Society

Saturday

Dan Jellinek

Taste test: British Charcuterie

Overall, we were a little disappointed at the quality of British offerings, but perhaps it’s not surprising given the newness of our charcuterie traditions. And, in the sparkling setting of Harrods’ new wine rooms, we did unearth a few treats Panel: Tilly Culme-Seymour, Deputy Editor, Spectator Scoff (tcs) Dan Jellinek, Co-Editor, Spectator Scoff (dj) Bruce Langlands, Director, Harrods Food Halls (bl) Sudi Pigott, Food writer (sp) CLASSIC CUTS Deli Farm Charcuterie: Cornish coppa (£5.30/100g, www.delifarmcharcuterie.co.uk) This was an odd combination of ‘perfumed, but salty’ (sp). ‘Chewy — doesn’t really melt in the mouth, taste lingers’ (bl). ‘Slightly pepperami texture, quite earthy’ (tcs). Trealy Farm Charcuterie: lomo (www.trealy.co.uk) ‘Very oily, you

Sudi Piggott

The Cure | 9 April 2011

On the continent, the creators of cured meats can draw on a tradition imbued in the genes (in the case of Parma ham, for example) since the time of Hannibal. Can a much newer generation of British charcutiers possibly hope to compete, boosted by the surge of interest in hand-made food with clear, local provenance and with a potent mix of bloody-minded determination and passion? Of course, there has long been a tradition of British hams — think Cumbrian or Carmarthen — but somehow they’ve never quite enjoyed the recognition and kudos of their European counterparts. But now at last we’re seeing British coppa (air-dried pork collar) and culatello (taken,

The Spectator

Advertisement Feature: Beauty and the Beast

Advertisement Feature UNNECESSARILY WELL MADE The objective at Glenmorangie is whisky perfection; there are no quick fixes and, at each stage, only the best will do. The distillery has been pursuing this same goal since 1843 and makes Scotland’s favourite single malt. Glenmorangie is known for having the tallest stills in Scotland, standing at an impressive 5.14 metres (16ft 101/4 inches). In a Darwinian idiom, the more the alcohol vapours have to defy gravity as they climb to the top of the stills, the greater the likelihood that the fatter, heavier ones won’t survive. Thus, the tall stills result in only the very lightest and purest spirit making it over

Margaret Kemp

Rooftop chic

Paris’ s top restaurants, the Opéra, Louis Vuitton: rooftop beehives are the latest must-have for the best French addresses. Margaret Kemp samples the sweetness Ever since the achingly chic Left Bank restaurant La Tour d’Argent announced the installation of six beehives on their rooftop overlooking the Seine, beekeeping is the new black in Paris. The Tour’s ‘must have’ honey pots, with notes of linden and lavender, are sold in the restaurant’s boutique (www.latourdargent.com) and used by chef-patissier Guillaume Caron in his fig and honey dessert. Pollinating bees thrive in Paris where pesticides are banned, working balconies, parks and tree-lined boulevards. ‘Spraying chemicals disrupts bees’ nervous systems, making them vulnerable to

Kelly Falconer

Hidden gem

Britain is a country that loves its imports: its BMWs, its Egyptian cotton, its Russian vodka and its hardworking Polish builders. And with our history of imperialism and exploration, our palates have developed a taste for a smorgasbord of flavours. We delight in the Kama Sutra pleasures of Indian food in Brick Lane, Birmingham or even in the wilds of Scotland in places such as Lossiemouth. We have Cantonese food; Szechuan food; Vietnamese food; Japanese noodle bars; Thai restaurants; Greek restaurants and now Polish restaurants as well. Over the past 15 years or so, a British food revolution has also taken place, with the consequence that we are forever in

Natasha Hughes

Hit and miss

Going out for a meal shouldn’t be an occasion for stress; other than first dates or tricky business lunches of course. Yet often, simply being handed the wine list can cause your palms to sweat and pulse to race — and not in a good way. The problem is two-fold. Those of us with limited wine knowledge feel overwhelmed by the range of options on even the shortest of lists. As a result, the temptation is either to opt for the second-cheapest wine on offer — you wouldn’t want to look stingy, after all — or to buy something flash and spend the rest of the meal wondering whether you’ve

Penelope Rance

Moveable feasts

It’s midnight, and I’m hanging upside down in the bilges, diesel-polluted seawater sloshing under my nose, trying to pull a greased pig through the locker hole. Or, more accurately, a dry bag containing enough food to feed 20 tired, wet, hungry people for a day. The outside is anything but dry, and I’m hoping the pasta, biscuits and tins within have survived. The boat falls off a wave, and the bag (along with my head) slams against the side. There go the biscuits. Each night, two of our round-the-world yacht-racing crew go through this rigmarole — the start of mother watch. They will convert the contents of the sack into

Jonny Goodall

Streets ahead?

The citizens of Stockbridge in Hampshire must be surprised and delighted that their high street was voted Best Foodie Street in Britain in Google’s inaugural Street View Awards. Perhaps not overly surprised, however, judging by a sheepish comment from Google’s press office to the effect that local gastro-guerrillas ‘went to a lot of effort to get interest up and increase their numbers’. As if to dispel any doubts on the matter, the chairman of Stockbridge Parish Council, in her victory address in the Andover Advertiser offered, ‘congratulations to everyone involved in raising people’s awareness of this competition’. Still, everyone’s happy as the town gets an award, Google Maps gets a plug in SpectatorScoff and

Hattie Ellis

Keeping it real | 9 April 2011

Italian food is about simplicity and seasonality, and in Sicily spring brings the fragrant lemon harvest – eagerly awaited in one corner of Devon. Hattie Ellis takes a trip to the mother country with a pioneer of real lemonade Do you remember when lemonade used to be just that harshly fizzy clear stuff you bought in big plastic bottles? Now you can find a fragrant, sweetly-sharp drink that’s the soft yellow of a summer’s evening. Often called Sicilian lemonade, it is similar to what you’d make at home. Add a slosh of gin, vodka or rum and it’s something else again. One of the best Sicilian lemonades is made by

Adrian Tierney Jones

Blonde Bombshell

The Czech town of Plzeň is the birthplace of the world’s first golden lager, and both are elegant, spicy and hugely enjoyable. Adrian Tierney-Jones visits brewing Disneyland Lunchtime at Na Parkánu, a restaurant attached to the Museum of Brewing in Plzeň (or Pilsen). A glass of Pilsner Urquell, served unfiltered and unpasteurised from a tank beneath the bar: graceful and golden, elegant, spicy, toasty with a bitter finish. On my plate: a massive joint of pork knee, skin glistening with fat, wispy strands of steam carrying the mouth-watering aroma of the cooked meat upwards; the waitress then plonks down the accompanying bowl of horseradish, mustard and spicy cabbage. I also

Peter Grogan

Sugar daddy

Rum is a relatively young drink – 15th century – and still under-appreciated, but at its best can match any whisky or brandy for complexity and sophistication. Peter Grogan enters the darkness A long time ago a knuckle-dragging ancestor of mine left a gourd-ful of palm sugar out in the rain. Trolling along, the right little speck of yeast eventually came to rest in it, causing the sugar to spontaneously ferment. The result probably didn’t taste too good but it had something that helped the day pass in a pleasant blur. Fast-forward 10,000 years — at a guess — and that same something can apparently be had from mixing some

The Spectator

Advertisement Feature: The King’s Ginger Liqueur

There can be no more appropriate drink with which to celebrate the forthcoming Royal union than The King’s Ginger. There can be no more appropriate drink with which to celebrate the forthcoming Royal union than The King’s Ginger. Prince William’s great, great, great-grandfather was King Edward VII who ascended to the throne 110 years ago. He was a thoroughly clubbable chap who had greatly enjoyed the high life as Prince of Wales. The King was a customer of Berry Bros, the wine and spirits merchant established at No.3 St James’s Street, London, in 1698. Berry Bros & Rudd first supplied the British Royal Family in 1760 during King George III’s

Interconnect

Spring Recipes

Crispy Raw And Cooked Vegetable Tart by Alain Ducasse I spent my childhood days on a farm and so vegetables have always hugely influenced my cooking. I love to use seasonal vegetables and this dish on the menu at Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester celebrates the simple pleasures of combining raw and cooked vegetables. It is both delicious and healthy! My top tip with this dish is to use the freshest produce available. For each tart: 1 orange carrot 1 yellow carrot 1 courgette 1 fennel 1 celeriac 2 small white onions 1 round radish 8 large white mushrooms 100g rocket + cos lettuce 1 puff pastry First, make the

Alice Whitehead

Kitchen kit

Just as there are cat people and dog people, there are dishcloth people and dish brush people. Sometime around the age of 30 (usually after marriage), arguments surrounding the merits of brushes versus cloths seem to take on great importance and ferocity, but our own collection of washing bowl beauties are sure to stop the bickering, getting your glassware, cups and all those other hard to reach corners ship shape and ‘bristle’ fashion — with an added touch of style. Who said cleaning was dull? 1.Frugal If washing up has become a military operation then this humorous and handy brush will be a real trooper with a bearskin-style hat that’s

Gareth Jones

How to….

… … Make a genuine ‘Sugo’ by Gareth Jones Tomatoes weren’t cultivated in the place we now call Italy until the late 16th century. Like chocolate, corn and Columbus’s other South American bounty, the Spanish held onto tomatoes for decades. It’s said tomatoes made it to Southern Italy with a Spanish chef to the Spanish consulate in Naples. Cans of Italian tomatoes, grown under fierce sunshine, are almost always best for colour and flavour. Best buy ‘chopped’, not ‘plum’ — and always Italian. To dress pasta for six: pour contents from three cans into a pan, pass half a can of water round all three to get every bit of

Interconnect

Scoff out

KOPAPA CAFÉ AND RESTAURANT 32-34 Monmouth Street Seven Dials WC2H 9HA 020 7240 6076 by Will Vaughan Covent Garden and Leicester Square has long been a restaurant-goer’s no-man’s land. That is, until now, because fusion supremo Peter Gordon has opened Kopapa, situated conveniently on Monmouth Street, moments from the Donmar and the Royal Opera House. Kopapa is a buzzy place full of international types who are unlikely to be fazed by a menu peppered with such curiosities as almond skordalia, or coconut and gapi salad. There are ‘Quick bites’ to whet the appetite like smoky babaganoush and olives, steamed edamame and grilled chorizo. My companion and I selected four of

Tilly Culmeseymour

Titbits and Crumbs

Ever found yourself drowning in a sea of newspaper recipe clippings you never find time to sort through? A nifty iPhone app, Chef’s Book, gives you the facility to record what you cook and file each recipe into personalised categories. MODERN MENU Ever found yourself drowning in a sea of newspaper recipe clippings you never find time to sort through? A nifty iPhone app, Chef’s Book, gives you the facility to record what you cook and file each recipe into personalised categories. Recipes can be shared with other users, too – edible social media. http://bit.ly/hweLCL NORTHERN LARDER Voted Best UK Independent Retailer in last year’s Observer Food Monthly Awards, Fodder in Harrogate

Martin Bright

A nudge towards genuine social mobility

I have always thought “nudge” theory was an absurd excuse for a political ideology: just another way of arguing against state intervention. But Nick Clegg has almost forced me to eat my words with his comments about free internships. The Deputy Prime Minister has probably done more in one speech to improve the conditions of young, unpaid interns than any central government diktat. It is, after all, already illegal not to pay the minimum wage.   This furore has sent a chill through the political and media classes which are both awash with privileged and/or exploited young people who can afford to work for nothing. Arbiters of public morality such

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Osborne needs to make his case for growth

The Guardian have an odd story today. “Business chiefs who backed cuts now doubt UK growth,” runs the headline — suggesting that these sinners are now being confronted with the error of their own ideology. Who are the business chiefs? We have Archie Norman, the retired head of Asda, now part-time chairman of ITV. He “said the government’s growth targets were too optimistic”. Set aside the fact that the government doesn’t make growth targets now, and has subcontracted that the Office for Budget Responsibility. Where is the connection between growth downgrades and cuts? In the imagination of The Guardian, I suspect. Next Andy Bond, another former head of Asda, is

Peter Hoskin

Doing the splits

When is a split not a split? When it’s a subsidiary, of course. We learn this morning that the Vickers Banking Commission will not recommend a complete, Glass-Steagall-style separation of retail and investment activities. But it will advise that banks erect some sort of barrier between the two, to ensure that everyday savers’ (and taxpayers’) cash isn’t risked by the Masters of the Universe. Specifically, it will propose that banks create subsidiaries out of their investment arms. Those subsidiaries could then go bust without, in theory, affecting the retail half of the equation. As Robert Peston explains, there are two ways of implementing these subsidiaries — and the Vickers Commission