The Daily Telegraph, p. 3
By Stephanie Condron
The idea of a Women's Institute tea tent at a pop festival might once have been laughable. But now WI groups across the country have their sights set on events including Glastonbury where they might forge links with younger generations by serving tea and cake.
One WI group has been baking since June in preparation for next month's Bestival music festival on the Isle of Wight. Another group in Yorkshire hopes to attend the Glastonbury music festival in Somerset next June and moves are afoot for a tea tent at the 2007 Big Chill event near Ledbury in Herefordshire.
Read more...
Monday, August 14, 2006
Heatwave will put 4p on a loaf, warn Britain's biggest millers
The Guardian, p. 7
By Martin Hodgson
It has scorched gardens in the home counties, melted roads in Plymouth and choked rivers with poisonous algae. Now the heatwave has claimed a new victim. Bakers warned yesterday that the hot weather will force up the price of bread by up to 4p a loaf, after flour manufacturers announced a rise in the cost of flour.
Rank Hovis and ADM Milling, the country's two biggest flour millers, are raising their prices by up to 20% after wheat crops wilted in the extreme July heat. Increasing energy costs were also blamed for the price rise.
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By Martin Hodgson
It has scorched gardens in the home counties, melted roads in Plymouth and choked rivers with poisonous algae. Now the heatwave has claimed a new victim. Bakers warned yesterday that the hot weather will force up the price of bread by up to 4p a loaf, after flour manufacturers announced a rise in the cost of flour.
Rank Hovis and ADM Milling, the country's two biggest flour millers, are raising their prices by up to 20% after wheat crops wilted in the extreme July heat. Increasing energy costs were also blamed for the price rise.
Read more...
Wine world soured as half-price offers are labelled misleading
The Guardian, Business, p. 20
By Simon Bowers
Jacob's Creek boss breaks ranks to say the £3.99 bottle smells.
Supermarkets and multinational wine groups are making pricing claims that bear little, or no, relation to the true value of the wine they sell, according to a leading industry executive.
Jean-Manuel Spriet, UK boss of the company behind Jacob's Creek, has broken industry ranks to accuse some of his competitors of promoting misleading "half-price" discount deals. He claimed they did so under pressure from powerful supermarket buyers. Mr Spriet, chief executive of Pernod Ricard UK, told the Guardian: "They [other wine suppliers] make the wines designed for sale at £3.99, introduce them at a higher price, and then bring the price down ... they start at £7.99 and are discounted down to half price, which is crazy."
Read more...
By Simon Bowers
Jacob's Creek boss breaks ranks to say the £3.99 bottle smells.
Supermarkets and multinational wine groups are making pricing claims that bear little, or no, relation to the true value of the wine they sell, according to a leading industry executive.
Jean-Manuel Spriet, UK boss of the company behind Jacob's Creek, has broken industry ranks to accuse some of his competitors of promoting misleading "half-price" discount deals. He claimed they did so under pressure from powerful supermarket buyers. Mr Spriet, chief executive of Pernod Ricard UK, told the Guardian: "They [other wine suppliers] make the wines designed for sale at £3.99, introduce them at a higher price, and then bring the price down ... they start at £7.99 and are discounted down to half price, which is crazy."
Read more...
All grown up?
The Guardian, G2
By Laura Barton
Marco Pierre White was the original enfant terrible of the kitchen, as famous for his tantrums as his fantastic, groundbreaking food. As his (ghost-written) autobiography is published, he talks about his three wives, his three Michelin stars, coming to terms with the death of his mother - and that feud with Gordon Ramsay.
Read more...
By Laura Barton
Marco Pierre White was the original enfant terrible of the kitchen, as famous for his tantrums as his fantastic, groundbreaking food. As his (ghost-written) autobiography is published, he talks about his three wives, his three Michelin stars, coming to terms with the death of his mother - and that feud with Gordon Ramsay.
Read more...
Saturday, August 12, 2006
Trapani on a plate
The Guardian
By Fiona Sims
It's closer to Africa than mainland Italy, and that's what gives the Sicilian town its unique flavours.
These are the best sardines I've ever tasted - filleted then stuffed with orange juice moistened breadcrumbs, raisins, pine kernels and fresh mint. It's classic Sicilian cooking - but the orange is a Trapani thing.
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By Fiona Sims
It's closer to Africa than mainland Italy, and that's what gives the Sicilian town its unique flavours.
These are the best sardines I've ever tasted - filleted then stuffed with orange juice moistened breadcrumbs, raisins, pine kernels and fresh mint. It's classic Sicilian cooking - but the orange is a Trapani thing.
Read more...
Little chef: teenage cook takes bestselling recipes to America
The Independent, p. 13
By Ian Herbert
Sam Stern has never been afraid of challenges. In the past 12 months, the 15-year-old has persuaded a generation of his peers to make everything from moules marinière to pre-exam hot chocolate, with his best-selling book, Cooking up a Storm.
Now, after a television career which had been limited to the friendly studios of Blue Peter and This Morning, he is making his biggest career move yet, by taking his talents to America.
Read more...
By Ian Herbert
Sam Stern has never been afraid of challenges. In the past 12 months, the 15-year-old has persuaded a generation of his peers to make everything from moules marinière to pre-exam hot chocolate, with his best-selling book, Cooking up a Storm.
Now, after a television career which had been limited to the friendly studios of Blue Peter and This Morning, he is making his biggest career move yet, by taking his talents to America.
Read more...
Friday, August 11, 2006
The chapati's over
The Guardian, G2
... for Indian home cooking. More and more British Asians are spurning tradition and dishing up ready-made meals instead. But, as Mira Katbamna reports, we're not talking a chicken biryiani from Tesco ...
Read more...
... for Indian home cooking. More and more British Asians are spurning tradition and dishing up ready-made meals instead. But, as Mira Katbamna reports, we're not talking a chicken biryiani from Tesco ...
Read more...
What's good now? Lobster
The Guardian, G2
By Paul Waddington
Nowadays, food is all about issues. Name me a food and I will name you the tricky issue that goes with it. Pork? Intensive farming. Strawberries? Proliferating polytunnels and blandness. Soya? Rainforest degradation. There are, of course, easy, tasty ways around many of these issues: eat genuinely free-range pork; choose only in-season, outdoor strawberries; give up tofu. High up the list of issues-laden food would be lobster. It is classified by the Marine Conservation Society as over-fished, although initiatives (such as marking egg-bearing females) are in place to try to restore stocks.
Read more...
By Paul Waddington
Nowadays, food is all about issues. Name me a food and I will name you the tricky issue that goes with it. Pork? Intensive farming. Strawberries? Proliferating polytunnels and blandness. Soya? Rainforest degradation. There are, of course, easy, tasty ways around many of these issues: eat genuinely free-range pork; choose only in-season, outdoor strawberries; give up tofu. High up the list of issues-laden food would be lobster. It is classified by the Marine Conservation Society as over-fished, although initiatives (such as marking egg-bearing females) are in place to try to restore stocks.
Read more...
Curse of Jamie Oliver strikes down burger firm
The Guardian
By Simon Bowers
A Bristol meat producer, which supplies schools and UK fast food chains with beefburgers and sausages, has appointed administrators from PricewaterhouseCoopers.
TQF experienced falling orders in the wake of JTV chef Jamie Oliver's campaign for higher food standards in schools. The company, which operates from a factory in Yate, had been the meat manufacturing arm of Aim-listed Canterbury Foods, itself forced to call in PwC administrators in January. Canterbury suffered after the loss of a Burger King contract in 2002. PwC hopes to sell TQF as a going concern.
Read more...
By Simon Bowers
A Bristol meat producer, which supplies schools and UK fast food chains with beefburgers and sausages, has appointed administrators from PricewaterhouseCoopers.
TQF experienced falling orders in the wake of JTV chef Jamie Oliver's campaign for higher food standards in schools. The company, which operates from a factory in Yate, had been the meat manufacturing arm of Aim-listed Canterbury Foods, itself forced to call in PwC administrators in January. Canterbury suffered after the loss of a Burger King contract in 2002. PwC hopes to sell TQF as a going concern.
Read more...
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
What's good now? Broad beans
The Guardian
By Paul Waddington
I love broad beans. Not necessarily for their gastronomic virtues, of which there are many, but for the simple reason that they make me look like a vaguely competent vegetable gardener. My second year as an allotment-holder is not going well. Thanks to unforgivable neglect during the crucial May-June period when all is mad growth, I am now fighting a desperate rearguard action against weeds and pests. Eagerly awaited peas and lettuces were utterly devoured by slugs, weevils and probably mice, and other crops are engaged in an unequal struggle with bindweed. But the broad beans are standing proud and cropping copiously, because that is what broad beans do.
Read more...
By Paul Waddington
I love broad beans. Not necessarily for their gastronomic virtues, of which there are many, but for the simple reason that they make me look like a vaguely competent vegetable gardener. My second year as an allotment-holder is not going well. Thanks to unforgivable neglect during the crucial May-June period when all is mad growth, I am now fighting a desperate rearguard action against weeds and pests. Eagerly awaited peas and lettuces were utterly devoured by slugs, weevils and probably mice, and other crops are engaged in an unequal struggle with bindweed. But the broad beans are standing proud and cropping copiously, because that is what broad beans do.
Read more...
Monday, August 07, 2006
Brewers and publicans lift their cask ale glasses to a rosy future
The Guardian, p. 21
By Katie Allen
As the Great British Beer Festival drew to a close in London over the weekend, real ale campaigners were celebrating a record number of visitors and predicting a brighter future for cask ale.
The onslaught of cheap lager multipacks, fewer manual labourers and desertion by big name brewers have all been blamed for cask ale's demise. While big names such as Abbot Ale and Old Empire have posted rises, overall sales of cask ale (living, unpasteurised beer) have been falling for years.
Read more...
By Katie Allen
As the Great British Beer Festival drew to a close in London over the weekend, real ale campaigners were celebrating a record number of visitors and predicting a brighter future for cask ale.
The onslaught of cheap lager multipacks, fewer manual labourers and desertion by big name brewers have all been blamed for cask ale's demise. While big names such as Abbot Ale and Old Empire have posted rises, overall sales of cask ale (living, unpasteurised beer) have been falling for years.
Read more...
Quorn helps double Premier profits
The Guardian
By Katie Allen
Quorn's reach has been increased with more advertising and more products. Premier Foods has more than doubled its profits thanks to booming sales of its fungus-based meat replacement, Quorn.
The food group behind Angel Delight and Branston pickle said today that pre-tax profits for the six months to July 1 rose to £27.9m. This was a 123% jump from a year ago, largely thanks to Quorn.
Read more...
By Katie Allen
Quorn's reach has been increased with more advertising and more products. Premier Foods has more than doubled its profits thanks to booming sales of its fungus-based meat replacement, Quorn.
The food group behind Angel Delight and Branston pickle said today that pre-tax profits for the six months to July 1 rose to £27.9m. This was a 123% jump from a year ago, largely thanks to Quorn.
Read more...
Beaune - the perfect place to avoid claret
The Independent, p. 19
By John Lichfield: Our Man In Burgundy
Where would you find a wine list in France without a single bottle of Bordeaux? Easy. Go to Beaune, capital of the Burgundy wine industry.
In a Beaune restaurant, we were given a list with 20 pages of Burgundy wines and then - as a sop to the obstinate - two pages of "wines from the provinces of France". The sub-list contained bottles from every French region, except Bordeaux.
Read more...
By John Lichfield: Our Man In Burgundy
Where would you find a wine list in France without a single bottle of Bordeaux? Easy. Go to Beaune, capital of the Burgundy wine industry.
In a Beaune restaurant, we were given a list with 20 pages of Burgundy wines and then - as a sop to the obstinate - two pages of "wines from the provinces of France". The sub-list contained bottles from every French region, except Bordeaux.
Read more...
Warning over food packaging allergy
The Independent, p. 12
By Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor
Chocolate bar and ice cream wrappers containing latex can trigger potentially fatal allergic reactions in sensitive people but there is no law for it to be listed on labels, experts have warned.
A study commissioned by the Food Standards Agency found that one-third of packaging tested was contaminated with latex, which in some cases transferred to the food.
Read more...
By Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor
Chocolate bar and ice cream wrappers containing latex can trigger potentially fatal allergic reactions in sensitive people but there is no law for it to be listed on labels, experts have warned.
A study commissioned by the Food Standards Agency found that one-third of packaging tested was contaminated with latex, which in some cases transferred to the food.
Read more...
Pitch perfect
The Guardian, G2
Modern Britain doesn't know what to make of its food markets. Noisy, smelly and crowded, they draw some customers in but drive others to safe, predictable supermarkets. Many traders have gone out of business. Those that remain, however, offer some of the freshest, most delicious fare you can imagine. Bibi van der Zee visits some of the country's most exciting survivors.
Read more...
Modern Britain doesn't know what to make of its food markets. Noisy, smelly and crowded, they draw some customers in but drive others to safe, predictable supermarkets. Many traders have gone out of business. Those that remain, however, offer some of the freshest, most delicious fare you can imagine. Bibi van der Zee visits some of the country's most exciting survivors.
Read more...
Friday, August 04, 2006
Soundbites: Dumplings and pancakes at the Russian bar, Korea
The Guardian, G2
We're wandering round the market in Incheon, Korea. Jean tells me that it's quiet today. The stallholders normally shout at you about how good their food is. Koreans are rather like Italians. We pass a stall loaded with dried fish - big ones staring from sunken eyes like marine mummies, tiny silver ones like metal filings in a sack.
Christine points at some microscopic shrimp. They are soaked in salt for a very long time so all the juice comes out, and the flavour is magnificent. We eat them with kimchi pancakes. I bring my face close to a bucket of clams in seawater. Semi-opaque tubes protrude from the shells; one gently breaks the surface like a periscope and shoots an arc of water at me.
Read more...
We're wandering round the market in Incheon, Korea. Jean tells me that it's quiet today. The stallholders normally shout at you about how good their food is. Koreans are rather like Italians. We pass a stall loaded with dried fish - big ones staring from sunken eyes like marine mummies, tiny silver ones like metal filings in a sack.
Christine points at some microscopic shrimp. They are soaked in salt for a very long time so all the juice comes out, and the flavour is magnificent. We eat them with kimchi pancakes. I bring my face close to a bucket of clams in seawater. Semi-opaque tubes protrude from the shells; one gently breaks the surface like a periscope and shoots an arc of water at me.
Read more...
Cooking with my hero
The Guardian, G2
For years Anna Del Conte's Italian recipes have entranced and inspired Charlotte Higgins. Now she is making lunch with her. Risotto has never seemed so daunting ...
Read more...
For years Anna Del Conte's Italian recipes have entranced and inspired Charlotte Higgins. Now she is making lunch with her. Risotto has never seemed so daunting ...
Read more...
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