Gourmet & Speciality Foods in general

Who would have thought I would be writing a review on gourmet food. I didn't even know what it was up until a few years a go but since marrying Andrew, I have had regular opportunities to eat the stuff and I have to say that it's a winner in my eyes. Gourmet food is all about the flavours and presentation. When a dish is presented in front of me I am always reluctant to eat it because it always looks so beautiful; it's vibrant and everything is placed precisely on the plate and it's all finished off with garnish and sauces. The flavours are just amazing and whilst I never used to 'get' the whole gourmet food situation, I certainly did when I ate ...  Read the complete review

Gourmet food is one of those things I learnt about from watching and reading the likes of Gordon Ramsay and Marco Pierre White. We are very lucky in Plymouth to have a few gourmet restaurants, and through eating at these I have come to have some strong opinions about what makes gourmet food so great. Firstly, gourmet food has moved on from the 70s and 80s. In today's environmentally friendly context, gourmet food must be seasonal and local wherever possible. In reality, only 30% or so of the very best restaurant's food is local, but it's a step in the right direction. Add to this the fact that a lot of the food is organic, and you're eating fresh, full ...  Read the complete review

So it’s Christmas Eve and to get the senses ready for the festivities I decided to make some mince pies. Now, if you are like me, I do not have the time or patience to be making my own mincemeat and find it much easier to cheat with a ready made jar (I really do cheat – I also buy the pastry ready made but that’s for a different review!) This year I hunted around and settled on Tesco’s Mincemeat with cherries, almonds and brandy. The jar cost appoximately £1.30, the contents weighed approximately 411g and I got 36 small to medium sized mince pies out of it. The Initial Aroma: Upon opening, you get an ...  Read the complete review

What do you do as a person who's trying to put her money where her (enormous) mouth is with regard to ethical food purchasing but you just can't find the time? You're trying to keep away from nasty additives, irradiated groceries, exploitative production methods for both workers and livestock, but you keep on needing some beef stock. Just one peek at the ingredients on the Bisto and Oxo packets frightens the life out of you, but you really do need that beef stock. Well, you know, I do believe I have the answer. Enter Baxter's Luxury Beef Consommé. It comes in a tin. I think the tins in the Baxter range are rather dull to look at, if I'm ...  Read the complete review

This past Friday was an event much anticipated, the culmination of my most massive undertaking since an abortive attempt at recreating a scale model Viking longboat and sailing it in a municipal swimming pool while grilling hamburgers on a hibachi. (The boat actually did set sail, we got it that far. But something went awry with the hibachi and the poor thing burned. I'm not joking, either. It's more sad than it is funny, you just had to have been there. We named it the Bismarck, even.) But Friday had nothing to do with a funeral pyre for which I never bargained, thank all that's holy. It was the annual University of Helsinki International ...  Read the complete review