Category: Food & Drink

Holland Park

Lord Holland joins us today because of my invitation to lunch on Tuesday. Don’t be silly, he din’t ask me, he died in 1840. But here’s a clue; before lunch we walked around Holland Park.

River Views

If you google “expensive fish restaurant Barnes” up comes Rick Stein.  By its own admission, Rick Stein, Barnes,  has limited tables with views of the river but maybe you are lucky enough to secure one.

Chacun à Son Goût

Usually readers here are, more or less, on the same wave length as me. At lunch yesterday a friend said that she doesn’t read if my daily dose is about money and another said that she gets incredibly annoyed if it’s about politics.  That’s absolutely OK but what about this?

Breaking the Rules

Jeff Goldblum and Kevin Spacey in David Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow at The Old Vic were stupendous. Mamet’s plays and films are sensational.  So it was a no-brainier to go to Glengarry Glen Ross in the West End.

Out of this World

La Bohème at Christmas should be a sure-fire winner, impossible to muck up. Sublime music, lots of snow and children, achingly beautiful arias and a heart-rending finale.

Mr Kong – Gone

When I was forty, with apologies to AA Milne, I had a birthday party at Mr Kong in Lisle Street. It was a good evening and two things I will always remember.

Swiss Role

The Honourable Artillery Company takes pride in being the oldest regiment in the British Army, founded by Henry VIII in 1537. It is irksome for the HAC that Pope Julius II founded the Pontifical Swiss Guard in 1506.

The Bread of Life

Recently I stayed in two houses (both in France) and went to lunch at another (in London) where the bread was home made.

What’s Cooking?

People who are desperate to make some sort of conversation with me sometimes ask how I think up something to write about every day. Well, I have a fall-back in Robert Redfern-West, an erudite and hugely amusing reader in California (?) who sends me super-stimulating (intellectually) e mails and posts super-duper comments – latest yesterday.

Negroni Sbagliato

I expect you have had some bad experiences with builders. Cobby found that they had built the fireplace off-centre in his drawing room. (He is the sort of person that could never have a lounge or a sitting room.)