1. You started your career in academia. What sparked your interest in wine? I grew bored of dinosaurs. And it happened a long time before I became an academic. I remember being about 10. Everyone else was into diplodocuses or football or trains. I just found wine more interesting. Where it came from, and how […]

With Spring officially underway and Easter approaching my thoughts turn to new season's lamb for entertaining family and friends. My default dish is lamb 'boulangère' whereby you slow cook a shoulder or leg on a bed of herbs, stock and sliced potatoes but, in an effort to ring the changes, I have been experimenting with […]

Why? France's second most populous city has a rich and ancient history dating back to its origins as the strategic Greek port of Massalia. It retains an otherness and aloofness from the rest of mainland France and despite enduring sieges, depravation, scandal, Nazi occupation and troubled race relations it remains romantic, mysterious and welcoming. With […]

A consummate master of self-reinvention Jamie Oliver's magnificently minimalist '5 Ingredients – Quick and Easy Food' topped the best-sellers list in the UK last year. It wasn't the best-selling cookbook, it was the best-selling book bar none; shifting an astonishing 716,071 hardback volumes. It's premise is simple (as the title suggests) each recipe uses only […]

We’ve had great fun collaborating with our good friend and ‘artist in residence’ David Chandler over the last few months as he has been working on the illustrations for our bi-monthly seasonal offers and our 2017 wine list.     Being both creative and technically adroit David couldn’t resist cajoling me into participating in some […]

In the teeth of a British winter I like nothing more than to lose myself in some 'European Noir' drifting off to continental climes and landscapes as the rain lashes against the window. One of my favourite authors is 'Manuel Vázquez Montalbán' whose main protagonist 'Pepe Carvalho' is a gastronome and oenophile as well as […]

If I am blessed with some down time at the weekend I like nothing more than tuning in to the inexhaustible 'Desert Island Discs' podcast archive and faffing around in the kitchen. I like to batch cook semi-industrial quantities of Bolognese sauce (ragù if we are purist) much of which I freeze for subsequent deployment […]

1. As a proud Frenchman does your palate lean towards your homeland or do you have a more global outlook? I like all good wines it doesn't matter where they come from. I do like wines from Italy, Spain and, very much, Australia... 2. Did you have a formative tasting experience when a certain wine […]

Back in the Summer months, Bryan Webb and I managed to agree a date for a Winter Warmer Dinner at his Michelin-starred Tyddyn Llan restaurant with rooms, in Llandrillo, North Wales (that's a lot of LL's!). Great idea I thought, until it dawned on me that Southern Snowdonia in January might be covered in snow! […]

After the Christmas festivities and New Year celebrations January can seem an awfully cold, long and cheerless month. To that end I try and cook some warming, restorative dishes that can be served up from a single pot in generous portions. One such is 'Braised Pork with Rigatoni' from Allegra McEvedy's magnificent 'Leon Ingredients and […]