermarkets.’ I take a deep swallow: rich, creamy milk that leaves you with a moustache is a forgotten taste that is just so good. Linda also uses this unpasteurised milk to produce wonderful soft cheeses such as creamy Kentisbury Down and a very mild, fresh Barton Blue. Customers come direct to the dairy, helping themselves and leaving the money in an honesty box. At the Old Rectory in nearby East Down, Victoria Cranfield uses the bounty from her rather wild garden and surrounding fields to produce an astonishing array of handmade jams, jellies, chutneys and pickles. A former lawyer, Victoria first came to East Down for holidays as a child. As we walk in the field, she points out not only

fruit, flowers and plants but also the incredible biodiversity of a pesticide-free microclimate. ‘Listen to the field,’ she instructs. ‘You can taste it in my jams, just as you can taste the smells.’ Indeed, her apple and rose petal conserve evokes the intense scent of roses; lemon and horseradish marmalade is pungent and sharp. Victoria makes marmalades known as ‘proper’ (Seville Orange, Pink Grapefruit) or ‘improper’ (Blood Orange and Espresso won gold at this year’s World Marmalade Festival). The Chocolate Splattered Marmalade is ‘my homage to Jackson Pollock’. My guess is that it is the ‘improper’ that interests Victoria more. In this overgrown paradise, she is having fun.

Travel information GETTING THERE First Great Western operates trains from London Paddington to

Barnstaple (the furthest point accessible by train), via Exeter St David’s, with a journey time of about 4 hours. firstgreatwestern.co.uk National Express runs a regular coach service that departs from London’s Victoria Coach Station. Barnstaple can be reached in about 5 hours 30 minutes. nationalexpress.com RESOURCES Visit Devon is the official tourist board, offering a wealth of information about the county, including what to see, where to stay, suggestions for eating and drinking and cycling routes and walks. visitdevon.co.uk A Taste of Devon is a useful resource for food lovers, covering the best farmers’ markets, artisan producers, shops and restaurants that you must try on your trip. atasteofdevon.co.uk FURTHER READING North Devon & Exmoor (Bradt Travel Guides, £7.99). This new book

lifts the lid on secret spots in Devon, with out-of-the-way places, local characters and a guide to sustainable tourism. Tarka the Otter by Henry Williamson (Puffin Modern Classics, £6.99). First published in 1927, this novel follows the life of Tarka amid his natural habitat of the Taw and Torridge rivers in North Devon. FOOD & TRAVEL

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‘Dan is not only a fisherman and fishmonger, selling from his barrow at farmers’ markets and festivals, but he has also become an unofficial ambassador for North Devon’s sustainable fish’

Enjoyment seems to be a real motivation for people living and working in the region. Chef Noel Corston used to come to Croyde to surf. Learning to chef was a way to travel the world and nurture his passion. He met his wife while in Mexico and the couple returned to North Devon, opening The Courtyard restaurant in Woolacombe more than a decade ago. In 2012, he relaunched it as NC @ EX34, serving a seven-course tasting menu at dinner. Noel’s aim is to express the unique flavour of North Devon’s protected Unesco Biosphere Reserve, working directly with farmers, fishermen, foragers and hunters to create food that is simply stunning. The menus may simply list the main ingredients, but the cooking is anything but spartan. ‘Red Ruby’, for example, consists of perfectly grilled Red Ruby feather steak, confit of shoulder, and lightly poached bone marrow with local vegetables: a parsnip purée, baby carrots and broccoli, and sharp homemade choucroute made from local cabbage. For Noel, the cooking and intensity of flavour of the vegetables is as important as the meat. ‘Apple’ is the thinnest caramelised apple tart with an ice cream churned from Devon Blue cheese. This is food that is at once totally local and really satisfying. ‘Do you still get time to go out and surf?’ I ask. ‘I don’t do too badly,’ the 36-year-old chef tells me. ‘We work incredibly hard for six months, then we close and go to Mexico. I am really trying to get the balance of work and family life right.’ Equilibrium seems to be the key here, in food as in life. Our trusty red Camper also takes us to the roof of Exmoor, where we marvel at the most rugged cattle you will ever see, their shaggy coats offering protection from the harsh elements that buffet this high moorland, even in the summer months. Way up here they thrive on a diet of coarse grass, gorse and heather, yielding meat with fine marbling and terrific flavour. Exmoor lamb similarly matures in a harsh natural environment to result in a character that is deliciously robust and full. Just over the border in Somerset, we pause for lunch at the bustling Tarr Farm Riverside Inn & Restaurant beside a popular beauty spot. Moorland lamb, chargrilled and pink, is served with local vegetables and washed down with a quenching pint of Exmoor Ale. Coming off the moor, we head into mid-Devon to meet organic and free-range pig farmers Will Knowles and Jeannie Morrissey of Pork Heaven from Devon. An ex-commercial pilot, Will took over his father’s farm and only began to breed pigs about eight years ago. To see Jeannie in the pens with the creatures is to know that this is clearly a labour of love. ‘Animals should be given the life they deserve,’ says Will, matter-of-factly. ‘I really do think ours enjoy about the best life that a pig can have. The way to give respect to the animal is to produce the best-tasting meat you can.’ The results speak for themselves: since Will and Jeannie began their business, they have won no end of praise, and awards for their sausages, burgers, chops and belly pork, 70

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Where to eat Prices are for three courses excluding wine, unless otherwise stated. NC @ EX34 Dining at Noel Corston’s restaurant

is a treat. The tasting menu changes regularly to reflect what is available. This is dining of the highest order, but it remains fun. Drop in, too, for a cocktail. Tasting menu from £75. South Street, Woolacombe, 01271 871187, noelcorston.com Tarr Farm Inn A serious restaurant and place to stay at one of Exmoor’s most popular beauty spots. Come here for home-baked cakes, sandwiches or baguettes, afternoon cream tea, or full lunch or dinner. £35. Dulverton, 01643 851507, tarrfarm.co.uk Terra Madre at Broomhill Art Hotel

Local meats, seafood, cheeses and homegrown vegetables are part of Terra Madre’s Slow Food philosophy. A Spanish twist comes from using Iberian ingredients for tapas and more elaborate dinner menus. £25. Muddiford Road, Barnstaple, 01271 850262, broomhillart.co.uk The Coffee Cabin Fabulous crab sandwiches and homemade cakes can be found in this stylish café on Appledore’s historic harbour. £10. 22 The Quay, Appledore, 01237 475843

The Exmoor Beastro This laid-back venue

brings the fun and diversity of street food to a restaurant environment. Alex and Fiona are proud to source ingredients from local farms, and much of their delicious bistro-style food is done in a small wood-fired oven in the courtyard. £35. 44 High Street, Dulverton, 01398 323712, theexmoorbeastro.com The Quay Restaurant Views of Ilfracombe Harbour compete with those of Damien Hirst’s art at this stylish restaurant. The menu centres on local seafood – think seared scallops with chilli, lime, coriander and pak choi, and crispy calamari with garlic mayonnaise. Don’t miss Verity, Hirst’s bronze sculpture on the pier. £45. 11 The Quay, Ilfracombe, 01271 868090, 11thequay.co.uk The Swan Devon Life’s Gastro Pub of the Year 2014 serves exceptional pub fare while still being a welcoming place for locals to enjoy a drink. Food is traditional: salt beef with tangy, piccalilli and soda bread; soused Brixham herrings; St Ives wild sea bass with linguine, crab and roasted tomatoes. Good selection of local ales and wines. £35. Station Road, Bampton, 01398 332248, theswan.co

Opposite page: Dan the Fishman at Appledore; Ilfracombe harbour. This page, clockwise from below: Saunton Sands; Lynmouth; Damien Hirst’s sculpture Verity at Ilfracombe; dunes and beach huts at Braunton Burrows

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‘Meat has lost so much quality because of supermarkets. We are producing our food in the old way, to make meat and sausages that have real taste’

This page, from top left: Lynmouth; Linda Wright of Barton Farm Dairy; Exmoor cattle; cheeses at Barton Farm; on Exmoor. Opposite, from top left: Lynmouth; gooseberries and elderflowers, for Victoria Cranfield’s jam; Jeannie at Pork Heaven; Gary Wright at Barton Farm; raw milk; East Down; Pork Heaven; Hunters Inn, Heddon Valley

including Best of Sausages at the prestigious Taste of the West Awards in 2014. ‘Meat has lost so much quality because of supermarkets. We are producing our food in the old way, to make meat and sausages that have real taste,’ says Will. At the nearby Stoodleigh Court Coach House B&B, we sample the result of Will and Jeannie’s labours the next morning over an ample farmhouse breakfast. The sausages are succulent, tasty and absolutely delicious, certainly ranking among the best I have ever tasted. The black pudding, fried until just crispy, is pretty sensational, too. Rosey and Steve, our hosts, renovated the coach house of the Stoodleigh Court estate into a beautiful, luxury, boutique B&B that is welcoming and warm. In Dulverton, the gateway to Exmoor, we visit the Exmoor Beastro and meet Alex Nutts and Fiona O’Mahoney, another couple working together to create a life for themselves and their young family. Previously, Alex and Fiona ran a successful street food van. Their favourite activity was to pick a spot on Exmoor to have a pop-up happening, then tweet and send messages on Facebook and wait for the crowds to appear. So successful were they that everyone kept asking them to open a restaurant. Alex cooks just about everything in a small wood-fired oven, while Fiona makes the puddings and is front of house. The street food ethos shines through in dishes made with impeccably sourced local ingredients: onglet in red wine, ‘damn fine BBQ pork ribs’ in a sticky, finger-licking sauce, 65-day dry-cured steaks, and a beef tagine with preserved lemon. While some city folk dream of escaping to the country, for others it’s more of a rediscovery. In Appledore, over a crab sandwich at The Coffee Cabin (supplied by Dan the Fishman), Martin Ford and Richard Parsons, both from North Devon and in their early 30s, tell a little of their story. ‘We moved away to study and work before returning to open this business. When you come back to your home, you see it with fresh eyes. There is a real quality of life here.’ There is indeed. Our journey, though, is nearly at an end. We meander down the lovely Exe Valley in our VW Camper, which has transported us through the heart of North Devon. Just south of Tiverton, we spy a sign to a local vineyard, Yearlstone, and can’t resist sampling Roger and Juliet White’s delightful pink sparkling wine, made with pinot noir grapes grown in a steeply sloped vineyard overlooking the river. The wine, with its fine and persistent bubbles, is light and invigoratingly fresh, a sparkler that can stand comparison with the best. It’s the perfect wine to toast the artisan food producers, the fishermen, the farmers and the chefs of North Devon. Marc Millon and Mark Parren Taylor travelled to North Devon courtesy of Visit Devon. For more details, see visitdevon.co.uk

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Left to right: Dan the Fishman at The Coffee Cabin in Appledore; the café’s crab sandwiches; Heddon Mouth; ploughman’s lunch at Tarr Farm Inn

Where to shop Barton Farm Dairy Come down to the farm to taste and purchase unpasteurised milk, cream and outstanding farmhouse cheeses. If no one is in, simply help yourself and leave your money in the honesty box. Kentisbury, Barnstaple, 01271 882283, bartonfarmdairy.co.uk Dan the Fishman Prime, locally caught fish from Dan’s barrow, is a familiar sight at markets across North Devon including Bideford, South Molton, Hatherleigh and Holsworthy. Dan is a great communicator and runs fish workshops as well as talks in schools. clovellyfish.com Pork Heaven from Devon Head direct to the source to meet Will and Jeannie and purchase a range of fabulous pork products, including award-winning sausages. Stoodleigh Barton Farm, Stoodleigh, Tiverton, 01398 351568, porkheavenfromdevon.com Real Food Market There’s a great selection of North Devon’s edible bounty on show here: farmhouse cheeses, meat, sausages, homemade cakes and pies, proper bread, the freshest seafood and shellfish and much more. Producers are small and individual, including Cranfields, Red Dog Bakery, Glam Pig, Wizard Ales Brewery, Bampton Game, Old Forge Fish, Bulldog Fish Farm, Stefano’s Homemade Foods, The Posh Kebab

Company and John’s of Instow. Pannier Market, Barnstaple, takes place on the second Sunday of each month Victoria Cranfield produces award-winning marmalades, jellies, preserves and chutneys on a small scale in a shed behind her house, utilising much that is grown in the garden and fields. Find her fine preserves in delis and fine food shops or online. Cranfield’s Food and The Proper Marmalade Company, East Down, Barnstaple, 01271 850842, cranfieldsfoods.com West Country Cheese Co Just behind the Pannier Market on Barnstaple’s Butchers Row, offering an extensive selection of mainly West Country cheeses as well as artisan food products from the area. A good place to stock up for a beachside picnic or cycle ride along the Tarka Trail. 10 Butchers Row, Barnstaple, 01271 379944, westcountrycheese.co.uk Yearlstone Vineyard Located in a commanding position overlooking the Exe Valley, this is Devon’s oldest modern vineyard, first cultivated in 1976. Today, Roger and Juliet White produce a range of top-notch wines, from white or rosé sparkling to full-bodied red. The vineyard can be visited in season and the Deli Shack Café offers light lunches to accompany the full range of wines. Bickleigh, 01884 855700, yearlstone.co.uk

Left to right: magnificent local crayfish; Saunton Sands; Yearlstone Vineyard brut; Martin Ford and Richard Parsons of The Coffee Cabin

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Left to right: tasting the best of the Greek islands

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Want a hit of sunshine with a side serving of fabulous food? Ian Belcher seeks out some of the best places around Europe and beyond where you can escape for a breather LEFKADA, GREECE AVERAGE HIGH: 27ºC. AVERAGE SUNLIGHT HOURS: 15

Photos by San Nicolas resort; Carl Pendle; Region of Ionian Islands; lefkada.gr

Thanks to a causeway to the mainland that allows an easy 20km drive from Preveza airport, Lefkada delivers an accessible, intense shot of Greek island culture. You get a lot in a short period of time. An awful lot. From the galleries, shops and restaurants in the eponymous main town, to the pastel-hued waterfront tavernas, ice cream vendors and boat rentals of Nidri. West coast beaches include Kathisma, Egremni and Porto Katsiki – whose blinding white pebbles, soaring cliffs and electric-blue Ionian Sea make shades a necessity rather than a fashion statement. That’s just the start. Head into the mountainous interior, where fresh air scented by oregano and thyme washes over monastic ruins, craft museums and snoozing villages where old men sell

beer out of front-room fridges. And do stop for the view: the panorama over the red rooftops of Nidri, across Skorpios island – where Aristotle Onassis married Jacqueline Kennedy in 1968 – to mountains over 900m high is simply epic. For the more active traveller, the ports here are some of the best on the Mediterranean. Fly to Preveza's airport with EasyJet, easyjet.com, and return with Thomson, flights.thomson.co.uk, from £271pp return. Stay in intimate digs above Mikros Gialos Bay with sweeping views at the modern resort San Nicolas, sannicolas.gr, or opt for the romantic Gecko above Tsoukalades village and its spectacular infinity pool. thegecko.eu

Above: dinner at San Nicolas. Below, from left: fresh seafood is in the diet; Lefkada’s soaring cliffs

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Clockwise from top: Cagliari old town skyline; local beach; simple flavours; islanders pause for a chat. Opposite, clockwise from top: simmering Split; dine in Croatia with wine, seafood and ice-cold beer

SOUTHEAST SARDINIA, ITALY where the tropical comparisons reach their zenith. This short break is all about beaches and early summer warmth, so don’t expect the ancient stones, romantic mood and boutique inns of Tuscany’s hilltops or the Neapolitan Riviera. However, Villasimius is perfectly placed for the sand and will provide you with fine Sardinian fish dishes at La Lanterna including fregula with mussels and clams, and baby octopus with spicy tomato sauce, all washed down with good value local wine. And if you just have to have a shot of traditional Italian city life, there’s easily time to spend the first night in Cagliari, creating a nifty two-centre, long-weekend short break. Fly to Cagliari from £107 return on Alitalia. alitalia.com Stay on the Villasimius beachfront in the cheery light-washed interiors of the Stella Maris Hotel. stella-maris.com

Photos by Shutterstock; Peter Cassidy; Alfonso Pierantonio

AVERAGE HIGH: 26ºC. AVERAGE SUNLIGHT HOURS: 10

The Caribbean’s a schlepp for a long weekend, so why bother when you have southeast Sardinia close to hand? One of the most modest, publicity shy regions of an island famed for its beaches and translucent shallows, the area around Villasimius and Costa Rei offers dazzling stretches of sand just an hour’s drive from the capital, Cagliari. Many places in the Mediterranean claim near tropical brilliance, but trust us, this is the real white powder, aquamarine blue real deal. There are too many peaches to pick from, but we recommend heading to Cala Sinzias backed with eucalyptus trees (a favourite of surfers when the wind’s up), 500m-long Cala Pira with its elegy inducing views of Isola Serpentara and wonderful snorkeling – any bay frescoed with anchored luxury yachts has something going for it – and small, gently sloping Punta Molentis,

SPLIT & ISLANDS, CROATIA

Photos by Croatian National Tourist Board; Gary Latham; Ante Verzotti

AVERAGE HIGH: 26ºC. AVERAGE SUNLIGHT HOURS: 16

Split: a wonderfully apt name. For a long early summer weekend, the Croatian coastal city – a gateway to the fabulous Adriatic islands – offers simultaneous servings of culture and sun-washed relaxation. Its ancient heart is the beautiful Diocletian's Palace, built for the Roman emperor in AD295, a living, breathing organic part of the city that has been tweaked and pimped over 1700 years. Alongside its houses, hotels and restaurants (try the contemporary Dalmatian fare at Konoba Korta), Split’s bag of historical showstoppers includes subterranean halls once used to make wine and olive oil, the beautiful colonnaded central courtyard and 7th century St Domnius Cathedral on the site of the emperor’s mausoleum – a nice irony given the Roman’s bloodthirsty persecution of Christians. You could spend days wondering its labyrinthine alleys and people

watching on the Riva – the seafront promenade – with its palm trees, bars and perfect west-facing sundowners. But this is a short break where you don’t just look at the ocean, you get out onto it. Three days gives you ample time to catch a ferry to Hvar, with its lovely if pebbly beaches like Uvala Dubovica swaddled by deep green pine trees. The old port of Stari Grad, a former haunt of Edward VIII and Mrs Simpson, has sun-bleached lanes polished by millennia of footprints, while 30 minutes away, Hvar town offers splendid Venetian architecture seething with boutiques, bars – some like Caffe Gromit, overlooking the yacht-filled harbor – and chic, shades-on-the-head visitors. Fly to Split from £145 return with British Airways. ba.com Stay in Vestibul Palace in the heart of old Split. vestibulpalace.com

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Photos by Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau

Top: away from the bustle of the city, enjoy a blissful day at Crandon Park beach

MIAMI, USA AVERAGE HIGH: 32ºC. AVERAGE SUNLIGHT HOURS: 14

Subtropical Miami might seem an exhausting short break option, but kind connecting flights – depart Thursday early evening, fly back late Sunday afternoon – make it an exotic, accessible few-day trip. It’s a sprawling complex destination, obviously but no selfrespecting visit should ignore South Beach: a movie set made real with bronzed rollerbladers zipping along Ocean Drive past softhued art deco buildings where ludicrously tall models sip cocktails alongside celebrities and hipsters, and where the beautiful and the tanned decorate the bleached white sand next to a shimmering Atlantic. Naturally, you’re here to relax not pose so try the excellent shopping of Española Way and supper at Barton G., where the eponymous chef’s fabulous American cuisine includes shrimp

popcorn and grilled sea bass inside a paper bag sealed with laundry clips. Got the energy to explore elsewhere? Try buzzing Little Havana where grizzled senior Cubans play languid games of baseball in Maximo Gomez Park. Take a stop off at Los Pinareños Frutería, which serves a legendary banana milkshake Cuban coffee blend, before heading to the lush bohemian charm of Coconut Grove, Miami’s oldest enclave. If you’re feeling flush, go to the upscale boutiques of Bal Harbour. Just make sure you’re Ralph Lauren chinos and pink shirt are well pressed. Fly with British Airways from £490pp return. ba.com Stay at The Betsy - South Beach, a colonial gem sitting pretty in an art deco world. thebetsyhotel.com

Left to right: ball games on sunny, golden sands; rollerbladers and sunbathers head for Collins Avenue; a view of the Ocean over lilting palms

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IN SEASON

‘The Kato Paphos Archeological Park, a Unesco World Heritage Site, embraces ruins from prehistory to the Middle Ages, shining most brightly with its gorgeous mosaics on the floor of four Roman villas’ PAPHOS, CYPRUS

Clockwise from top left: beauty at every turn; dolmades; salting the lamb skewers; wild flowers; Almyra Hotel; a friendly local; Annabelle, a Thanos Hotel

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If you’re after a short recharge for the body and mind, Paphos, on the southwest coast of Cyprus, offers an enticing bundle of beaches and ancient history, wrapped in a ribbon of warm sun stretching to over 300 days a year. The area around and about Paphos (far more civilized than some of the island’s wilder resorts) boasts 27 beaches, including the long curl of sands linking Cape Drepano and Lara. The photogenic harbour with its smatter of tavernas, cafés and boutiques is a good starting point to decompress, but for supper it pays to follow the tried and tested wisdom of heading back from the pretty waterfront to where Ta Perix serves the best meze in town including grilled quail, wild asparagus and wine-cured pork. Paphos, however, also serves up some terrific cultural dishes. The Kato Paphos Archeological Park, a Unesco World Heritage Site, embraces ruins from prehistory to the Middle Ages, shining most brightly with its gorgeous mosaics on the floor of four Roman villas. There’s more art at Saint Neophytos Monastery, 10km away, with beautiful Byzantine icons in the church, and frescoes in the cave of the hermit saint, while further north nature takes over as creator on the Akamas Peninsula, where the Goddess Aphrodite is said to have bathed in the pool of the natural grotto. We strongly recommend combining it with a visit to some of the local wineries, the marvelous modern-day legacy of production stretching back 5,000 years. Fly to Paphos on EasyJet from £173pp return. easyjet.com Stay in lovely, landscaped seafront gardens in the contemporary Almyra Hotel. almyra.com

Photos by St Gerardi; Cyprus Tourism Organisation; Carl Pendle; Sarah Coghill; Olive Tree Travel

AVERAGE HIGH: 26ºC. AVERAGE SUNLIGHT HOURS: 15

IN SEASON

KAS & KALKAN, TURKEY AVERAGE HIGH: 28ºC. AVERAGE SUNLIGHT HOURS: 15

Photos by Carl Pendle; Olive Tree Travel; Turkish Culture & Information Office

Turkey’s Turquoise Coast offers such widescreen drama, it’s hard to credit you’ve arrived on a short escape after a three-hour flight. Yet a budget flight to Dalaman followed by a spectacular, soul-lifting drive delivers you to Kalkan’s higgle-piggle of white architecture, sandwiched between a deep blue Mediterranean and relentlessly cyan sky. One of the country’s most sophisticated boltholes, it’s littered with villas and more than acceptable restaurants behind a pretty harbour – try the fresh seafood or wild boar at Aubergine on the waterfront. Kas, slightly further to the east, developed as a bohemian drop zone in the sixties – hippies had terrible hair but a great eye for peachy hangouts – before surrendering to the yacht and gulet crowd. It still maintains a small fishing town vibe with narrow streets and chic boutiques, epic azure views worthy of Santorini and rock shelves

(beach clubs) perfect for sunbathing. As for the Mediterranean, resistance is useless. Head to nearby Kaputas Beach backed by steep cliffs, or further west to Oludeniz, the poster boy for Turkish tourism with water of Maldivian clarity beneath 1,969m Babadag, a mountain ready to jump off for a tandem paraglide flight you’ll never forget. A long weekend also allows easily enough time for an inland excursion to the historic villages and citadels of Xanthos Valley, with the awe-inspiring, 300m-deep Saklikent Gorge and Patara Beach, birthplace of Santa Claus, guaranteeing you return home not just refreshed, but with unbeatable dinner party trivia. Fly to Dalaman from £140pp return with EasyJet. easyjet.com Stay in lovely local apartments or a villa from olivetreetravel.com, or in the contemporary, bright, light and white accommodation offered by Mini Saray Hotel. minisarayhotel.com

Clockwise from top left: colourful tableware for sale; rich and juicy olives; fisherman; a tempting tentacle; sailing boats; Olive Tree Travel’s Villa Tigra; Dalaman coast; one man’s lot in life

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IN SEASON

‘You don’t have to be a meteorological detective to work out April is the best time to travel. It’s a shoulder month and gives you the

COMPORTA, PORTUGAL AVERAGE HIGH: 26ºC. AVERAGE SUNLIGHT HOURS: 15

An easy hour or so drive south of Lisbon, Herdade da Comporta is one of Europe’s most stylish, understated hideaway: an enclave of barefoot, bleached wood style. Its low-key splatter of seven coastal hamlets, laced with remarkable villas, lets the continent’s A-listers, well-connected Lisboans and bon chic, bone genre Parisians, rub shoulders with artists, designers and surfers. The glorious sweep of honeyed powder beach, culminating in the north with the 12km-long spit protecting The Sado Estuary, is backed by dunes, rice paddies and forests of cork oak and pine. You’ll want to dip a toe, although perhaps not a head, in the still chilly Atlantic, but Comporta is more about finessing the fine art of doing very little. We thoroughly recommend some beachfront lethargy, crashing on multicoloured beanbags or hammocks outside Comporta Café, eating clams in garlic, white wine and parsley at Ilha do Arroz, or keeping a lazy eye open for the nature reserve’s storks and flamingoes. Development, inevitably, is planned, including a new Aman resort, but for the moment you’ll get a good value apartment in Comporta village, or can stay in the accurately named Sublime Hotel. Just remember, if you see the Monaco royals, or Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni pottering about in a golf buggy, close your mouth and don’t point. Fly to Lisbon from around £145pp with Tap. flytap.com Stay in apartments in Comporta village, casasdacomporta.net, or among the pines and clean linear design of Sublime Hotel. sublimecomporta.pt

‘You don’t have to be a meteorological detective to work out April is the best time to travel. It’s a shoulder month and gives you the

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Photos by John Anthony Rizzo; Paulo Barata; Mark Parren Taylor; Camara Municipal de Sines

Clockwise from top left: prising percebes; Praia Zambujeira do Mar; Sublime Hotel’s pool lives up to the name; a whitewashed village square; take your pick of seafood; men shoot the breeze

Chefs

masterclasses

tasting

Book tickets now

syon park MAY 23-25

FOODIESFESTIVAL.COM O 0844 995 1111

HOT HOLIDAYS

Food FESTIVALS Events celebrating food, drink, restaurants and local produce will be sweeping the nation this summer – as popular as their musical cousins. Jo Lamiri rounds up the UK’s best CENTRAL WITNEY FESTIVAL OF FOOD & DRINK OXFORDSHIRE 16 May

SHUGBOROUGH ESTATE FOOD FESTIVAL STAFFORD 11-12 July

Established only a few years ago, Witney has become a must in the regional calendar – bringing together Oxfordshire’s notoriously excellent farmers’ markets all in one place. Stalls have an eclectic and international flavour, serving up the likes of Japanese dishes, Brazilian bolitas (cheese balls), Moroccan tagines, paella, venison burgers, whopping hog roasts, delicate macarons, yoghurts and fruit gins. There are even artisan goodies for pets to get a treat too. Tickets £2, witneyfoodfestival.co.uk

Set against the backdrop of one of England’s finest country houses, it’s hard not to fall into the pace of a period drama. But there’s plenty of action here to get you going, too. Watch cake-offs, men versus food challenges (which involves chowing down on an indigestioninducing combination of foods at high speed), chef talks and cooking classes. There’s also a host of kids’ activities, live music and interactive stalls, making it one for the whole family to enjoy. Tickets from £7.50, greatbritishfoodfestival.com

SHREWSBURY FOOD FESTIVAL SHROPSHIRE 27-28 June

SANDRINGHAM FOOD & DRINK FESTIVAL NORFOLK 8-9 August

Last year over 10,000 visitors flocked to this festival featuring 200 exhibitors of quality food and drink. This year, you can again look forward to demos by top chefs, including a Persian surgeon-turnedchef, a Paris-trained chocolatier, and third-generation family baker and TV chef Marcus Bean. Join in knife skills sessions, coffee masterclasses and a small-plate safari around local restaurants. Tickets £6, shrewsburyfoodfestival.co.uk

Hosted on the Queen’s Estate, this is a new one for the summer season. The area is packed with exciting food producers, many of whom will be exhibiting, while Levi Roots and the Baker Brothers will be headlining. Look out for the chocolate workshop and international foods at the Piazza. A real ale marquee is available for guests who fancy a bit of downtime out of the sun. Tickets £8, sandringhamfoodfestival.co.uk

Clockwise from top left: Shrewsbury Food Festival; retro vibe at Tatton Park; homemade cakes; food fans gather; food trucks abound

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IN SEASON

EAST

LONDON

EAST

TASTE OF LONDON REGENT’S PARK 17-21 June

ESSEX FESTIVAL OF FOOD & DRINK BRAINTREE 18-19 July

From burgers to bibimbap, ceviche to sushi, Taste will be taking over Regent’s Park for the 12th year, with over 40 world-class chefs strutting their culinary stuff. More than 50,000 food lovers will be sampling top-notch produce amid numerous tastings and workshops. You could spend the entire day eating, quite literally. Tickets from £16, london.tastefestivals.com

North Essex and East Anglia is primarily agricultural, so it’s fitting that this festival takes place in a medieval farmstead. Discover the best local wines, preserves, seafood and sausages, brought to you by established and new producers. John Torode and James Martin are set to demo and there’ll be Italian cookery classes for kids too. Tickets from £7.50, ecfoodfestival2015.nmgl.co.uk

FOODIES FESTIVAL ALEXANDRA PALACE 3-5 July

WHITSTABLE OYSTER FESTIVAL KENT 25-31 July

At this year’s Foodies Festival there’s a real buzz. As well as demos from the likes of Michelin-starred chefs, you can learn about urban beekeeping, foraging, raw and vegan foods or how to shuck an oyster. Small-scale producers, the city’s top street food and drinks samplings complete the gastronomic picture. Tickets from £12, foodiesfestival.com/alexandra

Rock stars abound, but they’re all of the crustacean kind on the Kent coast. Get ready for oyster-eating competitions and learn how to shuck, shell out for special knives and argue the toss over whether Tabasco, lemon or au naturel is the way to go for the full briny hit when chewing (not swallowing) your quality raw oyster. Entry free, whitstableoysterfestival.co.uk

LONDON CRAFT BEER FESTIVAL BETHNAL GREEN 13-16 August

CHILLI FIESTA CHICHESTER 7-9 August

Big flavours and brews by independent craftsmen are on tap, with exhibitors from the UK, Europe and the US. Tickets give you licence to enjoy unlimited beer in your free tasting glass. Soak up the booze with beer-friendly tucker from Ginger Pig, Luke’s Jerk Chicken and Hackney-based Café Plump. Expect great tunes, too. Tickets from £30, londoncraftbeerfestival.co.uk

Even if the mercury is low, it will still be a scorcher at West Dean College. Take a look at 250 varieties in the glasshouses, then enjoy capsicum carnage at over 140 stalls – many new this year. Sultry salsa music and pyrotechnic fireworks ensure the heat stays on and camping is available within the splendid grounds. Day tickets from £10, westdean.org.uk

GRILLSTOCK CHESTNUTS FIELD 5-6 September

ALDEBURGH FOOD & DRINK FESTIVAL SUFFOLK 26-27 September

If smoked ribs, spice and pulled pork light your fire, head to this carnivorous festival where barbecued bites are in harmony with music from Hayseed Dixie, Cuban Bros and Razorlight. The event reaches its crescendo with the UK’s largest barbecue competition, King of the Grill, which sees the nation’s top pit masters go head to head, with tongs in their arsenal. En guard! Tickets £30, grillstock.co.uk

Snape Maltings, home to this festival, is more usually associated with music, but for two days, local beer, cider, jams, sea salt, oysters and more call the tune. Local provenance is key to this charming rural celebration of Suffolk’s best food and drink, along with classes lead by some of the region’s finest chefs. Be sure to look out for Alder Tree for some stunning fruit ice creams and sorbets. Day tickets from £8, aldeburghfoodanddrink.co.uk

Below left to right: John Torode and James Martin head to Essex; the party is on at Essex Festival of Food & Drink; chillis of all shapes,

Photos by Elie Dervonté; Toby Lowe Photography

Above left to right: raising a glass or two at Aldeburgh Food and Drink Festival; local camping; creperie stand; freshly caught Guernsey

crabs for sale; locals and tourists alike begin to gather on the pretty waterfront for the renowned Pommery Dorset Seafood Festival

SOUTH AND SOUTH WEST ‘Grillstock reaches its crescendo as the UK’s largest barbecue competition, King of the Grill, sees top pit masters go head to head, with tongs in their arsenal’

POMMERY DORSET SEAFOOD FESTIVAL WEYMOUTH 11-12 July

With its lengthy coastline, seafood looms large in the Dorset psyche. This award-winning street festival along the harbour has about 100 seafood stands, a charity fish auction, kids’ crabbing, sustainability awards for exhibitors and a pop-up restaurant. This year, the spotlight will be on cockles, clams and oysters. Entry free, dorsetseafood.co.uk THE ISLE OF WIGHT GARLIC FESTIVAL NEWCHURCH 15-16 August

Vampires, steer clear. In August, this Isle of Wight goes garlic mad. Centred around the Garlic Farm, the festival is a treasure trove of the clove. Here it pops up, pungently, in everything from beer to popcorn and ice cream. Feast to your heart’s content (in every sense) while raising funds for the isle’s sizable garlic-growing industry. Tickets £9.50, garlic-festival.co.uk GUERNSEY INTERNATIONAL FOOD FESTIVAL

18-27 September Guernsey is aiming to put itself on the culinary map with its new festival. Events include apple pressing and cheese bowling, plus the chance to sample the island’s wonderful meat, fish and dairy products. Sessions with local culinary talents are offered, and keep an eye out, too, for ‘hedge veg’ – foraged leaves, berries and flowers. Entry free, visitguernsey.com/food-festival GREAT CORNISH FOOD FESTIVAL TRURO 25-27 September

Stargazy pie, pasties, beer and clotted cream are safe bets for this established celebration of Cornish and Scilly Isles foods. Expect 40,000 visitors, a host of exhibitors, and local seafood maestros such as Nathan Outlaw and Jack Stein – all of which packs a real foodie punch in this compact and friendly Cornish city. Entry free, greatcornishfood.co.uk sizes and heats await at West Dean blue skies over London’s Taste; sea views and bobbing boats down by the harbour on Guernsey

FOOD FOOD&& TRAVEL TRAVEL

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WEST

NORTH

BRIDPORT FOOD FESTIVAL DORSET 7-13 June

FOODIES FESTIVAL, TATTON PARK CHESHIRE 17-19 July

Bridport’s ever-popular festival aims to put producers from Dorset’s gastronomically gifted Jurassic coast centre stage. Exchange Taste Trail tokens to sample wine, cream teas and signature dishes from the area’s best. Enjoy the open farm day and take part in a food and cookery writing workshop. The best cake competition has a twist – only vegetable-based creations are allowed. Tickets £2.50, bridportfoodfestival.co.uk

Tatton Park will be toasting the 10th birthday of Foodies Festival with a new champagne theatre (and one for craft beer) – part of this year’s jam-packed menu. Join top chefs such as Glynn Purnell, Dhruv Baker and Adam Handling for a taste of Cheshire’s finest produce through masterclasses, pop-up restaurants, live demos, banquets and intriguing events like a chocolate safari. Tickets from £10, foodiesfestival.com/tatton

CHELTENHAM FOOD & DRINK FESTIVAL GLOUCESTERSHIRE 12-14 June

BOLTON FOOD & DRINK FESTIVAL GREATER MANCHESTER 28-31 August

Launched in 2008, this Cotswold fest’s 19,000 visitors flock to see the likes of the Hairy Bikers, Antonio Carluccio and Phil Vickery cook in elegant Regency gardens. This year’s highlights include bread-making with Richard Bertinet, gin distilling and a JeanChristophe Novelli demo. Live music will keep the tempo up into the evening as you get round the 200-odd fine food exhibitors. Tickets from £4, cheltenham-food-festival.garden-events.com

August Bank Holiday weekend sees more than 150,000 visitors arriving in Bolton to sample, taste, watch and enjoy Lancashire’s finest foods from over 100 food stalls. To celebrate a decade of festivals, this year covers a wider area of the city and there’s a new art and crafts trading area. A German beer keller will open on Victoria Square, with a non-alcoholic area for younger guests. Tickets £5, boltonfoodanddrinkfestival.com

THE BIG FEASTIVAL KINGHAM 28-30 August

FOOD & DRINK FESTIVAL MANCHESTER 10-21 September

Each summer, ex-Blur bassist Alex James’s idyllic farm plays host to foodies, models and celebs attending Jamie Oliver’s The Big Feastival. Expect schools led by the pros, James Lowe, Raymond Blanc and Monica Galetti, pukka street food, a wealth of local producers, cookery classes and a vintage funfair. Music from Paloma Faith and Roots Manuva are also on the menu. Day tickets from £45, jamieoliver.com/thebigfeastival

Manchester’s food scene was for years maligned, but now with a host of Michelin stars, its chefs, restaurateurs and producers are getting noticed. For 11 days this September, various venues across the city will host street-food fairs, produce markets, craft beer tastings, live music and awards nominated by locals. Fringe events include the Big Indie Wine Fest, a Liquor Market and gala dinner. Entry to main event free,foodanddrinkfestival.com

ABERGAVENNY FOOD FESTIVAL WALES 19-20 September

YORK FOOD FESTIVAL YORKSHIRE 18-27 September

Award-winning Abergavenny fest isn’t just about satisfying your palate. Food journalists such as Sheila Dillon and AA Gill chair debates on hot topics, while Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Jay Rayner and Jancis Robinson educate and entertain at talks and tastings. From just 39 exhibitors in 1999, Abergavenny now attracts over 200 independent producers, many from Wales. Tickets TBC, abergavennyfoodfestival.com

Yes, there will be parkin, Wensleydale cheese and Fat Rascals for all you traditionalists – but this Yorkshire jamboree also offers wine, Dexter beef, chilli jam and more. Why not join the Ale Trail – basically a pub crawl of York’s Real Ale pubs – or Taste Trail of independent food retailers? Start at one, and make your way through to the end with all manner of sustenance to try en route. Entry to main event free, yorkfoodfestival.com

Clockwise from top left: West Dean; food stall; Manchester eats; Chichester Taco Truck; stars Alex James and Jamie Oliver; Big Feastival

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Padstow Seafood School Our award winning cookery courses offer the perfect balance of demonstrations by our chefs and hands-on cooking as well as plenty of time to enjoy the fruits of your labour whilst overlooking the camel estuary. Prices start at £35, choose from: - Tasting evenings - One dish workshops - Half day courses - One day courses - Children’s cookery - Skill workshops - Cook your own dinner evenings - Two day courses - Four day courses - Cookery breaks from £248 www.rickstein.com 01841 532700 Padstow | Cornwall @PWSeafoodSchool

A weekend to savour Jersey bursts with places to enjoy a superb meal or a perfect pint. Michelin-starred places, where the oysters are so fresh, you can still taste the sea. Coastal places, where gastropubs and trendy cafés serve crab sandwiches so full, you’ll need the miles of breathtaking beaches to walk them off! Country places deep in the island’s lush interior, where cosy inns serving fresh-from-the-field produce are tucked away. And stylish places where, after a day exploring, you can simply relax and enjoy a soothing spa treatment. Add a mild climate, easy travel by air or sea from the UK and great-value offers, and you’ve discovered Jersey.

jersey.com

CAYMAN BRAC LITTLE CAYMAN GRAND CAYMAN

3 of life’s little luxuries

ca ymanislands.co.uk

There’s more than one type of seahorse in the Cayman Islands.

CITY BREAKS

HOURS

48

Baku

Travel time 5.5 hours

Salisbury

Seville

Travel time 1.5 hours

Travel time 3 hours

With the inaugural European Games coming to Baku this month, the capital of Azerbaijan will be looking its glitzy best as the eyes of the world focus in. Medieval buildings and archaic donkey pumps sit next to a sprawling array of skyscrapers, in this Central Asian metropolis. It’s not forgotten its culinary heritage, with lamb featuring on every menu, jewelled with a cornucopia of dried fruits and nuts, served with fresh-from-the-oven flatbreads. Then to Salisbury, famed for its soaring cathedral, Wiltshire ham, cheeses and the – as gluttonous as it sounds – lardy cake. Wander the cobbled streets and take in the farmers’ market, before making a pilgrimage to Stonehenge, just a short drive away. Finish the day with supper in a cosy pub restaurant and rest your head at one of its many B&Bs. Seville is of course famous for its oranges – sun-ripened, tart and ready to be sliced and preserved in marmalade. Explore the city’s Moorish roots that make it the backdrop to Game of Thrones with superb Andalucian food including delicious tapas, some of the best jamón in the country and plenty of fino. Best served chilled and drunk on a sunny terrace. FOOD & TRAVEL

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Clockwise, from top left: the Old City; Flame Towers forms a backdrop; baking bread; Heydar Aliyev Center; carpets for sale; a shaded retreat; Nizami Street; Palace of Shirvanshahs; Carpet Museum; bounty of souvenirs; the Fairmont’s sculpted outdoor pool

CITY BREAKS

BAKU

Futuristic skyscrapers, medieval ramparts and swanky sky bars – Azerbaijan’s capital serves up a slice of the old world with a liberal dose of the new, says Sarah Reid Why go? Most widely known for its oil wealth (not to mention

Where to stay The Fairmont Baku, 00 994 12 565 4848,

hosting the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest), Azerbaijan’s capital has been busy preparing for its biggest moment in the spotlight when it stages the first ever European Games, baku2015.com, in June. Because of a recent 30 per cent devaluation of the local currency taking the sting out of hotel rates, there’s never been a better time to get a taste of Eurasia’s epicentre of glitz. What to do Although somewhat over-enthusiastically restored, the compact Old City still has plenty of charm. Get your bearings from the rooftop of the 12th-century Maiden Tower, Baku’s foremost architectural icon, before haggling for an exquisite Azerbaijani carpet in one of the dozen-odd emporiums near its base. The walled city’s warren of twisting alleys leads to the Palace of the Shirvanshahs. The seat of Azerbaijan’s ruling dynasty during the Middle Ages, this stunning sandstone complex is now a museum. Just beyond the Old City on the Caspian side, the new rug-shaped Carpet Museum, 00 994 12 497 2057, azcarpetmuseum.az, is impossible to miss – and on a sunny day, the wide seafront bulvar (boulevard) hugging the shoreline on its doorstep is a lovely spot for a stroll. Baku has a burgeoning art scene and the Jean Nouvel-designed Museum of Modern Art, 00 994 12 490 8404, mim.az, houses some of its best contemporary works. A short taxi ride from here on the edge of the new city, the fluid white mass of the Zaha Hadid-designed Heydar Aliyev Center, heydaraliyevcenter.az, is testament to Baku’s radical departure from its legacy of normative Soviet modernism. The big draw is the structure itself, but the high-tech permanent museum inside has plenty on Azerbaijan’s turbulent history. If you’ve got time, sign up for a day trip to the ancient petroglyphs of Gobustan, about 60km south-west of Baku. En route, you’ll glimpse what’s left of the swathe of creaking donkey pumps that set the scene for Brosnan-era James Bond caper The World is Not Enough, a film title one could argue is now an apt motto for Baku itself.

fairmontbaku.com/baku, in the iconic Flame Towers perched above the Old City, has Baku’s finest spa. Also opened in the past few years, the JW Marriott Absheron, 00 994 12 499 8888, marriott.com, in Port Baku, wins points for its restaurants (Fireworks Urban Kitchen serves Baku’s best steak) and 21st-floor gym. The Shah Palace, 00 994 12 497 0405, eng.shahpalacehotel. com, fits the bill for classic Azeri luxury. Where to eat and drink Fuel up with the delicious local cheeses and dried fruits that feature on hotel breakfast buffets, or head to hip Bisque Cafe, 00 994 12 598 9995, bisquecafe.az, for a Mediterranean-style brunch. For lunch, try a few local favourites: such as lyula (lamb or mutton skewer served with lavash bread), plov (Azeri-style pilaf), qovurma (lamb stewed with onions and pomegranate) and saj ichi (meat and vegetables cooked in a cast-iron pot). Find them at kitsch-fabulous Baku institution Firuza, 00 994 12 318 6545, or the more upmarket, caravanseraistyle Mugham Club, 00 994 12 492 4085. Azeris are mad for tea at any time of the day; you can find chaikhanas (teahouses) everywhere, but the Fairmont Baku’s Nur Lounge does a splendid afternoon tea with all the trimmings. If you haven’t had your fill of local fare, head to swish Sumakh, 00 994 12 480 2112, for dinner, or go pan-Asian at Chinar, 00 994 12 404 8211, chinar-dining.com, washed down with a cocktail at eclectic new bar-of-the-moment Pivnaya Apteka, 00 994 12 404 8218. Get a glass of quaffable locally produced Fireland Vineyards wine at the Landmark Hotel’s Sky Bar, 00 994 12 465 2000, thelandmarkhotel.az, which makes up for its ho-hum design with fabulous views from a roof terrace. Time running out? Swing by Bir Iki, just off Fountain Square, for an excellent takeaway doner kebab for the equivalent of £2. Trip tip Where oil comes cheap, so do the taxi fares. More convenient still, the city’s fleet of purple London cabs use meters. Great if you don’t want to get ‘taken for a ride’.

Travel information Resources Azerbaijan Travel is a handy port of call, with visa information

and a good introduction to national cuisine. azerbaijan.travel/en

Getting there

Further reading

British Airways flies direct from London Heathrow to Heydar

Ali and Nino by Kurban Said (Vintage, £8.99). This poignant novel

Aliyev International Airport. ba.com

charts a First World War-era romance between an Azerbaijani boy and a Georgian girl. It is currently being adapted for the silver screen by Bafta-winning British filmmaker Asif Kapadia.

Azerbaijan Railways operates local and international trains,

and provides a regular service to Moscow. AVERAGE DAILY TEMPERATURES AND RAINFALL Min ºC Max ºC mm 94

FOOD & TRAVEL

Jan 2 6 1

Feb 2 6 1

Mar 4 9 1

Apr 8 17 1

May 14 22 1

Jun 19 28 0

Jul 22 30 1

Aug 22 29 0

Sep 19 26 1

Oct 13 19 1

Nov 8 13 1

Dec 4 9 1

Photos by Carl Pendle; Sarah Reid; Methup Yücel

Currency is the Azerbaijani manat. Time is four hours ahead of GMT. Travel time is about 5 hours 30 minutes from London. The cost to carbon-offset is £8.28, visit climatecare.org

Clockwise, from top left: elegant Howard’s House Hotel, perfect for afternoon tea; one of Wiltshire’s white horses; the cathedral; a gothic arch and 14th-century Poultry Cross; Stonehenge; Wilton House; Charter Market; the UK’s tallest spire; food with a view at the 17th-century Howard’s House Hotel

CITY BREAKS

SALISBURY Why go? This year is the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta,

and Salisbury Cathedral has unveiled a new exhibition all about the famous document. Of the four original charters remaining, Salisbury’s is by far the best preserved. It’s a must see. What to do Beyond the Tolkein-esque interior of the octagonal Chapter House, where Magna Carta is displayed, Salisbury Cathedral, salisburycathedral.org.uk, has plenty more to offer. The tallest spire in the UK deserves to be seen first hand – take a tour of this vertigo-inducing feat of medieval engineering. It also boasts the country’s largest cathedral close, a 32ha area of encircled gardens and other buildings. These are also worth visiting if you have time. Mompesson House is an immaculately preserved 18th-century Queen Anne townhouse, nationaltrust. org.uk, complete with all the period trimmings and a stunning walled garden. The Rifles Museum, thewardrobe.org.uk, houses a collection of war memorabilia relating to the history of the Infantry Regiments of Berkshire and Wiltshire. And the awardwinning Salisbury Museum’s archives, salisburymuseum.org.uk, are about the history, archeology and art of local areas including Old Sarum (an Iron Age hill fort thought to be the original site of modern-day Salisbury), Stonehenge and medieval Salisbury. However, if you want to get up closer, you can hop on the daily tour bus, thestonehengetour.info, which will pick you up from the railway station and drop you within touching distance of both Stonehenge – just 14km away – and Old Sarum. On Tuesdays and Saturdays, the central Market Place is a hive of activity as the Charter Market goes into full swing. With over 100 stalls, it is one of the largest open-air affairs in the south of England, though it’s the farmers’ market stalls, signified by blue and white awnings, that are the real draw. Where to stay The Pembroke Arms Hotel, 01722 743328, pembrokearms.co.uk, is a small, family-run boutique hotel and restaurant on the grounds of the 5,700ha Wilton House estate. The nine rooms are richly decorated with floral wallpapers, generously

blanketed beds and antique-style furniture. In the restaurant, a gastropub menu offers well-executed crowd pleasers like grilled cod with a cheesy herb crust, and a refreshing semifreddo lemon sherbet mousse cake. Although Howard’s House Hotel, 01722 716392, howardshousehotel.co.uk, is a little way out of town, it’s worth the extra effort. Set within earshot of a stream in the pretty village of Teffont Evias, this 17th-century stone building houses ten comfortable rooms, and a restaurant headed by acclaimed chef Nick Wentworth. Also on the outskirts of Salisbury, Brook House, 01722 718242, brookhousesalisbury.com, is a two-bedroom B&B in a Georgian cottage. The breakfasts, made with local produce, are best enjoyed on the river terrace. Where to eat and drink Charter 1227, 01722 333118, charter1227.co.uk, run by chef Danny Bozic, occupies prime real estate in Salisbury’s centre. British and European influences come together in an elegant menu of dishes such as guinea fowl with sweet potato fondant, smoked bacon, corn purée and mushroom velouté, or goat’s cheese with honey panko crust, pickled beetroot and blackberry essence. Situated in a redbrick Victorian mill, Fisherton Mill, 01722 500200, fishertonmill.co.uk, is a cute combination of café and art gallery. While the café offers a daily changing menu of sandwiches, cakes and soups, the gallery showcases the work of local and up-and-coming artists. And if you need a quick food stop while exploring, Henderson’s Artisan Bakery and Café, 01722 341717, can keep you satisfied with a still-warm hot cross bun or slice of rhubarb tart and a coffee. Time running out? With chandeliers and topiary hedges to rival Downton Abbey, 16th-century Wilton House, wiltonhouse.co.uk, is perfect for a stroll outdoors and is so huge you could easily find yourself getting lost in its endless wings. Be sure to admire the paintings by the likes of Rembrandt and Pieter Brueghel. Trip tip Wiltshire is famous for its pork products. Look out for Wiltshire and Bradenham ham, bacon fraise (fried, then covered in an egg batter and baked) and the local sweet fancy, lardy cake.

Travel information Getting there National Express runs a regular service from London Victoria to Salisbury, taking 3 hours. nationalexpress.com South West Trains will get you to Salisbury from London Waterloo in 1 hour 30 minutes. southwesttrains.co.uk

Resources Visit Wiltshire The tourist board has detailed information on

travel, what to see and events, with ideas for exploring the city and wider county. visitwiltshire.co.uk Further reading Magna Carta (Penguin Classics, £10.99). This accessible version, translated by Professor David Carpenter, includes excellent commentary on the momentous declaration.

AVERAGE DAILY TEMPERATURES AND RAINFALL Min ºC Max ºC mm 96

FOOD & TRAVEL

Jan 2 8 2

Feb 1 8 1

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Apr 4 13 2

May 7 17 2

Jun 10 20 2

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Sep 10 19 1

Oct 7 15 3

Nov 4 11 3

Dec 2 8 4

Photos by Maerin Brent; David Noton; Stephen Spraggon; Howard’s House Hotel; Wilton House; visitwiltshire.co.uk

Charming medieval architecture, Wiltshire ham and idyllic countryside nearby all make this market city – with its soaring cathedral – worthy of a pilgrimage, says Alex Allen

Clockwise, from top left: typical tapas bar; intricate local azulejo; inside the Alcázar palace; a palatial arch; an advert on tiles; take a horse-drawn carriage; Plaza de España; plate of churros; typically decorated old door; the eponymous orange; vibrant design; fino sherry

CITY BREAKS

SEVILLE

Fountain-filled courtyards, a rich history and some of the country’s best tapas are to be found in Andalucia’s sun-soaked capital, ‘the frying pan’ of Spain, says Renate Ruge Why go? To eat, drink, dance and make merry, as well as sample

Seville’s famous bitter-sweet export: marmalade. Juicy oranges ripe for the picking hang from trees – 30,000 of them at the last count – all over this pretty southern Spanish city. It is also home to many a fiesta and religious festival as well as the flamboyant dance that is the fiery flamenco. What to do Start by entering the Alcázar palace gardens, where you will find a lush green space with an orange grove, palm trees and doves, and stately peacocks strutting around the fountains, patios and water features of the 16th-century Jardin de las Damas (Ladies’ Garden). Built in the 1300s, the Alcázar palace itself, alcazarsevilla.org, is one of Seville’s architectural high points, so much so that Unesco made both palace and gardens a World Heritage Site in 1987. The palace still stages royal weddings and is home to King Juan Carlos I when the monarch is in town. Its Moorish archways also play host to many TV and film sets, including Game of Thrones. In fact, the city abounds with green spaces. Take a siesta in the largest one, Parque de Maria Luisa; with its boulevards and duck ponds, it provides a pleasant escape from the noise of the city, curving around the grand Plaza de España. Built for the 1929 Exposición Iberoamericana, this plaza is gaudily grandiose, with tiled alcoves that feature maps and historic scenes of every Spanish province. You can hire a rowing boat to take a ride around its mini-canals for just a handful of euros. Next, head to Seville’s majestic cathedral, on the site of the great 12th-century Almohad mosque, with the original minaret, Giralda, towering beside it. As the sun sets, photo opportunities can be found at the city’s newest viewpoint, the Metropol Parasol, setasdesevilla.com, a frilly wooden structure towering over Plaza de la Encarnación. Since completion in 2011, it has been nicknamed Las Setas (‘Mushrooms’) by locals. Where to stay Find fine food, wine and shelter at the very reasonably priced Hotel Fontecruz Sevilla, 00 95 497 9009,

fontecruz.com, a former palace in a fantastic location that makes a great base from which to get around the historic centre on foot. Rooms are stylish, with black-tiled bathrooms. For a palatial retreat, a silk-wallpapered room at Alfonso XIII, 00 34 95 4917000, starwoodhotels.com, is a grand option. Housed in a neo-Moorish mansion commissioned by its namesake king in the 1920s, the Alfonso has a lovely garden pool and art deco American Bar, former haunt of Ernest Hemingway and Eva Perón. Where to eat and drink Walk along the cobbled streets and you’ll stumble across many unassuming tapas bars with huge hams hanging from the ceiling. Sip a glass of chilled sherry with slices of delicious jamón ibérico. Still going strong, Andalucia’s oldest, El Rinconcillo Bar, 00 34 95 422 3183, en.elrinconcillo.es, has been serving up small plates since 1670. Try cod in tangy tomato sauce, mackerel marinated in spiced oil and spinach with chickpeas. A must-visit is the fashionable Mercado Lonja del Barranco on Calle Arjona, mercadolonjadelbarranco.com, built as a 19th-century market but now housing a food hall with chandeliers and stalls serving prawns, oysters, chilli octopus and Padrón peppers. Grab a selection and find a shady spot for a snack under the umbrellas on the riverside. Or enjoy a leisurely lunch at Oriza Restaurant on Calle San Fernando, 00 34 954 227 254, restauranteoriza. com, eaten alfresco on a leafy street. Try buttered baby squid, fried calamari with wakame alioli or bull’s tail with sweet and sour wine jus. Finish the day with sundowners at department store El Corte Ingles, elcorteingles.eu, which has an outdoor champagne bar offering views across the entire city. Time running out? Take an operatic walking tour, Seville, Opera City, sevillaesopera.es, to see the many settings that inspired Verdi, Donizetti, Beethoven, Bizet and Mozart. Trip tip Float down the Guadalquivir river on a boat trip and be sure to hop off at the lively Triana district, where you can discover the Triana Ceramic Centre and lots of riverside cafés.

Travel information Currency is the euro. Seville is one hour ahead of the UK. Flight time is about 2 hours 45 minutes from London. Cost to carbon offset for this flight is £2.68, visit climatecare.org

Resources Seville Tourist Board has useful itineraries for stays of up to five days or more, plus a guide to gastronomic highlights, cycle tours and the lowdown on flamenco hotspots. visitasevilla.es

Further reading Ernest Hemingway set two iconic novels in Spain: Death in the Afternoon (Pocket Books, £5.50), about bullfighting, and Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises (Arrow Classic, £5.59).

British Airways has a new service, five days per week, from

London Gatwick. ba.com Iberia offers daily flights from London Heathrow, some via Madrid. iberia.com AVERAGE DAILY TEMPERATURES AND RAINFALL Min ºC Max ºC mm 98

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Photos by Peter Cassidy; Renate Ruge

Getting there

COMPETITION

WIN A SLOW FOOD TOUR OF

PUGLIA

FOR TWO WITH BACK-ROADS TOURING

WORTH £3,390

uglia’s star is rising in the UK. The region, on the heel of Italy’s boot, is having its time in the sun. And that sun means temperatures in the thirties, from June to September, which creates some of the finest produce in the world. The area has a Slow Food philosophy, promoting local produce and regional cooking. There’s no better place to witness it than the shady garden of an osteria, enjoying sun-nourished antipasti drizzled with Puglia’s rich and abundant olive oil. This competition gives you the chance to soak up some latesummer sun while exploring Puglia’s lesser-known gems with Back-Roads Touring. By winning, you and a guest will eat in traditional restaurants handpicked from the Slow Food guide, learn about local specialities including cheese, Salento wine and olive oil, while being shown the region’s most breathtaking sites including the ancient town of Alberobello with its historic trulli buildings and the Castellana Caves with their stalactites. You will be flying from an airport of your choice and enjoy luxurious accommodation, with breakfast included. Expert guides will give you a unique understanding of Puglia and its cuisine.

P

THE PRIZE Two places on the Slow Food Tour of Puglia with five nights’ bed and breakfast, welcome and farewell dinners and three lunches in Slow Food restaurants. Full transport (including airport transfers and mini-coach) is arranged as are return flights from your international airport of choice. The winner and their guest will enjoy three food or wine tastings and free entrance to various attractions, including caves and an olive mill. Tour departs 8 September. If you don’t win, don’t despair – you can still buy tickets at 020 8987 0990, backroadstouring.com

HOW TO ENTER Simply answer the question below by visiting foodandtravel.com/ offers-and-competitions: What is the Italian name given to Puglia’s historic conical buildings?

The winner must be 18 or over, and the trip is subject to availability. Full terms and conditions are available at foodandtravel.com/ offers-and-competitions

Tried&Tasted

COOKERY COURSES RESTAURANTS DELIS BOOKS HOTELS

The Woodspeen Cookery School Berkshire It’s not every day that a Michelin-starred chef promises to coach you through creating the perfect dinner party. I know from personal experience that timing is key, having tried to cater for groups of friends with varying levels of success. Set in the leafy West Berkshire countryside, The Woodspeen is a converted 19th-century farm building housing a high-tech kitchen, chic restaurant and fit-to-burst allotment. The school’s owner, chef John Campbell, has spent years in the kitchen, though his love for this new project – opened late last year – is palpable. Nature dictates his menu for diners so it’s not surprising to find that the one we are preparing today comprises of the same kind of local, seasonal produce. For instance, the potatoes still have a little mud from the allotment as a testament to their freshness and – it being the time for game when we visit – the venison has a vivid red hue. Nothing comes without good planning, and the cleverly orchestrated selection of dishes have their ingredients meticulously laid-out to save us the fiddly work. ‘Everything is about the prep,’ says John, before guiding us through the art of ice cream-making. I say ‘art’, but John’s technique is explained simply. Everything here is hands on and we set about whisking our mixture into a custard, before setting in a churner for

a handy shortcut. John moves on to explain a few useful scientific facts behind food, without being overly complex; talking us through the physics of boiling points and why certain ingredients curdle. For our next task, we get to learn about the fermentation process in bread, which makes it sound far less like the dark art I’d imagined it to be – and a lot less hassle. After poking and prodding the dough in a more confident fashion than I’ve ever done before, I’m suitably impressed as the finished product emerges from the oven. After taking care of such essentials, we get creative by making a potato fondant to be served with the venison. There’s a knack to getting it into shape with a cutter and browning it in oil, then making a cartouche to keep it submerged in stock so the cooking remains even. We serve it alongside choucroute (dressed sauerkraut); the combination of pancetta, grain mustard and cabbage makes for a sharp and zingy addition to the plate. John’s ethos is one that is sure to inspire anyone who takes a class here: ‘If you start with great ingredients it’s difficult to go wrong.’ You could try your hand at Fish and Shellfish, Pastry and Desserts or Butchery too. And with a Michelin-starred chef looking over your shoulder, your little summer soiree is sure to go alright on the night. LH. £165. thewoodspeen.com

Deli of the month… Reviews by Laura Hill and Blossom Green

PULIA London Bridge Already thriving in Milan, Venice and Florence, Pulia is bursting with organic, artisan produce fresh from the Italian ingredient heartland of Puglia. Set on the periphery of Borough Market, this newly opened deli is a worthy stopping point for stocking up on quality food and drink; it’s also a super spot for breakfast to watch the area as it springs into life on a weekend. Puglian cuisine is known for its simplicity and you can find all the favourites and more in abundance: salami, burrata, and a knotted mozzarella called nodino lie behind the counter. Add olives, fresh salad and focaccia and you can practically feel the sun beating on your back. The wine, from selected Puglian producers, only adds to the effect. Saunter between savoury bites like

taralli caserecci (mini crispy bagels) to a range of local olive oils – the orange-infused option is rather special. A cornucopia of sauces festoon the walls, the pick being spicy peperone piccante, a perfect foil for the region’s trademark orecchiette pasta. Home bakers should try cristalli di limoncello (similar to crystalised ginger) to add a citrus pep to cakes. Pasticciotto, Puglia’s answer to the Portuguese custard tart, is not to be missed. You eat surrounded by the produce, where even the interiors are authentic of region. Whitewashed walls in local stone and stripped-back Puglia-crafted furniture give a rustic sense of place. A large pumo, a flower bud offered as a lucky charm in Puglia, invites you to touch it for good fortune before you leave. BG. pulia.it

Left to right: pad Thai at Rosa’s Thai Cafe; interior of the Angel branch; Smoking Goat is a meaty, sticky, hands-on affair; Mango Tree in London’s Belgravia

Restaurants This month, we sample Mayfair haunts old and new, feel the heat on a Thai tour of the capital, then head abroad to a fantastic French lake for local fish and cool-blue views

May Fair Kitchen Mayfair

alk across the marble-slathered lobby of The May Fair hotel and you could head for the ostentatious bar, or instead turn left to seek out the cooler hues of this classic dining space. Yes, this is a starched white linen kind of place, but the energy and offering is far from stuffy, and a welcoming warmth comes across from the staff. A glass of vintage Moët to complement oysters whets the appetite while you decide on the main event. Ingredients here are sourced directly from their producers and are showcased on open kitchen counters; their provenance proudly recounted by waiters at a given moment. Simple, fresh dishes include seared salt-coated tuna from the Maldives, or quail’s egg and blue cheese ravioli. Even the heartiest of dishes fired on the grill have a certain cleanness to them; a choice of ‘pig textures’ – four different cuts of pork accompanied by a watercress salad – allows the flavours of the meat to shine, and was considerably lighter than anticipated. For dessert, the clementine cake is a must. BG. 020 7915 3892, mayfairkitchen.co.uk

Three for Thai

102

Rosa’s Thai Cafe Islington

Mango Tree Belgravia

Smoking Goat Soho

Starting out as a street stall on Brick Lane in 2008, husband and wife team Saiphin and Alex Moore now have six Rosa’s spread across London. The newest, off Upper Street in Angel, is a welcome addition to the lively neighbourhood. A round of cocktails whipped up at the bar and served at a table in one of cosy booths paves the way for a convivial meal with mates or an informal dinner date. Thai favourites like tom yam soup stand up to scrutiny, while specials, Thai calamari with plum sauce, pomelo salad with minced prawns and tofu and aromatic pumpkin red curry, are all conversation-starters. HR. 020 3393 2482, rosasthaicafe.com

For authenticity, look no further. This institution of over 10 years is led by Asian food expert Ian Pengelley, who, after extensive travels in Thailand, balances its punchy spice to perfection. The stylish interior has a feng shui design and serves as a fitting atmosphere for the carefully presented plates. Tuck into the likes of grilled sea bass wrapped in banana leaf with fresh lemongrass and a spiced lime sauce (pla pow), or green prawn curry with Thai aubergine and sweet basil (gaeng kiew wan). The famous tom yum gai, a hot and sour soup with chicken and shimeji mushrooms is not to be missed. BG. 020 7823 1888, mangotree.org.uk

Some food is worth getting mucky for. Charcoal under your fingernails kind of mucky. Once you’ve torn apart the fish sauce chicken wings and licked every last sticky drop of the glaze from your hands, you’ll understand. Smoking Goat is tiny, in typical Soho style, with little more than a handful of tables, making full use of the horseshoe bar and its 12 seats. Alongside chicken, order the whole crab in coconut milk and lamb ribs, fresh off the charcoal grill and smoky enough to wake up smelling of ash tomorrow morning. Again, in Soho style, there’s no reservations. It’s so cool it doesn’t even have a phone. MS. smokinggoatsoho.com

FOOD & TRAVEL

Reviews by Heidi Ruge; Blossom Green; Mark Sansom; Renate Ruge. Photos by Rob Whitrow; Paul Winch-Furness

W

Left to right: a perfect balance of flavours at Mango Tree; sleek design at renowned Clos des Sens; rhubarb dessert from The Greenhouse; its dining room; chef Arnaud Bignon

Tried&Tasted EAT

-

Global

gourmet Clos des Sens Annecy, France Overlooking the beautifully serene Lake Annecy, just outside of the town’s main thrall, Clos des Sens is set on a narrow, high-walled road that leads to the mountains. Head chef and owner Laurent Petit has been at the pass here since 1992 and while there are a number of chic guest rooms available for out-of-towners, the twoMichelin-starred restaurant is always choc-full of regulars, who greet waiters by name and provide the place with a familial vibe. On warm days, floor-to-ceiling windows pull back to extend the dining room onto a raised veranda, where lush greenery envelops leading the eye across the herb garden and beyond towards an infinity pool and the lake. It’s the perfect backdrop to a knockout meal. Well-balanced dishes are punctuated with hits of green from the start with parmesan-crusted asparagus tart and seared foie gras with a potent tarragon sauce leading the appetisers. Tender veal cheeks sit in verdant swirls of crushed peas and morels. For dessert, a crisp sugar ‘snowball’ of passion fruit and coffee mousse confirms just how special this restaurant really is. BG. 00 33 4 50 23 07 90, closdessens.com

Timeless classics The Greenhouse London A calm and hidden French restaurant proves Mayfair can still be full of surprises, says Renate Ruge This is one very nice garden path to be led down. The warmly lit treelined lane goes through a ‘secret’ garden in the heart of old Mayfair, luring regulars away from the hustle and bustle of Piccadilly to the calming entrance of The Greenhouse, an oasis where chef Arnaud Bignon cooks sublime dishes that have notched up two Michelin stars. Enter into a zen-like atmosphere of quiet confidence – probably because the restaurant has been going for over 35 years, opening in 1977 and seemingly oblivious to fly-by-night competitors that come and go just a few miles away. It feels cosy inside this softly lit space and the interior scheme features comfortable lime-green banquettes and murals made of twigs. Tucked away is the private dining room, where ivy engravings climb wildly on the walls. A Drappier champagne aperitif is accompanied by canapés including tiny fennel and avocado savoury macarons that are simply exquisite. For starters, a large white stone plate with a pretty ensemble of Orkney scallops arranged in a shell-like swirl are dotted with dill purée, while tiny rolls of cucumber come with a refreshing cold yoghurt sorbet, scattered with edible flowers. Across the table my dinner date opts for the more decadent foie gras dish, tasting as delicious as it looked with flavour combinations of tangy orange, a hint of Indian spice with cardamom and a sprinkling of chocolate ash. Wines are chosen from a 3,000-strong list. A sophisticated Burgundy selected by sommelier Marc Piquet goes perfectly with the main of plump, pink Welsh lamb chops from Rhug Estate, which are given a clever if unexpected Japanese twist accompanied by nori, black garlic and a light yoghurt foam. A Guanaja chocolate and praline, lemon and finger lime dessert has been painstakingly executed. The fluffy chocolate mousse-style concoction is decorated with flowers that grow out of the pot on a green wire. It’s elegance on a plate, and as delicate as those same petals out in the garden. Not to be outdone, the mandarin and hazelnut dessert features a curl of chestnut paste and looks suspiciously like an exotic insect. With its Mayfair prices, it may not make for a cheap date but it’s worth it, especially when you are playing for keeps. RR. 020 7499 3331, greenhouserestaurant.co.uk FOOD & TRAVEL

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LOMBARD LIVING PRINCIPE DI SAVOIA, MILAN In the heart of ever-stylish Milan, flanked by magnolia-laden streets and residing proudly over Piazza della Repubblica, the Principe di Savoia blends elegant 19th-century Lombard design with a warmth that feels more like a boutique hotel. Just 20 minutes from Linate airport, it’s well-located, and has a rather decadent limo service that whizzes guests to and from the city’s hotspots, complimentary to all residents. Open since 1927, the hotel was used as a wartime German headquarters, before being commandeered by the Americans after the Second World War. It has 257 rooms and 44 suites spread across ten floors, all designed with comfort as well as style in mind. Grand chandeliers and original 1920s Italian furniture from the first incarnation add character to guest rooms that wear rich textiles and house gigantic beds. Say ciao, bella! to lavish marble bathrooms with handmade mosaics and then buona notte with Acqua di Parma toiletries and Egyptian-cotton sheets. The sizable

suites feature hand-painted frescoes and separate seating areas, while the Presidential Suite wows with its own Romanesque bath. Renowned for hosting regal guests (Principe di Savoia is a term used to refer to the Italian royals), high society, and the literati, be sure to spend some time people-watching over an aperitif at Principe Bar or Il Salotto lobby lounge, before dining in Fabrizio Cadei’s Acanto Restaurant, where langoustine tagliatelle and suckling pig are standout dishes. A massage in the rooftop spa, Club 10, is an absolute must. BG. Doubles from £255, dorchestercollection.com

Places This month, we look up an exclusive address visit stylish pads in the Lake District and the

To walk into the newly refurbished Belsfield Hotel perched above Lake Windermere is to step into the pages of a glossy homes magazine. It has been rebranded as the second Laura Ashley hotel in the UK and the lust-worthy interiors blend perfectly with the Georgian property built in 1845, with its high ceilings, ornate cornicing and wooden shuttered sash windows. Sink into comfy velvet love seats in the library to watch birds swoop over the still waters of the lake over a spot of afternoon tea. For dinner, the brasserie serves decent nibbles like black pea hummus and potted mackerel and black pudding bon bons, as well as the requisite steaks and hot pots. Alternatively, an old fashioned lift takes you to dinner in a more formal setting, the

stunning dining room (pictured). A fivecourse tasting menu is a Cumbrian culinary celebration of local produce starting with white onion velouté or oak smoked salmon with pea shoots. A very tasty roast duck dish, served with a marmalade jus and crispy potato rosti, comes recommended, while white chocolate pana cotta and strawberries is the star for dessert; not too sickly with just the right amount of acidity from the berries to cleanse the palate. You couldn’t ask more of the location. For an afternoon sojourn, Bowness town is just steps away, as are the jetties to the piers where steamers depart on Lakeland cruises to Ambleside and back in a day for the full Lake District experience. RR. Doubles from £150. lauraashleyhotels.com

Reviews by Blossom Green; Alex Mead; Mark Sansom; Gregor Rankin; Renate Ruge

Beauty on the inside BELSFIELD HOTEL, LAKE DISTRICT

Tried&Tasted SLEEP

Israeli innovator Norman Hotel, Tel Aviv A rooftop infinity pool atop this modernist building laced with renaissance influence offers some of the best views of Tel Aviv. If this new boutique offering to the Israeli hotel scene had nothing else, it would be worth visiting for the pool alone. Throw in some 1920s elegance, dining that goes from the classically simple to the deliciously exciting and you begin to see why the hotel has become such a hit so soon after opening. The light airy ‘classic’ (entry level) rooms are beautifully understated and offer all the essentials, but the hotel really comes into its own in the communal areas, bar and restaurant. Sample a fine apertif at the 1940s colonial style Library Bar before dinner at The Norman Restaurant, with a French Mediterranean menu and a beautiful secluded garden in which to eat. Take the traditional afternoon tea: as colloquially colonial as the room you take it in, with a mixed flavour profile to boot. AM. Doubles from £265. thenorman.com

to stay in Milan, jet into Tel Aviv for sky-high views, Cotswolds then get über trendy in Berlin

Mitte magic GORKI APARTMENTS, BERLIN Set in the north of Mitte, in an area of east Berlin being rapidly gentrified, Gorki Apartments provides a quiet oasis set around a private triangular courtyard. Rooms each offer a different style of living and range in size from 33 sq m for two, through to two expansive penthouses. The turn-of-the-century building comes with high ceilings and a modern loft-style meets four-poster opulence. Without the fuss of a hotel, rates are kept pleasingly low – though staff can stock up your well-equipped kitchen with goodies before you arrive. A welcome touch. GR. From £83. gorkiapartments.de

GOURMET BOLTHOLE The Kingham Plough Oxfordshire Long on the radar of Cotswold diners in the know, The Kingham Plough is fast gaining status as one of the best restaurants with rooms in the UK. Chef Emily Watkins and husband Miles Lampson took the property in 2007 and focused on the food. Her cooking brought accolades by the stockpot-full, zenithed by winning the BBC’s Great British Menu last year. This time of year, the Evesham asparagus tart eats fantastically, while the duck Wellington is a tender take on the classic. The seven bedrooms are cosy but beautifully styled and after three meals in the restaurant, you’ll be plotting a visit back. MS. Doubles from £145, thekinghamplough.co.uk

OFFERS

Reader This month, get your kids cooking in the Cotswolds, go for luxury with a gourmet urban retreat and be inspired by our top recipe picks

offers BOOKS

FREE KIDS’ COOKERY CLASSES For a weekend to remember, inspire your little ones with a trip to Lucknam Park. This stately home is set in glorious Cotswolds gardens near Bath, and is offering readers a luxurious double room for just £290, including breakfast and spa facilities. Book together with a half-day Adult and Child cookery class, and your child can learn for free. You’ll both get stuck in under the eye of a trained chef, emerging with new skills and an abundance of goodies. Quote ‘Food&Travel’ before 30 November. lucknampark.co.uk

FREE LUXURY SUITE UPGRADE Enjoy a gastronomic two-night stay for two with breakfast both mornings, one dinner and one champagne afternoon tea at London’s St Ermin’s Hotel. Set behind a courtyard next to St James’s Park, it features Adam Handling at Caxton. Sample the top chef’s ten-course tasting menu with paired wines, and dishes like ashed beef rump with burnt artichoke and salmon with fennel pollen. From £850 per couple (quote offer for your free Luxury Suite upgrade). sterminshotel.co.uk

20 15

R AWEA ARDE D R S

Warm up to spring

ISTANBUL Minarets and meze

Fresh season, new flavours

Cape crusade Foraging in South Africa

Chinese

Fortune & flavour

Pitch perfect

Paella

Rachel Khoo’s

culinary adventure

New world

WINES

New Orleans BBQ, blues and beer APRIL 2015

Easter

£4.40

Cheesecake

Majorca & Menorca

Gourmet travelling in the Med

ESCAPES LONG HAUL FOR LESS Wolfgang Puck

Places to stay

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Light-hearted Making Bread Together (Ryland Peters & Small) is ideal for little bakers with step-by-step photographs and fun projects – ‘treating sourdough like a pet’ is our favourite. Get yours for £11.99 (RRP £16.99) by calling 01256 302699 with code ‘GLR 9NI’. Anne-Sophie Pic is the First Lady of French cuisine with three Michelin stars and a leading cookery school. Scook (Jacqui Small) features more than 100 versatile recipes, from French classics to family favourites. To grab a copy for just £35 (RRP £40) with free p&p, call 01903 828503 quoting ‘APG312’. Clodagh’s Irish Kitchen (Kyle Books) offers a modern twist on traditional comfort food, demonstrating the extent to which Ireland’s culinary scene has developed in recent years. Think nettle gnocchi and beef and Guinness pie thickened with chocolate. Only £15.99 (RRP £19.99) online. kylebooks.com A keen diver and former MasterChef winner, chef Mat Follas celebrates fish and seafood in this, his first book (Ryland Peters & Small). It includes raw, smoked and grilled dishes among its varied range and includes timeless tips. Pick up a copy for £13.99 (RRP £19.99) by calling 01256 302699 with code ‘GLR CN1’. Nicola Graimes’ The Salad Bowl (Ryland Peters & Small) is a must-have for healthconscious foodies. Recipes range from shellfish with home-sprouted seeds to tangy Asian flavours such as yuzu duck, perfect for summer suppers. It’s £10.99 (RRP 14.99), when you call 01256 302699, quoting code ‘GLR CM9’.

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Tried&Tasted DRINK

wine

To identify a wine’s character, you have to consider terroir – how soil, grape and grower influence what ends up in the bottle, says Adam Lechmere

The

When you see a wine described as being ‘terroir-driven’, do you ever wonder what that means exactly? It’s a ‘much-discussed term for the total natural environment of any vineyard site’, according to a favourite source, The Oxford Companion to Wine. There is another definition that Warren Winiarski, one of the founding fathers of modern Californian wine, is fond of: ‘The Three Gs: the grape, the ground and the guy (or gal).’ Because the winemaker, many argue, is as important to terroir as the topography, climate, geology and hydrology (how water behaves in the soil). Terroir at first appears perfectly simple: it’s the effect all those things listed above have on the vine. The terroir of Ribeira Sacra in Galicia includes hillsides of slate so steep the pickers hang onto ropes; it includes sodden winters and scorching summers. The terroir of the Atacama Desert in northern Chile means no rain at all – the vines are hydrated only by the mists that roll in off the Pacific. The terroir of the vineyards on the island of Mazzorbo in the Venice Lagoon includes acqua alta (high

Five great

tide), adding salt water to the mix. The best wines from each of these regions have ‘typicity’ – that Holy Grail of the winemaker, something in the wine that says it can come only from that place and nowhere else. Think of garigue (the Mediterranean’s shrubby vegetation), a combination of sunblasted earth, juniper, sage and pine resin that imbues the wines of Provence. ‘Ahh, it tastes of mountains,’ one of my colleagues said of the lovely Petite Arvine I’ve recommended below. It’s a wonderful quality. I’ve chosen these five as they’re all emblematic of a particular terroir. But, of course, all wine is ‘made’ – a great winemaker manipulates grapes to interpret the essence of the land. They will always insist they do nothing. ‘I just try not to bugger up good fruit,’ the Australian virtuoso John Duval of Penfolds once told me. But, from pruning methods to barrel size, making wine requires an endless series of decisions, each one of which will affect the end result. A few years ago in New Zealand, ten veteran winemakers were each given a parcel of riesling from the same

column ‘From pruning methods to barrel size, making wine requires an endless series of decisions’

vineyard, and told to make wine. All were fascinatingly different. Some were sweet, some drier, some aged on lees and some not; textures were varied, fruit characteristics ran the spectrum of tropical to citrus, and so on. But the grapes themselves originated from the same vineyard. Notions of typicity – and, therefore, terroir – can also change. Twenty-five years ago, Priorat, that rugged corner of northeastern Spain, turned out mighty reds aged in new oak – inkyblack monsters that took a dozen years to soften. Now Sara Pérez, the daughter of a pioneer of the region, uses amphorae instead of barrels at Mas Martinet and Venus vineyards. The terroir is the same but she’s decided it’s best expressed with the gentle touch of clay rather than the sledgehammer of oak; the resulting wines are marvels of restraint. It’s like music. An orchestral piece sounds very different in the hands of different conductors, just as the way in which Pérez interprets her terroir is very different to her father’s. Terroir is everything, but only if you know what to do with it.

terroir wines

Crozes Hermitage Les Meysonniers, M Chapoutier, France 2012, £16 Raspberry leaf and potpourri aromas with hints of white pepper. Soft, full-bodied, and rich tannins. Enjoy this with spicy lamb tagine. Sainsbury’s

Petite Arvine Tradition, Domaine des Muses, Switzerland 2013, £30 Superb sweet lemon and honey offset by salinity, apricot and peach. Deceptively powerful, yet as fresh as edelweiss. Drink with cured meat and Gruyère. Wine Society

Jenkyn Place Brut, UK 2009, £24.99 A sparkling wine that’s as English as Jeeves and Wooster. Appley, hedgerow flavours, brioche dryness and lovely fizz that dances on the tongue. Serve at 11am. Waitrose Cellar

Nautilus Marlborough Pinot Noir, New Zealand 2011, £22 Intense, deep black fruit nose. Spiced, then cherry and raspberry on the palate, with truffle, earth and classic barnyard notes. Complex, dry, elegant. Good with duck. Majestic

Ontañón Ecológico Rioja, Spain 2012, £9.99 Blackberry fruit on the nose and dry, fresh tannins. A lovely, classic, characterful rioja, with restrained black fruit and hints of red cherry. Drink with rack of lamb. John Hattersley Wines FOOD & TRAVEL

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Left to right: Niyama's inοnity pool and RECIPES wooden decking complement the tropical scene

Family

V A L U E S

Shared family experiences stay with kids forever. Here’s our pick of the global bunch to help you grow as a group – having a blast as you do it

22

NIYAMA DHAALU ATOLL, MALDIVES

ANDRIAKE BEACHCLUB DEMRE, TURKEY

Introduce the family to the world of coastal sea life with a snorkeling tour guided by a marine biologist. Start by paddling out to some of the world’s most stunning coral reefs in a family canoe, before diving in and learning how the underwater ecosystem flourishes. The package includes full board, with unlimited use of the water sports facilities. The tropical paradise location with villas lapped by azure sea only adds to the effect. Family fun factor: A quality kids club is available for half-day excursions and trips, leaving afternoons free for family kayaking and catamaran sailing. THE DETAIL Scott Dunn offers seven nights from £7,715 for a family of four, B&B and flights. 020 8682 5075, scottdunn.com

Have a budding America’s Cup competitor in your ranks? Then head to Turkey, for just the right amount of wind and sea motion to learn how to sail properly. RYA dinghy or windsurfing tuition is on hand throughout the day so that families can learn new skills together. Swimming and tennis lessons with video analysis are available too. Six kids’ clubs are included and interconnecting rooms are available at no extra cost. Family fun factor: Bikes are free to hire for rides to local villages and places of interest. THE DETAIL Neilson offers seven nights from £2,716 for a family of four, full board with flights included. 0333 014 3351, neilson.co.uk

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This page, top and below: enjoy the Turkish sun and sea. Opposite, water sports and beach villa in the Maldives

PHOTOGRAPHER

activities

FOOD & TRAVEL food & travel 123 23

RECIPES

CHATEAU DES VIGIERS DORDOGNE, FRANCE Proof that a successful family holiday doesn’t have to include a beach. Replace buckets and spades with golf clubs and spend a week nurturing their swing (and yours) on the on-site course. This dreamy, 16th-century chateau with its own vineyard and spa, has two outdoor pools and plenty of space to play when you’re looking forward to enjoying some R&R. Family fun factor: If daily golf lessons sound too much like hard work, there's a labyrinthine prehistoric cave with original cave paintings nearby. THE DETAIL Powder Byrne offers seven nights, £2,760 for a family of four. 020 8246 5300, powderbyrne.com

ST NICOLAS BAY RESORT HOTEL & VILLAS CRETE, GREECE

All the activities you could want are on hand at St Nicolas Bay, with enough panache to keep even the trendiest parents happy. You get the privacy and flexibility of a villa and the facilities and practicalities of a resort. Activities are designed for all the family, with bikes of various sizes, snorkels and surfboards. Family fun factor: After a day's activities, open-air movies are screened on the restaurant's veranda with comfy bean bags to snuggle down in. THE DETAIL Seven nights in a two-bedroom bungalow with private pool from £7,620 for a family of four, with half board. 00 302 841 090 200, stnicolasbay.gr

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Left and above: on the water in Menorca; Grand Isle Resort in the tropics

GRAND ISLE RESORT & SPA EXUMA, BAHAMAS Included in your booking at a spacious villa within this smart island resort, you have a golf cart seating four to buzz about in, snorkelling equipment, ocean kayaks and surf boards. Family activities include beach volleyball, treasure hunts, kite-flying and weekly beach bonfires. Family fun factor: Adults with children aged from eight years old can take tours that include swimming with pigs and feeding iguanas. THE DETAIL Seven nights in a two-bedroom villa from £2,310, 00 242 358 5000, grandisleresort.com

MINORCA SAILING CLUB BALEARICS, SPAIN

Set on picturesque Fornells Bay, this sailing school-cum-holiday resort is up there with the best-equipped in the world, with a full range of Olympic-grade crafts from Lasers to eight-person Vareos. Daily tuition is included in the price and extra sessions are available at no extra cost for those who’ve caught the sailing bug (or who need a little extra help). When the masts come down there’s a host of activities on offer from volleyball and trapeezing for teenagers, and babysitting services too. Family fun factor: Children end their trip with myriad awards and certificates, with the week culminating in a race on their chosen craft, which parents can take part in too. THE DETAIL Seven nights from £6,650 for a family of four, including flights. 020 8948 2106, minorcasailing.co.uk

PHOTOGRAPHER

Above and left: see paddling pigs soak up the sun; or go and meet a hungry iguana

FOOD & TRAVEL food & travel 123 25

RECIPES

KINDERHOTELS HOTEL ALPENROSE TYROL, AUSTRIA

CASTIGLION DEL BOSCO TUSCANY, ITALY

Every destination in the Kinderhotels group is designed specifically for families, from the ‘no nippers, no entry’ policy to the 60 hours of childcare that are included in the room price. Nestling in the foothills of the Alps, Hotel Alpenrose is a treasure-trove of good memories waiting to happen. Pack yourself a picnic and explore the Tyrol’s wildflower meadows, ride Icelandic ponies or take part in daily acting classes. Family fun factor: As well as the on-stage drama, families can also enjoy the on-site petting zoo, goat farm, climbing wall and all manner of holistic outdoor activities. THE DETAIL Seven nights in an apartment, £2,310 for a family of four. 00 43 5673 2424, hotelalpenrose.at

Close your eyes and imagine a beautifully-restored, 800-year-old Tuscan wine estate. It will probably look like this one. Families are lavishly catered for here with activities including archery, golf, horse-riding, tennis and even Italian language classes. Over 12s can join their parents at the on-site culinary academy, where all can learn to make fresh pasta and stunning Italian desserts together. Family fun factor: Try the Tuscan Night Safari to spot wild boar by torchlight or nurture young Nostradamuses with private astronomy classes, taken in the estate's observatory. THE DETAIL Seven nights in two interconnecting rooms, £10,920 for a family of four. 00 39 0577 1913001, ccccastigliondelbosco.com

Austria photo by Tiroler Zugspitz Arena

Below, Kinderhotels has activities for the whole family to enjoy the beauty of the Austrian Tyrol

‘Families are lavishly catered for here with activities including archery, golf, horse-riding,

Above, left to right: Hotel Alpenrose; Castiglion del Bosco is one of the most luxurious destinations in Tuscany; its pool and rustic exterior 26

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Photos by National Trust/Jennie Woodcock; National Trust/Ian Shaw

Kids baking

ESTANCIA LOS POTREROS SIERRAS CHICAS, ARGENTINA

STACKPOLE ESTATE PEMBROKESHIRE

Perfect for any pony-loving clan, this is run by an AngloArgentine family, with a herd of over 80 horses at this working cattle and stud farm, catering for all abilities from beginners to experienced riders. Families can trek together through rugged hills and lowland meadows, or help the gauchos round up and care for young horses. Family fun factor: Explore the estate on horseback, help with herding the foals, or learn to lasso with a rancher. THE DETAIL In the Saddle offers seven nights from £7,715 for a family of four. 01299 272232, inthesaddle.com

Whether it’s kayaking, fishing, building bush camps or surfing, you and your family will love this National Trust-owned estate. An internationally important nature reserve, make sure to look out for otters and seabirds as you explore. Worn out? Take a relaxing picnic down to one of the nearby, beautiful beaches or admire the view at Bosherton’s vast lily pond. Family fun factor: Younger kids will love the vast outdoor play areas, while local tearooms provide some family downtime. The detail: Seven nights in a three-bedroom cottage from £650 during high season. nationaltrust.org.uk Top: the Stackpole Estate. Middle and below: Argentinean adventures

PHOTOGRAPHER

tennis and even Italian language classes. There’s an on-site culinary academy too’

FOOD & TRAVEL 123 food & travel 27 27

This page, clockwise from top left: Manta rays; up close and personal; lazy days; snorkelling for surprises. Opposite, clockwise from top left: dolphins in the Dominican; the country’s sandy beaches; Maldivian paradise

Children and animals go together like jelly and ice cream, so why not make them the

Fun with Flipper

A dip with dolphins will stay with your youngsters for life – and it takes just four hours to reach the Azores where they can swim with Atlantic, Spotted and Bottlenose dolphins. Without feeding or ‘tricks’ to attract the curious creatures, the boat trips claim a 97 per cent success rate for wild encounters. If you want to combine wildlife with tropical beach time and sunloungers, head further west to the Caribbean’s Dominican Republic, where kids can swim with trained dolphins in a ringfenced dolphinarium at Punta Cana. An hour’s Royal Swim includes a memorable dorsal tow and foot push. THE DETAIL Thomas Cook is offering seven five-star, all-inclusive nights in the Dominican Republic from £1,029pp, including flights. 01733 224800, thomascook.com; The Royal Swim costs £67 for children, £120 for adults, dolphindiscovery.com; for the Azores, consult Sunvil, 020 8568 4499, sunvil.co.uk

focus of your holiday? Jo Gardner finds out more

The sight of a Manta ray slowly unfurling its wings like subaqua sails carries a family silence guarantee – particularly in the Maldives from May to November. The most famous hotspot is the deserted island lagoon of Hanifaru, where hundreds gather to feed. Want to mix in Darwinian biology lessons? Try the Galapagos Islands, whose nutrient-rich waters contain over 2,900 marine species. THE DETAIL Scott Dunn offers seven nights including breakfast at the Maldives’ Anantara Dhigu from £6,360 for a family of four, including flights, speedboat transfers and an introductory dive. 020 3603 5886, scottdunn.com; for the Galapagos consult Journey Latin America, 020 3432 9171, journeylatinamerica.co.uk

Photos by Carl Pendle; Ed Ralph; Mike Johnston; Patrick Neckman; Gary Latham; Mirjam Bleeker

Snorkelling with rays

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On safari

Storybook animals walk off the pages and into the bush in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, where accommodation is safe, mealtimes flexible and babysitters available. Just one hour ahead of GMT, the area’s malaria risk is negligible compared to other parts of Africa and youngsters can expect to see the Big Five at reserves like Kariega and Kwandwe. If you want more than pure safari, Tanzania stirs bleached powder sand into the holiday pot, alongside wilderness like the Ngorongoro Crater. And just one stop north is Kenya too. THE DETAIL Audley Travel’s 15-day Highlights of South Africa costs from £2,035pp visiting Cape Town and Addo Elephant Park, including flights, accommodation and excursions. 01993 838000, audleytravel.com; Keyna and Tanzania, Expert Africa, 020 8232 9777, expertafrica.com 24

FOOD & TRAVEL

travel strap Bear necessities

Forget Paddington – whether they’re Black, Polar or Grizzly, your kids won’t stop talking about that time they saw the real deal. Canada’s British Columbia is a stellar opportunity to see grizzlies among snowcapped mountains and shimmering lakes. And travel further north to Alaska, where a short plane hop from Homer takes you to Hallo Bay. On a deserted beach beneath volcanoes, they’ll see coastal Brown bears fishing for salmon that swim in from the Pacific Ocean. THE DETAIL Explore’s 13-day Family Western Canada Pioneer tour offers a Grizzly sanctuary visit and bear spotting, alongside white water rafting and a glacier walk from £2,357pp and £1,994 per child (8+) including ten nights’ camping, most meals and flights. 01252 883593, explore.co.uk; for Alaska, consult, hallobay.com Opposite, clockwise from top left: majestic beasts; Franschhoek, South Africa; kids on safari; majestic sightings; jeep jaunts; a cheetah observes. This page, above: bear on the move. Below: family vibes all round

‘Canada’s British Columbia is a stellar opportunity to see grizzlies among mighty fine snowcapped mountains and shimmering lakes’

Photos by Audley Travel; Angela Dukes; Shutterstock

Gorillas in the midst

With fewer than 900 mountain gorillas remaining on Earth, options for tracking them are in decline. The best areas for sightings that are likely to turn your family into lifelong conservationists are in the lushly forested peaks straddling Rwanda and Uganda. It’s an incredible thrill with scouts leading small groups to the habituated animals, where you sit and observe gorilla families at close quarters. Rwanda, the smaller of the two countries, lends itself better to shorter trips perhaps combined with a safari or beach holiday - while Uganda is suited to older children who are able to travel long distances. THE DETAIL Abercrombie & Kent has a four-night Uganda Gorilla Safari from £3,025pp including transfers, tracking guide, luxury accommodation and meals, but excluding international flights. 01242 855405, abercrombiekent.co.uk; return flights with Turkish Airlines start at £422pp via Istanbul, turkishairlines.com FOOD & TRAVEL

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Play with penguins

travelA sure-fire strap hit with kids, Penguins can be

This page, clockwise from top left: Boulders Beach; pony-trekking; Phillip Island at dusk; Fairy Penguins come out to play. Opposite, clockwise from top: elephant memories; time for a scrub; getting ready to ride; in the saddle

At a canter

CARROT, FENNEL, GOAT’S CURD AND ORANGE SALAD F&T WINE MATCH Honeysuckle and citrus flavoured, bright, nutty Australian sparkling (eg Jansz Premium Cuvée NV) RECIPES START ON PAGE 119 24

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Scotland’s close proximity makes it ideal for novices to have a go - the sparse, rugged countryside offering a tranquil setting for outings on smaller, gentle horses and ponies that are just the right size for youngsters. After somewhere a bit warmer? Spain’s Andalucia has mountains, pine forests and beaches, perfect for riders of all ages. Choose a family beach ride where horses trot – or gallop – into the surf, and you can then swim alongside. Magical. PICK THE PACKAGE Equestrian Escapes offers a week’s guided riding in Andalucia including accommodation and equipment hire from £850pp. 01829 781123, equestrian-escapes.com; for Scotland consult Highlands Unbridled, 01408 622789, highlandsunbridled.co.uk

Photos by Cape Town Travel; Phillip Island Nature Parks; Angela Dukes

found on Phillip Island off Melbourne. At sunset, you’ll see a parade of 33cm-tall Fairy Penguins emerge from the surf, waddle along Summerland Beach and dive into their burrow. You can also get a ranger commentary, or watch in the dark through night-vision goggles. Alternatively, build a day into a South African itinerary to see the colony off Cape Town’s Boulders Beach. THE DETAIL Steppes Travel has a 13-day self-drive in Australia, travelling the Great Ocean Road, ending at Phillip Island from £1,995pp based on two people including flights and accommodation, 01258 787512, steppestravel.co.uk; Tropical Sky has an 11-day Cape Town and Garden Route Circular self-drive tour with flights and accommodation from £1,399pp, 01342 886528, tropicalsky.co.uk

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Elephant safari

Thailand’s Asian elephant is so revered it once graced the national flag. Near the northern city of Chiang Mai, bespoke camps have experiences geared towards kids, such as bareback riding through the rainforest at Makha Elephant Village. In the Golden Triangle you’ll also find exclusive resorts like Four Seasons and Anantara that run reserves for rescued street elephants. If some of your brood are too young to ride, then head east to Nepal’s Chitwan National Park where they can feed bananas to baby elephants, and possibly see a Bengal tiger. Alternatively, Africa’s ellies can be seen at Botswana’s Okavango Delta, notably Abu Camp’s orphanage. THE DETAIL Blue Elephant Tours’ private seven-day North Thailand tour includes an interaction day and elephant hospital visit, along with transfers and hotels from £1,245pp based on two people, 00 66 818 843295, blueelephantthailandtours. com; Thai Airways return flights from £561pp, thaiairways.com

‘If some of your brood are too young to ride, then head east to Nepal’s Chitwan National Park where they can feed bananas to baby elephants’

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SANI RESORT, GREECE

Blue sea and white sand aplenty are found on the gorgeous Kassandra Peninsula, where Sani's new three-bedroom family suites charm across the ages. Modern and fresh designs with marble bathrooms and all modcons, the suites sleep seven comfortably. Kids have access to two pools, and a 30-minute beach 'babe watch' allows parents to enjoy the tranquility of the resort with peace of mind. A private garden and expansive lounge are great for cooling kids down after playing. Suites come with four hours’ baby-sitting included each day, giving Mum and Dad time to head to the spanking-new couples’ spa suite where they’ll be the centre of attention. Family suites from £810, sani-resort.com

Looking for somewhere new to take everyone

BEACHES TURKS AND CAICOS

Family fun in the sun abounds at this Sandals-run resort. For mini-mes, the Sesame Street programme will cause a stir as they bake with the Cookie Monster, munch breakfast with Elmo and go on a ‘trash to treasure’ creative play session lead by Oscar the Grouch. All ages can enjoy the offering, and those in double figures are catered for as much as the younger ones with tween spas, sailing, and outrageous waterparks. Kids’ camps, hosted by certified nannies, mean that parents can indulge in their surroundings, sipping on cocktails by the pool, or diving in some of the world's clearest waters. All-inclusive rooms from £2,185pp, beachesresorts.co.uk FOOD & TRAVEL

Sleep IL SALVIATINO, FLORENCE

Chic and kid-friendly, this sumptuous hotel ticks all the right boxes. Elegant interiors set the tone for a luxe retreat, and the Spa Il Salviatino drives it home, offering a range of treatments for adults and kids (ages six and up). The menu includes ‘butter cuddles’ massages to nourish young skin, mini-manis and teen facial treatments. Downtime for the whole clan awaits. Junior family suite from £355, salviatino.com

places to stay

COWORTH PARK, ASCOT This beautiful estate just outside of London wows with its equine programme, tailored to suit children of all skill levels. The area is known on the horsey scene, and the hotel – resplendent within parkland – is the perfect place to saddle up. Here, four- to 13-year-olds can enjoy daily Pony Camps during the holidays lasting one to three days. They include

riding lessons, grooming and stable management. Having been served gourmet lunches straight from the Coworth kitchens, nippers spend the afternoons on obstacle courses and polo sessions. Sleeping in converted stables is on-theme and copper rolltop tubs make bathtime a joy after a hard day in the field. One day from £200, rooms from £295. dorchestercollection.com

away this summer? Try these for inspiration, on home shores and further afield

over

OLD SWAN AND MINSTER MILL, COTSWOLDS

Set in the ancient village of Minster Lovell in the southern fringes of the Cotswolds, the Old Swan and its ‘less posh’ cousin Minster Mill provide the perfect setting for an action-packed getaway. The hotel not only has it’s own fly-fishing rods for you to borrow, but they can also arrange for a ghillie to guide you through the dark art of landing one of the rainbow or native brown trout that hide amongst reeds along the pretty Windrush river. You can also catch wonderful sights such as red kites circling overhead and pheasant being flushed from the undergrowth. There is also a tennis court, croquet lawn, outdoor chess, resident hens, ducks and a cat (not all in the same pen). Board games can be whipped out should the weather turn inclement. Meals, including a superb breakfast, are taken in the casual surrounds of the Old Swan. Family rooms (sleeps four) from £295, oldswanandminstermill.com

Chalet Baby Bear, Chamonix

A home away from home vibe with added holiday excitement, this four-person chalet is a super option for those looking for local colour. Family adventure packages get you close to the action as you rock climb, go on nature-spotting trails and walk huskies through the flora and fauna of the valley forests. A private chef gives parents a break from their routine, and one night’s baby-sitting is included too. From £3,375 per week, amazoncreek.co.uk

FOOD & TRAVEL

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Kids cooking RECIPES START ON PAGE 119

Wilmslow Kitchen Cookery School CHESHIRE

La Cucina Caldesi LONDON

The only catering school in central London dedicated entirely to Italian cuisine, at La Cucina kids will sample the most authentic tastes inspired by the hearty meals that mamma Caldesi served to Giancarlo (the school’s founder) when he was a boy. Summer dishes are likely to include crispy bruschetta drizzled with oil and buttery spinach ravioli seasoned with sage. The lesson culminates in a group feast, which parents can attend too. £45. Ages 6-12, group size 16. 10.30am-1pm, 27 July. 020 7487 0750, caldesi.com

Founders Sarah and David Bridge learnt their trade from the best in the game, including Gordon Ramsay and Michel Roux Jr. The kitchen is less than a year old and each budding chef has their own cooking station so they can make the most of the in-depth workshops. There is something for everyone from chocolate making to Italian. Our favourite is the afternoon tea class, a sumptuous morning of meringue kisses, savoury bites and delicate cakes. Children will learn techniques such as choux pastry and precision baking, emerging with enough skills to host their own tea parties. £35. Ages 9+, group size 12. 9.45am2pm, 26 May. 07725 120128, wilmslowcookeryschool.co.uk

Kids’

COOKERY COURSES

Give your budding Atherton, Hartnett or White the start they crave with Imogen Lepere’s round-up of the UK’s top cookery schools for kids

7here are few better places to master the slippery art of οsh preparation than in the kitchen of Rick Stein’s original seafood restaurant in Padstow, overlooking the bay where ingredients are caught. The classes are divided into a demonstration by the restaurant’s own chefs and then afterwards a chance for kids to put their new skills into practice as they οllet, trim and prepare πat οsh. A typical menu includes lemon sole gouMons, red mullet, and buttermilk pancakes with berry coulis. While the Godfather of οsh himself no longer teaches, his ofοce is next door and he has been known to pop into classes now and then to see how they’re going. £72. Ages 8-11, group size 16. 10am-1pm, 29 July. 01841 532700, rickstein.com/school

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FOOD & TRAVEL

Photos by Anna McCarthy; David Griffen; Leiths; The Seafood Restaurant

Padstow Seafood School CORNWALL

Billingsgate Seafood School LONDON

Right above the famous οsh market, this has to be one of the most exciting venues for a class. The experts here are running a series of father and child classes throughout June, but the Dad’s Sunday Shellοsh Brunch is our pick of the catch – learn how to shuck and smoke scallops, prepare squid and round off the morning with a prawn and samphire salad to take home to the rest of the family. £80 (adult plus child). Ages 7+, group size 10-12. 9.30am12.30pm, 28 June. 020 7517 3548, seafoodtraining.org

Cooks YORKSHIRE

Housed in a gothic mansion that has been home to the Duke of Norfolk’s family for over 400 years, the kitchens of Cooks, The Carlton School of Food are sure to stir the imagination. The half-day Taste and Travel class will feed mind and body with dishes from around the world accompanied by anecdotes about each region from the guest chef. Students will learn where their favourite ingredients are produced as they rustle up mainly Italian and Spanish, and discover more unusual πavours too. £50. Ages 8+, group size 10. 9.30am-1.30pm, 26-27 May. 01405 861662, cooksatcarlton.co.uk

The Raymond Blanc Cookery School OXFORDSHIRE

Leiths LONDON

A οrst for Leiths, this full-day class focuses on creativity, beginning with cooking and ending with art. Kids will spend the morning preparing their own lunch (with one tutor for every eight students), before heading round the corner to Kite Studios for puppet making inspired by the mad Hatter’s tea party. £75. Ages 7-11, group size 12-16. 10am-3.30pm, 10-14 August. 020 8749 6400, leiths.com

Raymond Blanc has shepherded many of the top names in cooking through the ranks, so your budding chef is sure to be inspired by a visit to his famous hotel, restaurant and cookery school, Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons. It is set amid beautifully landscaped gardens – the mushroom valley and vegetable patch are the perfect place to learn about seasonal ingredients. The focus of the Adult and Child course is simple food with a gourmet twist, such as poached egg with tomato fondue and roast chicken with potato mousseline. Two tea breaks with snacks and an informal lunch are included in the price. £555 (adult plus child). Ages 7-12, group size 10. 9am-4pm, 27 June. 01844 278 881, belmond.com

Below, left to right: take a class at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons in rural Oxfordshire; its delicate tea break bites are sure to get kids’ attention

FOOD & TRAVEL

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back to school Bordeaux Quay BRISTOL

A converted warehouse on the harbour, Bordeaux Quay hasbecome synonymous with sustainable eating among Bristol’s foodies. The focus of the Adult and Child course is on West Country produce and the importance of seasonal eating. Pupils will make three simple recipes in this hands-on session including bread, pudding and a wholesome main, emerging with the conοdence and knowledge to eat more ethically. £70 (adult plus child). Ages 6+, group size on enquiry. 12pm-2.30pm, 7 June. 0117 943 1200, bordeaux-quay.co.uk

Swinton Park Cookery School YORKSHIRE

This school adjoins an 18th-century castle and makes good use of its 8,090ha, with fruit, vegetables and herbs fresh from the kitchen gardens. The half-day Mini Chefs class is perfect for little ones who want to roll up their sleeves and get stuck in. They will spend the afternoon baking cakes, cutting biscuits and making dippy eggs with soldiers and leave proudly wearing their own apron and clutching a goody bag. £50. Ages 6-9, group size 10. 2.30pm-5.30pm, 25 May. 01765 680969, swintonpark.com

Malton Cookery School YORKSHIRE

Malton brings the popular πavours of Italy to Yorkshire with its Little Italians cooking morning where kids will enjoy making their own pasta and pizza bases, moulding mini meatballs and learning how to use gelatin in jellies. The cookery school has a homely feel thanks to wooden work surfaces that are sure to put them at ease, but parents are also welcome to stay and watch should younger children be feeling nervous. £35. Ages 6-10, group size 12. 10am11.30am, 27 May. 01653 639096, maltoncookeryschool.co.uk

Augill Castle LAKE DISTRICT

Yorkshire Wolds YORKSHIRE

An environmentally conscious school nestled in the hills, Yorkshire Wolds uses local suppliers wherever possible to reduce its carbon footprint. While food is the focus of the Children’s Summer Camp here, there are also activities like bird watching, farmyard animals to meet and fun with glitter. The morning is spent cooking (and demolishing) a two-course lunch, followed by an afternoon of foodthemed arts and crafts, including pasta paintings and making clay swans. The day culminates with a ramble around the lush local farmland, spotting wildπowers and looking out for the οrst blackberries that will be coming into season. £95. Ages 8+, group size 8. 10am-3.30pm, 28 August. 01377 227723, yorkshirewoldscookeryschool.co.uk 38

FOOD & TRAVEL

This pocket-sized Victorian castle has fairy-tale turrets that children will love. They can also roam the grounds, gathering eggs from the chicken coop and picking tomatoes from the garden before heading to the traditional kitchens for lunch and an afternoon of culinary fun. Classes are for private groups and specially tailored proοteroles are among the most popular request). £400 (for up to 6 people). Ages 7-14, group size 2-6. Any weekend, 12pm-4pm. 01768 341937, stayinacastle.com

Lucknam Park BATH

This informal class near the historic city of Bath teaches families how to make nourishing dishes that they can recreate at home. The Adult and Child course menu is designed to show children that healthy food can be appealing through dishes such as tomato sauce with hidden vegetables. The οsh οngers with salty gherkin mayonnaise are sure to satisfy adults and youngsters alike. £75. Ages 6-11, group size 10. 8.30am12.00pm, 25 July. 01225 74277, lucknampark.co.uk

T H E C A R LT O N S C H O O L O F F O O D

A PLACE TO DISCOVER FOOD LEARN TO GROW, COOK, PHOTOGRAPH OR WRITE ABOUT FOOD. BAKE, BUTCHER, FORAGE & PRESERVE.

Demonstration classes, half and full days, masterclasses, residential courses. Email [email protected] or Telephone 01405 861662 or visit

www.cooksatcarlton.co.uk

Inspiring, entertaining, hands-on… ...cookery courses with Stephen Bulmer, previously with Raymond Blanc. Two day, one day and half day courses, full of professional tips and techniques. Wide range of course themes, for all ages and abilities. www.swintonpark.com

SWINTON PARK Hotel • Restaurant • Cookery School • Spa Masham, Ripon, North Yorks. HG4 4JH Tel: 01765 680969

Kids Kitchen Leiths and Kite Studios are collaborating to create an exciting, creative and educative set of activities for 7 – 11 year olds. Kids will spend the morning cooking in the Leiths kitchens before heading to Kite Studios for some arty inspiration with a food theme. Whether it’s for the day or the week they will take home some delicious and nutritious nibbles and a brilliant body of art work. Mon 10 – Fri 14 Aug 10.00 – 16.00 £75 per day or £350 for the week

leiths.com/kidskitchen

Whether you are accomplished or enthusiastic we have the course for you... The Cookery School offers a unique opportunity for anyone who enjoys cooking to perfect their skills and master new techniques through a variety of innovative courses. For further details of our courses please call reservations on 01225 742777 or visit www.lucknampark.co.uk Colerne, Chippenham, Wiltshire SN14 8AZ /LucknamPark

@LucknamPark