Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Gluttony is good for you

The Guardian

By Zoe Williams, columnist

Eat up. The fatter you are, the less likely you are to get depressed and commit suicide.

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Tuesday, December 27, 2005

The rising price of gastropub food gives Ronay a case of indigestion

The Independent

By Thair Shaikh

Egon Ronay recently celebrated British gastropubs by comparing their food and service favourably with more expensive restaurants and claiming that they were often better than traditional French bistros.
He even defended British cuisine against the acerbic opinions of France's President Jacques Chirac, and flew the flag for British mutton, still an unfashionable cut of meat.
But now, only a few weeks after praising them, the doyen of food critics has criticised gastropubs for being too expensive.

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Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Yorkshire pud seduces Italians

The Telegraph

By Richard Alleyne

When it comes to food, the traffic between Italy and England has been one way for centuries. But for the first time the Italians have developed a taste for British cuisine.

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Simon Hopkinson: You Ask The Questions

The Independent

Born and raised in Lancashire, Simon Hopkinson was 17 when he got his first kitchen job at La Normandie restaurant in Birtle. There he worked under the tutelage of Yves Champeau, before moving to London to set up Bibendum (right) in Kensington with Sir Terence Conran. He left in 1995 to concentrate on being a food writer (he was an award-winning columnist for The Independent), and his book, Roast Chicken and Other Stories, was recently voted, by a panel of food experts in Waitrose Food Illustrated, "the most useful recipe book ever written".

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Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Black pudding meets white truffle as Yorkshire chef's recipes sweep Italy

The Independent

By Ian Herbert, North of England Correspondent

Britain's enthusiasm for Italian cuisine has made celebrities out of chefs such as Antonio Carluccio and Giorgio Locatelli, who have travelled to these shores in the hope of making a modest living. But now it seems that British cuisine has something to offer the Italians, too.

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Friday, December 16, 2005

I ate all the pies

The Guardian

By Paul Lewis

As a struggling vegetarian who eats organic bran flakes for breakfast, I was hardly the most likely contender for yesterday's World Pie-Eating Championship. Yet there I was at Harry's Bar in Wigan, pitted against the world's top pie- eaters in the ultimate test of chomping endurance.

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An unsavoury online guide to restaurant kitchens

The Independent

By Martin Hickman, Consumer Affairs Correspondent

What really goes on in the kitchens of restaurants has long been a matter of conjecture to the customers waiting for their food. Now diners in one provincial city can check the cleanliness and safety of their local restaurants before they book a table.
In what is believed to be the first scheme of its kind in Britain, Norwich city council is publishing reports from its environmental health inspections on its website. The council has given a one to five star rating for all of the city's 217 food outlets.

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Sunday, December 11, 2005

First sitting: The world's hot tables

The Independent

He's eaten his way around the world - and in all the best restaurants. The Indepenednt's food critic Terry Durack reveals the coolest places to unfurl your napkin.

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