BYO is actively encouraged in California. Maybe it helps having such a thriving wine economy in the area, but restaurants are perfectly happy for you to arrive with a bottle of wine for a very paltry]]> Sam Thackeray 2009-11-19T08:38:33+00:00 http://www.spectator.co.uk/scoff/blog/5522493/red-velvet.thtml It was earlier this year, that I first began to hear wild and incredible rumours of a most fabulous-sounding delight: the ‘red velvet cake’.  It sounded like something the gods themselves would eat, or maybe Colette, chewing thoughtfully as she lay on a chaise longue in an ornate salon, seducing young girls. But then I read about someone cooking this cake, and beetroot being the main ingredient. Yuck, I thought. More like something a misguided hippy would eat. 

Then recently, I had some small children to entertain and thought this concoction might be the answer: it would have healthy beetroot (not fun) but this would be offset by the fact that there was cake (fun).

So I looked around but could not find a recipe for this magic foodstuff that combined the righteous with the scandalous. (I think it came from a book that’s out about how to cook low-fat cakes with veg, an irritating concept on several levels.) But I did find lots instead about a famous Red Velvet Cake, which it turns out to be a tradition of the Deep South in the US of A and contains whacking great spoonfuls of red food colouring. Which is]]> Jessica Fellowes 2009-11-09T20:18:33+00:00 http://www.spectator.co.uk/scoff/blog/5510443/sap-rising.thtml The kitchen was filled with the smell of warm earth. Every inch of counter space was strewn with vegetables, and in the garden a sweet Mexican corn cake attracted wasps, which banged drowsily against the mesh of an upturned colander. The scene was stolen from the tranquil West Country and transported to busy Central London courtesy of Riverford Organic, who are running a lunch club initiative as a way to market their vegetable box delivery scheme.

Here's the formula: a Riverford customer invites eight to ten of his or her friends to a lunch cooked for them at home by a freelance, Riverford-approved chef, using the finest produce of the season, straight from the farm. The chef may bring a limited selection of 'toolbox' ingredients - olive oil, feta cheese or breadcrumbs, herbs and spices - but relies for the most part on the delivery of the day. The lunch takes place with much good cheer, and afterwards the serene and the well-fed sign up to become part of the Riverford Organic family.

What these lunches demonstrate is how easy it is to use your vegetable box delivery imaginatively. So often, I shrink under the wrinkled lip of the]]> Tilly Culme-Seymour 2009-11-06T08:21:55+00:00 http://www.spectator.co.uk/scoff/blog/5506288/you-say-ceviche-i-say-cerbiche.thtml The corn chowder, that American classic, was pretty well perfect - sweet, slightly spicy and so more-ish. Santa Barbara shrimp tacos were fabulous too, with a piquant salsa and zingy guacamole. But the star of the show was the pudding: hot pecan pie with praline ice cream and hot fudge sauce; a coronary waiting to happen, but what a way to go.

As we headed up the freeway out of LA, we had been advised to stop at Neptune’s Net for lunch, just beyond Malibu. Right on the highway, overlooking the crashing waves of the Pacific, this restaurant is little more than an oversized crab shack, but they sure know how to prepare seafood. We gorged ourselves on the freshest of produce, simply boiled and served with mayonnaise and tartare sauce. We ate a whole lobster, six huge king crab claws with the most succulent and sweet meat I’ve ever tasted, a kilo of shrimp and seafood ceviche. For $70, it was an absolute steal. We licked our fingers in triumph. 

I ate a particularly fine ceviche –  which is essentially raw fish 'cooked' in citrus juice with chilli, coriander (cilantro) and onion – in San Francisco, in one of the old wharf buildings by]]> Sam Thackeray 2009-11-05T08:36:48+00:00 http://www.spectator.co.uk/scoff/blog/5502188/california-dreamin.thtml I used to think London was one of the greatest cities in the world when it came to food. It may not have the single best restaurant, but from Eritrean to Eastern European, from Michelin stars and gourmet French to Pacific Rim, you could find excellent examples of all types of cuisine. Think about how difficult it would be to find a decent Pakistani restaurant in Paris, or Iranian in Milan. Our European neighbours have extraordinary establishments when it comes to their native cuisine, but are a long way behind when it comes to diversity. Come to think of it, London still is one of the greats, but believe me, it has much to learn: and that lesson comes from our cousins over the water.

If you are a serious foodie, sooner or later you need to visit California. To compare London to an entire state seems vastly unfair, but to all intents and purposes, London is British cuisine. It is Britain’s food capital, and it best represents what we can do.  California however, is a veritable goldmine, with fantastic dining available all over the state, just waiting to be discovered. My new wife and I decided to do things properly for our]]> Sam Thackeray 2009-11-03T22:36:43+00:00 http://www.spectator.co.uk/scoff/blog/5493898/proud-to-partake-of-your-pumpkin-pie.thtml I have always loved pumpkin pie. It is at once spicy and comforting, just what you need at this time of year. I’ve tried endless versions of this American classic, from a red custard tart sprinkled with cinnamon, to the wonderfully luxurious, real thing. In pursuit of the holy grail of pies, here’s my current favourite.

The Pumpkins

Unsurprisingly, the most important component of a good pumpkin pie is the pumpkin. Choose badly and you may as well not bother.

My main tip, is not to use the pumpkins that are sold in supermarkets for carving at Halloween. These are bred for easy scooping, not great cooking.

Any of the following will make a good pie:

Potimarron - Bright orange, onion-shaped variety with a slight chestnutty flavour.

Potiron rouge vif d'Étampes - The most widely grown variety in France, with a dense orange flesh.

Hungarian Blue - This has silvery-blue skin, and firm orange flesh. It's great in soups.

The Crust

Too many pies make do with a dreary, floury crust that becomes soggy as soon as the pie comes out of the oven. I think an almond biscuit crust is pretty well perfect. And what's more,]]> Chris Foulkes 2009-11-01T14:44:22+00:00 http://www.spectator.co.uk/scoff/blog/5487923/sir-loin-and-friends.thtml It is the misfortune of the cook seldom to be cooked for. My friends often shirk cooking for me, citing my fussiness as a good excuse for me to knot my apron strings and get the damn food on the table. This weekend was a glorious exception. I am staying at my sister's house in Ravenscourt Park, freed from the responsibilities and frustrations of Home proper while enjoying the steadying comforts of a home from home. On Saturday night Joseph came round to cook me supper: sirloin steak cooked on the grill, French mustard, oven chips, fennel and rocket salad with marjoram and oil.

The following morning we took the Hammersmith & City line to the farmer’s market in Marylebone. The queues outside Madame Tussauds, and the milling crowd in the car park behind Waitrose, gave the impression that we had rather won the pools of time than lost the grace of summer. It had been settled before our purchases were made that we prepare a Sunday ‘leftovers’ supper cooked from scratch. And carrying round a stem of vivid green brussel sprouts and a bunch of purple flowers, while Joseph picked heads of celery, cooking apples, cobnuts and pink fir]]> Tilly Culme-Seymour 2009-10-29T23:48:41+00:00 http://www.spectator.co.uk/scoff/blog/5484813/poached-chicken-comfort-and-joy.thtml I poached a chicken last weekend: I knew it would be a success, as the method was based on one from a book by Simon Hopkinson, former chef at Bibendum, who is one of a very few cookery writers whose recipes I have never known to fail.

Famously, his ‘Roast chicken and other stories’ was voted ‘most useful cookbook of all time’ in a poll of other chefs and writers conducted by Waitrose Food Illustrated in 2005: as one of the many who already used this book at that time, more by luck than judgement no doubt, I agreed. It really is not only the most fabulously useful book, covering a wide range of ingredients and styles in an entertaining way, and in paperback form is so much easier to use than the recent wave of garish hardback giants of cookbooks.

‘Second helpings of roast chicken’ is equally good, and ‘Gammon and spinach’, Hopkinson’s collected columns for the Independent on Sunday, holds together pretty well too. If I were fussy, and I suppose I am, the only criticism I can find is that his style occasionally fluctuates into the over-written gush, or the foodie anecdote too far, but]]> Dan Jellinek 2009-10-29T07:49:52+00:00 http://www.spectator.co.uk/scoff/blog/5480793/state-of-the-art.thtml I walked to The Wallace Collection on a warm October evening and arrived at an impressive building with a fairytale entrance. The paths were bordered with lights, and it was so elegant, I felt I should have arrived chauffeur-driven, wearing a ball dress.

I had been invited to a private view of No Love Lost, Blue Paintings by Damien Hirst, and to experience the ‘Feasting menu’ by Oliver Peyton, cooked in the restaurant nestled in the building.

Inside, I was greeted by a palatial interior, with high ceilings and a sweeping staircase decorated with priceless treasures. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the custodians of the collection were the Seymour-Conway family. Set in the heart of Marylebone in Manchester Square, Hertford House was later owned by the 4th Marquess of Hertford’s son, Sir Richard Wallace (1818-1890). It is now a museum, celebrated for its 17th and 18th Century French and British paintings.

We gathered in a pretty courtyard where Oliver Peyton spoke about the merging of art and food and the opportunities it created. There are restaurants that explore this concept, but there could be more, and it is an exciting and worthy investigation for the future.]]> Kay Hare 2009-10-28T09:21:08+00:00 http://www.spectator.co.uk/scoff/blog/5479728/buckets-and-spades.thtml Southwest London – leafy, quiet streets of Victorian houses. North Cornwall – the bone-chilling Atlantic wind, massive breakers and tiny beach houses clinging onto the cliffs for dear life. What could these two alien places have in common with each other? Food is the answer. In London, tucked away between a church and a park is an haven for gardeners and the green fingered alike. Smoke gently rising from bonfires mixes powerfully with the smell of compost and deliciously moist earth. Men and women potter about in gumboots, all with a reverent care for their plants, be it just one of the small flower patches, or a full blown Mr. Macgregor’s garden, complete with marvellous marrows and rosy radishes (though Peter Rabbits are unwelcome).

Down in deepest darkest Cornwall, a group of children armed with plastic buckets and bottles of table salt scamper across a wet and windy beach, in search of perfect razor clams. Intently, they peer at the wet sand by the sea shore looking for tiny letterbox shaped holes. A girl finds one with a cry of delight and hurriedly pours salt into the hole. Her eyes are focused, looking for signs of life. A small sucking]]> Araminta Eyre 2009-10-27T21:47:32+00:00