TRAVELLING chef Philippa Davis has been back in Dorset for the first few weeks of 2017 – back to freezing fog and other seasonal delights. So here’s a totally delicious cake from her festive and New Year baking, to enjoy with a mug of hot chocolate (perhaps with a little something extra to keep the…
by Simone Sekers TRYING to play the glad game about leaving Brexit, I wondered whether, instead of all those smug Wrecksiteers going on about “getting our country back,” it might be possible to think about getting France back instead. This would restore the magic of that descent from the ferry in to the very heart…
“Welcome to Scotland, Its -6 °C”! the cheerful staff at Enterprise car hire chirped. I think if they had looked closely at my five layers, hat, gloves, fur lined boots, hunched shoulders and hopping around moves, they would have been well aware that I had totally sussed that part of the situation out. Winning top…
ARMED with my lists, menus, timings, recipes, dietary requirement sheets and suitcase of red aprons I was totally ready for this job. Five days of feasting and festivities for 20 people, heading to the ice blue skies and rustic, rural, rolling landscape of South West France. I was prepared for the fast and furious few…
TWINKLING lights around the ancient farmyard, glittering Christmas trees and a menu packed with festive favourites – it would be hard to imagine a more magical setting for a pre-Christmas dinner than Symondsbury Kitchen. On the evening we went, it was cold, properly frosty cold, so you wanted to be inside, looking out at the…
AS I write the rain is cascading down the conservatory window outside our office, so it seems like a good time to picture sun-baked, white painted Greek villages and the warm and mouthwatering flavours of the Mediterranean, evoked by Philippa Davis after two weeks working on the Greek island of Paros … When most families…
I WILL admit I go through obsessional phases with certain foods. Looking through my October menus, despite there being a broad range of occasions – think Jewish New Year to partridge shoot suppers – there has definitely been a leaning towards one particular ingredient. Pomegranates, anchovies, star anise, honey, caraway, venison are some of the…
ONCE in a blue moon, private chef Philippa Davis travels for pleasure rather than work. She has just had a few days in Venice, the location for the brilliant thriller Don’t Look Now, based on a Daphne du Maurier short story, and starring Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland. Fortunately Philippa’s visit involved delicious food adventures…
PHILIPPA Davis has recently returned from her first visit to the Mediterranean island of Sardinia … Sardinia meant a new destination and new client for me so it was very exciting. The initial introductions were done over the phone and it all seemed that it would work out very nicely until … “Oh yes, we…
Philippa Davis finds there is more to Ibiza than drinking and clubbing I felt like a real party pooper as I sat soberly on the plane heading from Edinburgh to Ibiza. It was around midday and the rest of passengers were clearly well on their way to tipsy land. Amusingly as soon as the seatbelt…