ALL our lives we have tried to combine our love of old buildings with our love of good food. It’s not always easy, but there have been gastro-pubs in listed buildings, fine picnics in picturesque ruins, even a good tea in a defunct railway station. So when we gave Orkney a thought as a holiday…
MARK Hartstone, chef proprietor of La Fosse restaurant with rooms at Cranborne, is famous in the region for his cheeseboard, sharing with his customers his passion for and knowledge of local cheeses. So it was a natural progression for him to devise a tasting menu, so that diners could not only sample small quantities of…
TRAVELLING chef Philippa Davis from Shaftesbury has been back to France again (we can’t tell you how much we envy her, but then we don’t cook as well as she does!) and this week’s postcard from Philippa was full of the delights of visiting a lovely family who live in the Midi-Pyrenees, west of Toulouse…
HOME in the West Country, from her busy life as a travelling chef, Shaftesbury-born Philippa Davis is enjoying the explosion of blossoms and green life around her in Wiltshire … Happy as a pig in a bun…. BLOSSOM is exploding all over Wiltshire at the moment with magnolia flowers and cherry blossoms bursting out…
TASTE of the West judges who visited the Riverside Restaurant at West Bay sent a rave review, awarded the restaurant a gold star and concluded “this place should have a Michelin star.” Arthur Watson, who this year celebrates 50 years of running the Riverside with his wife Jan, was understandably thrilled: “It is a wonderful…
WHEN New Zealand dairy farmer Louise Talbot moved to Dorset with her family she was surprised to discover that almost nobody made their own cheese – quite the opposite of what she was used to. Louise decided to share her expertise by setting up a cookery school with a difference – Louise brings her Cutting…
A STYLISH restaurant with good food, attractively presented, served by charming, helpful waiters – and very affordable. What more could you ask? Add to those essential ingredients the spice that you are helping the training and development of the next generation of chefs and hospitality staff, and you have a recipe for customer satisfaction. The…
TRAVELLING chef Philippa Davis from Shaftesbury has had a busy winter and early spring with visits to the Caribbean, Scotland and Switzerland where she was catering in a chalet at Verbier … Never having been a seasonaire (usually someone in their early 20s who spends their winter working in a chalet and off on…
In Dublin’s fair city, there is something delicious for breakfast…. OUR favourite travelling chef, Philippa Davis from Shaftesbury, has been busy these past few weeks, including a short stay in Dublin where her healthy breakfast choices were a bit of a shock for her clients … So the conversation went a little like…
A BEAUTIFUL country house hotel, in one of the most perfect Wiltshire villages, Howards House Hotel has been named Britain’s Most Romantic Hotel in the Good Hotel Guide since 2010. The independent, family-run hotel, beside the Teff chalk stream which runs through Teffont Evias, in the south west corner of the county, is also renowned…