On the 6th May, The Arts Santa Mònica, Barcelona, saw a radical development in the world of gastronomy. The Roca Brothers – owners of El Celler de Can Roca (the North-Eastern Catalonian restaurant recently voted into the ever-coveted top slot of the prestigious World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards list) – premiered their new and exciting [...]
When reviewing restaurants it’s easy to get carried away with what’s the next big thing and what’s the hottest new opening… not that this isn’t all very well and good (there’s nothing wrong with keeping abreast of current trends), but sometimes it’s good to take stock and visit a long-standing bastion of culinary delight. With [...]
A harpist strums away sweetly and a smartly dressed lady greets us as we enter Jumeirah Carlton Tower’s exquisite Chinoiserie. We’re here in Knightsbridge on this drizzly Saturday afternoon to try the new Fusion afternoon tea as crafted by master patissier and star of Channel 4’s Baking Mad, Eric Lanlard. Opulent doesn’t even begin [...]
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On the 6th May, The Arts Santa Mònica, Barcelona, saw a radical development in the world of gastronomy. The Roca Brothers – owners of El Celler de Can Roca (the North-Eastern Catalonian restaurant recently voted into the ever-coveted top slot of the prestigious World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards list) – premiered their new and exciting [...]
We do like unique magazine concepts here at Flux and Swallow Magazine is very much in that category. As the name implies it’s all about food but is nothing like your usual mainstream high street title. The magazine was founded in 2009 by James Casey and the love for all things food leaps out at [...]
When reviewing restaurants it’s easy to get carried away with what’s the next big thing and what’s the hottest new opening… not that this isn’t all very well and good (there’s nothing wrong with keeping abreast of current trends), but sometimes it’s good to take stock and visit a long-standing bastion of culinary delight. With [...]
A harpist strums away sweetly and a smartly dressed lady greets us as we enter Jumeirah Carlton Tower’s exquisite Chinoiserie. We’re here in Knightsbridge on this drizzly Saturday afternoon to try the new Fusion afternoon tea as crafted by master patissier and star of Channel 4’s Baking Mad, Eric Lanlard. Opulent doesn’t even begin [...]
I went to the Forge and Foundry in Camden without quite knowing what to expect. I’d had a quick look at their website and had decided to try the place out based on the impressive images of their food and interesting music line-up. My friend and I arrived, after getting slightly confused and lost in [...]
We are living in the age of the Stay-cation. Or at least that’s what I’m led to believe. But despite the persistent rumour that more Brits than ever are shunning the delights of the European beach holiday (can you hear the collective sigh of relief from over the channel?), the idea of a weekend in [...]
Coffee shops: the second homes of all writers, from dreamy poets to obsessive bloggers or aspiring novelists alike. Buy a few caffeinated drinks and their tables can be rented out as the creative alternative to an office desk. Although the constant source of caffeine has to be a factor, there must be another reason behind [...]
Named after Barcelona’s most acclaimed food market, Boqueria is a tapas restaurant with swagger. There’s a menu which goes from comrade’s canteen to ambassador’s residence, a wine list with its own cava and sherry annexe, and a battalion of knowledgeable waiting staff, all of which make for some beating. The decor, so breathtakingly neutral to [...]
Opus One at Radisson Blu Edwardian has that feeling of grandeur as you walk in through the door. You enter the restaurant through the hotel bar, which lets down the atmosphere somewhat, especially when it’s warming up with generic dance tunes for a post-work Friday night crowd. Hard one to get over that one – [...]
I’m halfway through my vegetarian month and as things stand I have eaten enough cheese to glue the Grand Canyon back together. Gone are any illusions that this venture would make me healthier. Even though I can’t blame this on vegetarianism in itself as the culpability more obviously lies in my mad desire to “meat [...]
I’ll admit it: I find cocktail culture a little bit strange. Forced ‘cheeky’ names which make you sound like a quivering adolescent when you’re ordering (“Can I have a Sex on the Beach please?”), tiny ice-filled measures which you slurp in seconds, and increasingly bizarre decorative appendages blocking the booze. It feels as though cocktails [...]
Combining form, function and food, designer Joseph Hartley has the recipe for success – he was the winner of the British Design Centre’s New Designer of the Year award at New Designers 2012, just after graduating from his 3D Design degree at Manchester Metropolitan University. Hartley’s nickname, “Butcher, Baker, Designer, Maker”, reflects his experience of [...]
There are a couple of things worth considering on outings such as this. Firstly- attire. Stretchy, forgiving, and sensibly coloured is the connoisseur’s outfit of choice. And secondly – lunch. In so much as arriving at what can most aptly be described as London’s newest den of gluttony- MEAT:mission – on a full stomach, is [...]
The Lowry Hotel, though officially in Salford, is one of Manchester city centre’s most luxurious hotels. The best way to approach and see the hotel in its full glory is over the footbridge suspended over the River Irwell that leads directly to it. The hotel is sleek and resembles in many ways a contemporary art [...]
For those who have never lived in London’s Peckham, hearing the district’s name probably brings to mind Only Fools and Horses and Desmond’s, the riots of August 2011 and the tragic death of Damilola Taylor. These are all things that Peckham is most famous (or infamous) for. It is an area that conjures up thoughts [...]
2013 is to be a momentous year for Amsterdam. Already off to a fantastic start, events and celebrations are set to keep on coming, as jubilee after jubilee for the Dutch capital fall in the next few months. This provides many great reasons to take a cheap flight to Amsterdam with airlines like Jet2.com, to [...]
Usually, the focus of a hotel is on the hotel bit: namely, the bedrooms, the décor, the room service, menu-order pillows, fluffy white dressing gowns, impressively large bathtubs, a good selection of TV channels. Of course. Hotels are, after all, in the business of sleep – they’re where we go to wind down, to lie [...]
Gaucho Manchester’s ‘Midnight Feast’ menu is all the fun of the fair for those seeking after-hours foodie pleasure without the late night Pandemonium; an Argentinian avant-garde four-course delight with luscious cocktails, Malbec and live music. Gaucho Manchester has been one of my favourite restaurants for years. It’s a haven for carnivores secreted amongst the [...]
Amidst the glass fronted buildings of Sloane Square with their clean cut interiors, you will find the Mari Vanna restaurant, tucked in, like a little piece of old Russia that has time-travelled into 20th Century west London. I follow a smartly dressed couple up the stairs into the entrance hall to have my coat taken [...]
Located due east of Colchester, where Franco-Germanic rivers breakout into the North Sea, Rotterdam is one of the lesser known of our near-European neighbours. The largest port in the world until 2004, when the Shanghai juggernaut surpassed it, the city’s maritime relevance tends to dominate its image in the eyes of outsiders. More than a [...]
As I type, I am dreaming of a juicy hunk of steak, barely cooked and savagely scrumptious. When this gory reverie is over, I am instantly distracted by a craving for prawns: little pink bursts of sweetness nestled between lettuce leaves or stirred into spaghetti. But, unfortunately, all this pining is useless. I have resolved [...]
Let’s be honest – Chiswick has a lot of French restaurants: bistros, brasseries and bars, you name it. On my way to Sam’s Brasserie, just one amongst many in the cosmos of Gallic gastronomy of west London, I lose count of the French restaurants I pass by in the five minute walk from Turnham Green [...]
If the question is what could possibly induce me to visit Quebec in late November with the daytime temperature dropping to -16 degrees centigrade then the answer is quite simply ‘Leonard Cohen’. As for many others, Leonard Cohen has long been both an idol and icon for me and his music has accompanied me through [...]
It seems like a natural enough transition: Londoners, their arteries clogged and their buttons strained by the hipster burger/hotdog/chicken movement, are shunning the sticky, drippy, impossible-to-consume-with-dignity street food for something infinitely neater, and far healthier. The raw food concept is nothing new. On the contrary, the Japanese have been eating raw fish since the second [...]
How better to celebrate Shrove Tuesday than by stuffing yourself with 15 all-American pancakes, glued together in a pyramid-like stack with peanut butter, jam and… err… guacamole? If that sounds appealing to you, then get down to The Diner this week, because that’s the challenge they’ve boldly set for guests to celebrate Pancake Day. And, [...]
Nestled in Barnes, South West London, is Sonny’s Kitchen, a true purveyor of innovative British cuisine. Brainchild of restaurateurs Phil Howard and Rebecca Mascarenhas, it fuses minimalistic modernity with an eclectic array of art. The focal piece of the restaurant is a strikingly gorgeous terrazzo fireplace by Bruce McLean, a Scottish performance artist and painter [...]
A sharp, January wind cuts through the narrow streets and alleyways running parallel to the Whitstable shoreline, as we hastily carve a route through the town. My partner and I are on our way to Island Wall Cottage (a cosy, coastal hideaway set just off the beach) for a quick winter getaway from the city. [...]
With its red-and-white clad exterior, assorted spitted meats and salad bar, The Golden Grill looks pretty much like any other kebab shop in Shoreditch. There’s certainly nothing to suggest it might be concealing a genuine Mexican watering hole in its depths. Nothing except for the staff, whose weary directions “around the corner, second door to [...]
Once upon a time – perhaps a year or so ago – a group of friends decided they could do better. After many winters working for chalet companies with slapdash standards and uninspiring food, they spotted a considerable gap in the market. So they took the same principle and transformed it into something rather different. [...]
Italy isn’t Italy without its countryside. And yes, I know the same could be easily said about England too with our Kentish Gardens, the Lake district and the Dartmoor moors etc, but the countryside of Italy is different; it is literally fed into the very identity of Italy; it is the womb of the country [...]
The end of 2012, according to Mayan prophecies, should have also been the end of the world as we know it. Before the dreaded date, to celebrate our species’ last few days on earth, I was invited to an interesting event (courtesy of Dan Aykroyd and Crystal Head Vodka) to discuss the impending apocalypse. In my company [...]
I’ve always liked the whole Radisson Blu Edwardian experience. It’s a fine old building transformed with its own sense of grandeur and history that still speaks volumes as you wander through its spaces. The hotel itself that now occupies the former Free Trade Hall were keen to incorporate and not obliterate the buildings past as [...]
The word ‘canteen’ brings back traumatic memories of my early school dining experiences: a cold grey out-building, ruled by the tyrannical cook, Mrs Ashby, who would aggressively spoon dishes of over-boiled greens and lumpy mash onto greasy, plastic trays. I am therefore relying on my visit to East London’s Rochelle Canteen (in the old canteen [...]
Of all the trends popularised by the British foodie explosion of the last two decades, none quite sums up the excitement and bafflement of the new vogue as molecular gastronomy. Heralded as a progressive and potentially groundbreaking new approach to cooking by its followers, and a hyped-up pseudo-science fad to the eye-rolling detractors, this new [...]
Voices seem amplified when sight fails you. The feel of wood under the hand too becomes exaggerated, every grain rubbing against your fingertips. The subtle scents of a glass of red hit you hard in the sinuses. When your eyes aren’t seeing, your body sends out other feelers to try to identify the things around [...]
The Boundary Hotel opened back in 2008 in Shoreditch and is now a vital part of the life and vibrancy of the area. It all seems so simple now. Plant a boutique hotel cum quality culinary experience smack bang in the cool but slightly rough around the edges Shoreditch and wait for that till to [...]
“Fresh and zingy and full of life.” This is how Martin Morales describes tiger’s milk, the marinade used extensively in the dishes of his Peruvian restaurant Ceviche Restaurant, the first of its kind in the UK. Fresh, zingy and full of life are, incidentally, the perfect words to sum up the entire Ceviche dining experience, [...]
Ever evolving over recent years, you’d be forgiven for getting out of touch with what’s going on in Manchester city centre from the independent crop of bohemian bars and eateries in the Northern Quarter, to the conundrums of Spinningfield; from high bling cocktail bars to beardy folk coffee shops to grandad inspired pubs. And as [...]
Burger and Lobster has enjoyed overwhelming success since its debut in Mayfair last year. There are now three establishments of which the largest and most recent addition is on Dean Street, Soho. I was fortunate enough to dine there with two of the restaurant’s creators: the charismatic George Bukhov-Weinstein, and Ilya Demichev. The pair are [...]
Where to go this Christmas? There’s so much vying for your attention. The department stores are packed, the mock German markets overpriced and slightly wrong feeling – being not in Germany. I need something more unique with some genuine spirit of Yule. Well it’s definitely worth experiencing the Protein Christmas Market which is a real [...]
Internationally acclaimed artist David Shrigley and Manchester based artist curator Mike Chavez-Dawson have collaborated with Teacup to create a new herbal tea. Aptly titled ‘David Shrigley’s Anti-Psychotic Tea’, it delivers an unequalled uplifting infusion of Damiana, Hibiscus, Vanilla and Bergamot. Mike Chavez-Dawson chats to David about his exhibition at The Cornerhouse, and how he likes [...]
From Offal to Ears: On nose to tail, Ersatz oranges, and the dodginess of Chicken Kiev It’s a freezing October morning and I’m sitting in the glorious warmth of St John Bar & Restaurant in Smithfield. The buttery scent of pastry wafts from the bakery in the next room and a there’s a small-scale symphony [...]
Jimmy Garcia, a familiar face for Flux renowned for his pop-up-restaurants and supper clubs, is collaborating with two friends on a new venture: a food-centric chalet company, tucked away in the idyllic, snowy, scenic setting of Courchevel, France, one of the world’s most premier ski resorts. This is certainly about as far removed as [...]
To succeed in life, you need just three things: a wishbone, a backbone, and a funny bone. At least that’s the philosophical gem proffered by Brixton Market’s newest baby, Wishbone Chicken. I think perhaps it’s fair to say that the burger has now been well and truly ‘done,’ with Honest Burger, Hawksmoor and, of course, [...]
The berries from the coffea genus encase a seed that, when roasted, ground and brewed, becomes an as important part of powering city life as daylight. It is probably virtuous to learn more about the things we consume; therefore, some enlightenment on coffee is most overdue. The last queue you were in was probably leading [...]
The Hidden Hives: Gon’ Honey Tasting with the London Food Safari In recent years, Bermondsey has become something of a hive of food production. Disused warehouses have been brought back to life and, behind the thick brick walls, beers are being brewed, coffee is being roasted and cheeses are being ripened. I’ve never had the [...]
Beard to Tail is the kind of place where not eating meat is a barrier to enjoyment. This makes it the perfect place for an enthusiastic carnivore like me. A scan of the menu reveals a meaty paradise with vegetables few and far between. This is not the place to get your 5 a day. [...]
A man walks into a bar and asks for a beer… Innocent words from a simpler time when our imaginations, where beer is concerned, were limited to Fosters, Carlsberg or, if you were feeling particularly daring, Guinness. Beer has been with us since the dawn of civilisation, but never has it experienced such an explosion [...]
I suppose I ought to begin this piece with a confession: I don’t like tea. Whilst I understand that this is as un-British as admitting an inability to queue properly, or a lack of interest in weather-related conversation, there is little I can do to convince myself that it tastes like anything other than warm, [...]
Walk along Highgate road, and there are no signs of our destination, save perhaps the words “we serve clean burgers” outside a nearby gastropub. Take a stroll off the main road into a car park and you may still not spot a corrugated iron shed, old and utilitarian looking, tucked away in a corner like [...]
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