As you may know www.foodjournalist.co.uk is my more work focused site, and most of my thoughts and rants go on twitter, consequently this ol’ place has gathered dust for much of 2010, indeed it never really got going again when I finished the Big British Food Map in 2008. I’ll be taking all the best food content from here and transferring it over to an archive.

Most of this blog will stay mind you, lest any GCSE media studies students or Mastermind Contestants want to look at ‘history of the BBC homepage 2003 – 2007′, though it’s a topic I can’t see being that popular. The rest will be deleted.

When I chose ‘eyedropper’ internet monikers and nom de plume were all the rage, now they’re rather passe.

Anyhoo, I hope you’ve enjoyed reading, and here’s to 2011. Merry Christmas.

Big Bertha, my biggest pan, nearly comes a cropper with the bumper crop of damsons from my inlaw’s damson tree this year.

Molton hot jam, a baby crawling around the kitchen, what can possibly go wrong? It was like the start of Casualty before the ‘accident’ happens.

5 kg of fruit and 4kgs of sugar gave enough to fill 18 jars, two of them large Kilner jars. That’s Christmas sorted.

Anyway, like self build furniture there’s always bits and bobs left over when writing a book. So some of them I’ve scrapped together here for your hopeful enjoyment.

hollowlegs Yeah,it’s just drinking milk that makes me queasy.Love all other dairy products

MathildeCuisine Can’t stand cold milk in my cereals either

BribedwithFood *gags*

This recent exchange about milk with chums on twitter got me thinking that milk is rather unloved. As I said in my visit to Chris Hall in Cornwall for Channel 4, ‘milk’s still thought of as something for children. As an adult it’s simply there for wetting cereal or diluting tea or coffee, the ever-present, ever-the-same white stuff in the fridge’  And so I think it’s time to get a gaggle of doubting Thomas’ together, get out of the smoke and get our heads under a cow for some proper raw milk.

I’m trying to find not only raw milk to taste, but raw milk from different animals. Just how much do Guernsey and Jersey differ from Holstein ? Also we’d want to try sheep’s milk and goat, just to get a comparison.

LOCATION: TBC

DATE: TBC

So as you can see it’s in the early stages of development. However if anyone fancies coming along let me know.

Spot the raw milk..?

I (and my fellow judges) ate all the pies

It is to Mrs Luard that I owe the slight queazy feeling in my stomach this evening. I was invited to be a judge at the second British Pie Awards sponsored by Colmans held in St Mary’s Church, Melton Mowbray. Upon arriving I was duly assigned to judge class 12, Football pies. My fellow judges were George Mount, Proprietor, Roots Farm Shop and Sean Hope Chef & proprietor, The Olive Branch at Clipsham and The Red Lion at Stathern as well as the elusive Mrs Luard who sadly didn’t show up.  Consequently instead of splitting into two teams of two and tackling 18 odd pies between us, the three of us had to tackle all 37 pies. That’s right today I’ve sampled 37 pies from football grounds around Britain.

This class was open to any baker or butcher supplying any football ground. The pie could me made up of any ingredients as long as the finished weight was under 600g. They were to be judged hot – Game on.

The tasting was all done blind, but our winner turned out to be a steak and potato pie made by J.W Mettrick and Sons for Glossop North End. It was a cracking pie, although there was a great chicken curry entry, and a fantastic steak and ale one in which you could really taste the booze but sadly let down by poor pastry.

A great day though, well organised and held again in St Mary’s Church in the centre of the town. This year all entries were judged in the church itself, will the pews cleared out. Though there’s not a religious bone in my body is was nice to see a church being put to use like this, smelling of warm pastry and festooned in bunting.

Supreme pie of pies went – again – to Walkers Charnwood Bakery, and Elisabeth owes me a pack of Rennie.

Ian with the winner

We got there early, and so with 20 mins to kill we introduced ourselves to the locals.

Once inside, seated and whistle whetted by a pint of Early Bird Spring Hop Ale the tasting menu began. First up, pork scratchings and herring on soda bread

Next came smoked turbot roe with homemade cheese and nettle puree. This went down well with my 10 month old daughter.

The ever wonderful breads and homemade butter put in an appearance

A Baked oyster with Jersey cream and rhubarb granita was brilliant, rhubarb taking the place of a squeeze of lemon in providing a citrus hit. And gentle baking oysters adds to their creaminess. Again, popular with the nipper.

This was a delight, in the little tart was a curry style sauce that offered a little warmth.

OMG a little Dover sole with smoked chilli butter – stunning

The Sportsman’s home cured ham, with explanatory note. (There was more when it arrived, but we set about it before I’d picked up the camera.

The booze.

Brill, with a smoked herring sauce. “It’s not often you see nice grey food” said Kate.

Lamb breast, breadcrumbed with mint sauce. Which was rather sweet, in a good way.

Lamb three ways with horseraddish greens.

Lemon posset, again popular with the little one

Lemon tart and ice-cream

Happy birthday to me!  A nice final touch, and in all, a truly excellent lunch.

A tasting menu is an opportunity for a chef to tell you their story, to showcase their wares and take you on a bit of an adventure. Stephen does this and more I believe. He uses it as a medium for the conveying of happiness, that’s what this meal was to me, four hours of indulgence, laughter and enjoyment.

And next week, we’re in the 1980s, which to me means either nouvelle cuisine or the sexual chemistry of Anthony Head and a cup of Nescafe… But until then below are some PR shots of Heston’s 1970s Pot Heston.

Culinary Super Heroes ready to take on all comers

Iron chef, the hit Japanese → US culinary cage fight is finally coming to Channel 4 on April 26th. This is a foodie ‘Battle Royale’ with pride -as well as £1000 – at stake. The format, for those of you that don’t know is thus. The four resident Iron Chefs – Tom Aikens, Martin Blunos, Judy Joo and Sanjay Dwivedi – take on challengers from kitchens all over the UK to create dishes that will impress ‘The Chairman’ and a table of judges. Ringmaster to the whole event is Olly Smith who does a commentary aided by Nick Nairn. This is food as sport.

Each hour-long bout has a main ingredient that must feature in the dishes, and whereas the four challengers create two starters and two mains, the Iron Chef has to create all four. From the preview episode I saw there’s tension and drama mixed with some Banzi style interjections from the chairman and Olly which offer some comic relief. It’s fun to watch, and will hopefully do well in that early evening slot.

To find out a bit more I had at chat with Iron Chef Sanjay Dwivedi about the show and his cooking. It’s obvious from the start that he really loved the challenge of Iron Chef. “What was amazing, and I think better than the American version, was the set. When I first saw it I was shocked. …. it looks sexy”.More than that though he hopes people will not only enjoy the contest, but also attempt the dishes at home. “It’s a fun cooking programme, where people can learn a lot as well”. I ask him what was the hardest challenge. “One of the secret ingredients I got was eggs, it was a tough one that one, I steamed a poached egg, and served it with truffles” And it seems the more mundane ingredients needed that something extra from the Iron Chefs. In one episode, Tom Aikens gets minced beef as his secret ingredient and his heart sinks, he does however rise to the challenge.

We move on to talk about Sanjay’s cooking. “I came from a strict French background, and my palatte was very European” He tells me that he didn’t really have a lot of indian friends, and that his partner is French. It’s a happy union of two food lovers “Food is such a big thing for us, it’s a big part of out spending money. Before we had the kids, what ever money I earned I spent on food.”

Sanjay started in a consultancy role at Zaika when it opened in 1999, in 2005 he became head chef/patron. “I’d never cooked Indian food as a professional basis until I came here. So for example, I was the first the Indian restaurant to introduce a tasting menu, and I’ll do it with wine.  But because I came from that classical background I said why fucking not.  Now it’s the done thing, but think about it 12 years ago, it was a big risk”  Today he has a nine course gourmet menu, and a seven course tasting menu, and now it accounts for nearly 50% of orders.

On the unique history of Indian food in the UK Sanjay says this. “Why did Indian food become popular? Simply because it was cheap, it was edible, you could abuse the waiters, and it was the only place that would serve you [booze] after 11 o’clock apart from Chinatown! Now why was it cheap? Because they used the cheapest cuts of meat – battery chicken – with some red colouring and lots of spices so you’re not tasting anything, you’re just eating.”

He acknowledges however and businessmen behind the endevour. “The thing is they’re the clever ones, who at the end of the day saw a niche in the market, all these owners, uneducated, who perhaps couldn’t speak much English, but with their hard work, drive a Mercedes everyday and buy another house.”

It’s an sterotypical flock wallpapered image we’re all familiar with, and a world away from a restaurant like Sanjay’s “you need to taste what you pay for, you pay for your scallops, your chicken, your lamb, You don’t pay for your fucking spices, because believe me, for £17.50 you’ll have a bag of spice that’ll last you a year!”

We move into the kitchen where the staff are getting ready for the evening’s service, It’s a fantastically mixed bunch of Nepalese, Chinese, and Indian. On a low hob there’s a massive cauldron of chicken stock reducing. The usual bird carcasses and veg are joined by cardamon pods and other spices.  I pause to admire the tandoori ovens while one of the staff makes me a naan flavoured with goats cheese. I’m forever impressed at the skill of the tandoori oven, getting bread to stick on the sides without falling off or getting stuck takes real skill. Sanjay and I have just enough time for a whistle stop tour of his stores and fridges before the printer spurts out the first cheque of the evening and the staff step it up a notch. I jokingly ask for my naan to takeaway, and the staff kindly wrap it for me, brilliant.

If you’re a fan of ‘contest’ style cookery shows with a table spoon of Japanese oddity, then Iron Chef UK will hit you square between the eyes.

Iron Chef starts on the 26th April 2010 on Channel 4. If you missed it you can catch it on 4oD

The rise (and some might say fall) of the vegetable box scheme has been one of the hallmarks of the change in the way we get produce through our front doors in recent years.

The problem for me with box schemes however was not so much the lucky dip contents of the box*, but the ‘we’re in your area on Friday and can leave it by your door’ delivery. My front door is shared by two other households, and is 4ft from the street, there’s no garage, neighbour or porch to leave my valuable vegetables in. And so this is where, for me and indeed many others who aren’t at home during the day, the box scheme falls foul of the cheek by jowl nature of most residences in the capital.

There are something like 600 box schemes running in the UK today, and one of the newest is Farm-Direct.com established in 2009 by Robert Baker. His scheme however, is a little different from the big boys like Riverford or Able and Cole. As well as being a lot smaller, it serves at present only one area of North London.

Last summer Robert took premises in an old building a mere mirror, signal and manoeuvre from the thundering thoroughfare that is the Holloway Road. The road, and the A1 it leads to lies at the end of a route for produce into London from the North since the Roman’s laid the first stone of Ermine Street.

Robert found a lot of producers were making night time runs into town to deliver to the wholesale markets, or shops. And so got them to drop stuff on on the way in. Customers browse his website, order what they want by the Thursday, then the orders are delivered on Saturday and Sunday, when most people stand a chance of being in. Delivery costs a few quid, but if there’s another residence in your street also signed up, it’s free.

Incidentally Tim Heywood did an interesting interview with Guy Watson from Riverford recently, where he talked about how relatively efficient lorries are at moving large amounts of produce about. What’s less efficient is the vans out delivering the boxes. Because of the smaller foot print of Robert’s business, and the fact it is, in his own words, ‘no frills’, he’s averaging eight drops an hour. The boxes meanwhile are just simple wooden fruit boxes, and maybe it’s just me, but people are less likely to sling out wooden things than cardboard or polystyrene?

But crucially you can go and pick your box up at a time that suits you, and not the other way round. When I first met Robert in the summer of 09 he’d just taken delivery of a fridge from M&S, and had a handful of customers on his books. Last week the place was packed with people nipping in and picking up their boxes.

He’s begun to carry items for sale directly now too, meaning existing customers who collect can top up, increasing amounts if needs be. This retail element also acts as a way to get people in off the street so Robert can explain the process and get a leaflet in their hand. On my last visit had like jeruselem artichokes, fresh herbs, celeriac, goose eggs, as well as more mainstream items like carrots, apples and spuds.

And so to cost. Robert’s admits he’s operating on small margins, but he also has very little overheads, so produce from him works out rather competitively.

Ocado
2 x Quail £4.49
Lincs Poacher cheese £3.70 250g
British Beef Topside (everyday selection) £9.49 per KG

Farm-Direct
4 x Quail £6.50
Lincs poacher cheese £3.37 225g
Organic Topside from Beatbush Farm £9.49 per KG

That’s right, organic beef from Essex for the same price as Ocado’s budget range – a range I’ve nothing against, but the above goes to show that farm-direct doesn’t hit you in the pocket. And then there’s things that you never see in a super markets, such as wild garlic from Martin Mackey Ripple Farm Organics, Canterbury, Kent and a mere £1.35 for 90g, Marfona Potatoes, a haunch of venison, or the charming ’3 chicken eggs and 3 duck eggs’, yours for £1.50.

Farm-direct does a great job of getting small producers products together in one space and selling them at a very competitive price to people who want them, including it seems, live chicks for a customers garden, you can’t see Ocado doing that can you?

The First Food Blogger.

Food, like football, fashion and philately, has enthusiasts; people who are interested in eating for eating’s sake rather than as a means to end. You’re probably one yourself, that’s why you’re reading this book. In the past to express a joy of eating earned the label of gourmand, and had vague associations with gluttony, pleasure in food was a sin. Few foodies these days would describe themselves as a gourmand, and those that do need a reality check. No, like many other hobbies the internet has allowed amateurs – in the original sense of the word, amour – to devote considerable time, effort and disposable income to exploring the world of food and telling us the results.  An awareness of food bloggers is now part of any eatery’s online strategy. Technology has allowed comments, photos, and opinions on what’s in their mouth to be broadcast before they’ve even finished chewing. Restaurants may fear this, but all that’s happening is a faster version of what people have always done, telling people about a good or a bad meal or cooking experience.

Back in 1995, we didn’t have mobile phones, let alone access to the internet, and multi-media meant typing a letter while listening to CD at the same time. What online activity there was was mainly confined to a few academic institutions and telephony companies. But the blokes (and it mainly was blokes back then) who used those early connections started asking and telling other each other where to get a good bite to eat. For younger readers and the less tech savvy, these conversation postings were all conducted on something call Usenet, which allowed like-minded folk gathered around a particular subject, think of them as proto-Facebook groups.

One of the earliest was rec.food.restaurants on which Tim Duncan posted news of Daruma-Ya, a new Japanese restaurant opening in 1995. And where did this iconoclastic digitally-heralded opening take place? Not the Soho media land but on the docks of Leith, Edinburgh. Sadly Daruma-Ya didn’t survive, maybe Edinburgh wasn’t ready for the small clean refinement of Japanese cooking in 1995.

Another pioneer was Graham Trigg, who in 1994 inspired by the late Richard Binns’ French Travel books, put up a website.  ”I started writing notes as dining out was expensive and as time passes all that’s left is a hazy memory and a receipt” says Graham. Graham’s background was in IT, and he was using a system called CIX, or Collaborative Information Exchange even before Usenet.  A project for the airline industry meant Graham had to understand web technology and how to build these new things called websites. Research, work and a personal interest came together. “My first Web site was built in early 1996 and reviewed 17 London restaurants” says Graham.

He also explored a few places outside the capital, for example eating both lunch and dinner at Gidleigh Park in Devon cooked by a 27 year old Michael Caines. The hotel was established by Paul Henderson and was one of the first to have a decent website, not doubt due to Paul coming from San Francisco to set up the place in 1977.

There’s some lovely reviews from the early days of ‘Cool Britannia’ British restaurateuring on Graham’s site. Think back to the mid 90s when the River Café seemed fresh, edgy and modern – Italian without the gingham tablecloths and canon-sized pepper mills. Graham has a 1996 review of lunch at La Tante Claire, then ran by Pierre Koffman, under whom Gordon Ramsay, Marco Pierre White and Marcus Wareing all work at various points. It’s now the site of Gordon Ramsay Hospital Road. He also has notes on Pied a Terre,  another early adopter with a website in the late 1990s. And to those that think fine dining is expensive, Peid a terre’s degastion menu in 2001 was £65 for eight courses, and in 2009 it’s £85 for 10. Not bad. Finally there’s a lovely review of the Walnut Tree in Wales.

All this is remarkable because all this wasn’t that long ago, and though a lot of the venues Graham visited have gone – Coast, Bank etc – many are still there. Now nearly every restaurant has a website, if only with a phone number on it. I asked Graham how restaurant’s website have changed over the years he’s been viewing them.  “In the early days there was too much style over substance and no consideration for the connection speed of the customers i.e. dial-up. The big problem [is] content not being kept up to date, but to be fair this was, and still is, a global web disease.”