by Simone Sekers THE first shrimping trip of the season is always a triumph of expectation over fulfilment, but the glittering May sunshine on the waves is so enticing that we can never resist. The very fact that there are waves is an indication that shrimping isn’t going to work – that chilly spring breeze…
Private chef Philippa Davis has just returned from the south of France – in time for English asparagus! LAST week I almost fainted. By instruction of a client I was purchasing some relatively good-looking apples from a trendy west London shop. The fruits were prettily laid out in pristine new wicker baskets and they had an…
THE new Gainsborough Bath Spa hotel has been featured in the Condé Nast Traveller 2016 Hot List: The Best New Hotels in the World. This prestigious listing features the editors’ and contributing reporters’ handpicked selection of their favourite new hotels for 2016. After visiting six continents and 36 countries, the team reduced the list to…
by Simone Sekers MARCH saw us trawling Macclesfield’s Treacle Market, and by great good luck April found us in my home town of Lewes, in Sussex, looking at another range of local foods. My family left the town for a nearby village when I was ten, at an age when food was, well, just food….
THE sun was out, I had front row seats to the hottest Easter party in the Algarve (OK, I was cooking for it) and we had more chocolate than Willy Wonka for the Easter Egg Hunt of 2016, I just knew it was going to be a great week. On the southern coast of Portugal…
MACCLESFIELD in Cheshire holds its Treacle Market on the last Saturday of every month; it’s a relatively new invention, aimed at bringing back life to one of the most attractive small towns that orbit Manchester. It reminded me of our own Frome Independent, the market stalls trickling down the hills and congregating wherever there’s a…
PHILIPPA Davis had an exhausting few days recently, including cooking for a Shabbat in West London, a whisky tasting lunch and photographic exhibition in a Soho car park, a wine tasting at the fabulous Whirly Wines down in Tooting Bec, working on a brilliant Dorset book project* and a trip to Nice and Monaco. I…
JOIN the supper club at La Fosse, the restaurant with rooms in the centre of Cranborne, for a taste of Ireland on Thursday 17th March. You might be lucky enough to get one of the two remaining tables for the Irish Supper Club, where chef-proprietor Mark Hartstone will be serving traditional dishes including lamb, boxty,…
NAVIGATING airports at half term is a bit like playing a kids computer game, says the Dorset-born private chef Philippa Davis. The route from departures in one country to arrivals in another is pitted with challenges, obstacles and tasks to test your intuition and skill – and all has to be completed within a certain…
TOURISM conferences in Wiltshire and Cornwall in March have been announced as part of the South West Tourism Growth Fund, with the aim of helping businesses in the region to do things differently and increase tourism throughout the year. The conferences are at Bowood House near Chippenham on 10th March and at the Eden Project…