Festive Foodies

Whether it’s foodie gifts you’re after, or just some fabulously indulgent additions to your kitchen cupboard this Winter, we’ve narrowed down our favourite yummy treats that we are pulling out this December.

Christmas Whiskey Bomb RRP £40

Konditor and Cook;

As well as producing some of the most delicious hampers and mince pies, (voted the best in the UK), why not purchase a show-stopping cake as a centrepiece for your Festive celebrations. Konditor and Cook have gone all out this year and have many tasty creations for you to try but we reckon the Whiskey Bomb is bound to wow your guests. Based on their original Whiskey Bomb the Christmas Whiskey Bomb is a festive blend of chocolate, orange and whiskey cake adorned with sugar paste stars and white chocolate balls. Because quite frankly, what says Christmas more than Whiskey and Chocolate Orange. This award winning cake. 

Festive Scone Bake Kit RRP £25

The English Cream Tea Company;

If you fancy trying your hand at a little baking for your guests or want the perfect gift for a star baker, we simply loved the Festive Scone Bake Kit provided by The English Cream Tea Company. Supplying you with all the components you need to produce your own festive tea-time treat, the set is complete with decorations for your plump scones all in a handy tin to keep. As well as this, The English Cream Tea Company also have a Giant Xmas Tree Brownie for you to order online, because we all need a tree which is edible as well as beautiful.

englishcreamtea.com

Fine Food Specialist-White Truffle Oil. Prices from £8.55

Fine Food Specialist;

The foodie online shop of dreams, the Fine Food Specialist offer luxury food goods designed for a gastronomical feast of dreams. Specialising in luxury products such as Caviar, Wagyu beef and other specialist food items, they have you covered. If it’s gifts you’re after, they have a variety of goods including hampers both large and small. We love their own brand White Truffle Oil as a perfect stocking filler this year. This extra virgin olive oil is infused with the rich aroma of premium white truffles. Available in a variety of sizes, this special gift has a five star rating which will guarantee to make the recipient of this very pleased indeed. Check out their website for a host of other treats including their handy canapé guide which will be firmly saved into our favourites tab.

finefoodspecialist.co.uk

Christmas Roast Dinner Box RRP £21

Ross & Ross Food;

Focused on British flavours and fresh local produce, Ross & Ross have won multiple awards for their high quality and unique artisan products. Best known for their BBQ and curing kits, they have a passion for big and delicious food. Their Christmas shop this year features a host of meaty hampers including the I Heart Bacon Gift set which includes a bacon curing kit and I Heart Bacon apron. We also love their Christmas Roast Dinner Box. Winner of the 2018 Christmas Gift of the Year food award, the box contains a Roast Potato Oil, a Pigs In Blankets Dust, a Brussel Sprout Dust and a Roast Turkey Rub. This box is perfect for self-gifting if you want to impress your dinner guests! The box is also an amazing present to give to someone who loves Christmas dinner, and who doesn’t love Christmas dinner?! 

rossandrossfood.co.uk

 

Take a Gastronomic Tour of Italy this week with Danilo Cortellini

Danilo Cortellini

The London Foodie Supper Club hosts an extraordinary and glorious tour around Italy this week and he wants you all to join him. For four days only, beginning on the 12th July, guests will be able to immerse themselves in 10 exquisite courses prepared by Danilo Cortellini, Head Chef of the Italian Embassy in London. The evening will be hosted by The London Foodie, Luiz Hara who himself is a cordon bleu chef and successful food writer who has a passion for gastronomy and a want to share the very best with the World.

Your evening will start at 6:30pm with Canapés and a welcome cocktail followed by dinner at 7pm. The dishes will be comprised of 10 small signature plates taken from Cortellini’s debut book and will pay homage to the dishes of Abruzzo region which represent Cortellini’s heritage.

To give you an idea of the banquet the menu includes;

A traditional Cocktail made with Pecorino wine from Abruzzo

Canapés of Sicilian red prawn tartare marinated with red sweet chili with fresh burrata mousse.

Marinated mackerel with fresh buffalo mozzarella and asparagus

‘Pallotte cacio e ova’ (rustic cheese and bread balls served with pepper and tomato sauce with grated cheese)

Veal cheeks ‘pizzaiola’

Tortelli Multicolore with tomato and fresh marjoram.

Tickets are priced just £50 and must be purchased directly through Luiz at luizhara@hotmail.com

www.danilocortellini.com

http://www.thelondonfoodie.co.uk

Ekachai Showcase their Brand New Spot in Flat Iron Square

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Smack bang in the middle of Bankside you’ll find brand new foodie hub, Flat Iron Square, and we think this is just the tonic Bankside needs. With a fresh, urban in/out vibe, this is a spot you’re more likely to find in East London but now it’s accessible South of the river too making it handy for all the city dwellers looking for a unique and vibrant new hangout. Made for pretty much everyone with a good appetite, Flat Iron Square will feature food stalls and trucks from well established and quality kitchens from around London as well as a flea market which will run alongside it on the weekend. We were lucky enough to have a tour around the site prior to opening and as you can imagine we are met with… a building site but amongst the hubbub of vendors frantically fixing up signage and getting their kitchens in order, there is one kitchen which is ready for business.

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Ekachai, the kitchen famous for South East Asian cooking have been operating a truly Zen ship since 1999 and it’s no different today. Opening their first site in Liverpool Street, more and more outlets have opened throughout the country and it’s no surprise really. Speaking to one of the co-owner’s, he explains the ethos is to create honest and authentic cooking which is true to South-East Asia and moving away from mixing five different kinds of Asian food into one take out box. Well we think the proof is in their fluffy Bao Bun’s, this has certainly warmed up our cold October morning and with a simple but varied menu, they want customers to enjoy quality cooking which promises to be evocative of the street vendors of the Far East. From what we’ve tried the Dim Sum is absolutely dreamy and a refreshing take on street eats so try for yourself. Ekachai is now open for business at Flat Iron Square but also operate outlets in Selfridges London and restaurants in Wandsworth and Liverpool Street.

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www.ekachai.co.uk

www.flatironsquare.co.uk

Flat Iron Square
68 Union Street
Borough
London, SE1 1TD

5 Perfect Gift Ideas for Foodies

Leek And Lentil Hotpot Recipe | Vegetarian FoodAre you looking for the perfect gift for a foodie? Look no further! We’ve done the hard work for you and served up five of the tastiest, most delicious and most mouth watering presents you could give your loved right now…

1. A hamper or box set

A hamper filled with unusual (or even unheard of) ingredients from a far flung corner of the globe is sure to win you a great response! Treat someone special to a hamper for vegans, Persian cuisine or authentic Korean cooking, as well as box sets containing food styling kits and essential equipment. You’re bound to hit the nail on the head by offering a gift of delectable goodies like this to spice up their kitchens, introducing their taste buds to brand new flavour combinations and kitting them out with top of the range tools.

2. A pasta making machine

Got a friend who loves Italian cuisine and gets a real sense of satisfaction from crafting their own food? Buy them a pasta making machine! They’ll love sifting through recipe books and trawling online for recommendations for the perfect pasta dough (and sauce to accompany it!). A gift like this will get them rolling up their sleeves to feed sheets of silky, golden dough through a machine, churning out ribbons of beautiful tagliatelle pasta ready for a pot of boiling water… just make sure you’re there to dig into the final dish!

3. The Thug Kitchen Cookbook

If the person you love is into food, you’ll already have clocked the rows upon rows of cookbooks on their shelves. So why add another, you ask? Well, because their current books are (pretty much) all the same – there’s nothing original between those pages, the writers are sometimes a million miles from reality, and the recipes are delivered with zero sass. So, treat your foodie friend to the Thug Kitchen Cookbook (a number 1 New York Times Best Seller with over 700,000 Facebook fans) and get them fired up about cooking delicious dishes with a side serving of attitude.

4. Foodie dice

Even foodies struggle to think of new and exciting dishes every day of the week, so why not treat them to a set of foodie dice? All they have to do is roll the dice to read the resulting ingredient combinations before rummaging through the fridge to whip up a delectable dinner. No two meals will be alike again, using the dice to gamble on over 186,000 possible recipe combinations with additional dice for seasonal veggies and spices. You’re guaranteed to help spark some creativity in the kitchen with this gift!

5. A magazine subscription 

One of the best gift ideas for women who love their food (and men too, for that matter) is a magazine subscription! With no expiry date, no allergens and a lot of inspiration, the lucky recipient is going to love receiving a brand new copy of their favourite magazine every month, flicking straight to the recipe section to try out a new dish. Why not nominate yourself to come over and test their creations?

 

By Patrick Vernon

 

 

 

30 Days of Gratitude Day Seven #30daysofgratitude

Today I am grateful for good food. My husband and I are both foodies. Food is the only thing I really spend money on other than my son. And it is so worth it. We eat out when we can (it helps that we review restaurants) and we buy the best food we can afford. My husband is also a great cook. So I am grateful for my husbands culinary skills as well as good food in general. The below picture is dumplings from Hakkasan. One of my favourite restaurants in London. Yum.

dumplings from Hakkasan

Catch up on other days:

Day 1.
Day 2.

Day 3.

Day 4.

Day 5.

Day 6.

What are you grateful for?

 

 

An evening fit for a foodie! L’atelier des Chefs launch Mobile Kitchen

IMG_5100One of the best things you’ll find about being a writer is the occasions when you get to review a restaurant or get invited to an event which involved food and drink but unlike the usual, L’atelier des Chefs wanted us to cook our own dinners and what a treat it was!

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L’atelier des Chefs are the guys that want you eat well but learn while you’re doing all the eating. Their service have two static Kitchens located in the West End of London where they offer events a public cooking classes. ‘Mobile Kitchen’ is now L’atelier des Chef’s latest offer with a chance for you to bring your kitchen to a venue of your choice be it a hotel, outdoor space or your workplace making it an ideal team building or party opportunity. With no limit to how many guests you can have, this is also perfect for a super special date too. The highly trained chefs well then teach you to make a variety of dishes and cocktails too! All abilities welcome, you can get as interactive as you want and with the chefs providing everything you need, this takes the stress out of possibly having to cater your own dinner party! Your guests will be blown away and very very jealous.

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We checked out the launch which was hosted at the iconic Oxo building. With St Pauls in the background as the sun was setting, It was such a perfect and unique ocation for a cooking event and not so daunting for those who would feel a cold sweat at the thought of being in a professional kitchen. On the menu was something with everything from Sushi to Seabass Ceviche, there was even a mixologist who taught you to make your own cocktails which was followed by a desert menu which featured, Crêpes, Chocolate Truffles and Mille Feuille to name a few. A personal highlight was actually getting to make the Sushi and finding out all the tricks from the pros something I will definitely be trying out at home and that’s exactly what made the experience so versatile and great value, you get to utilise those skills back in your own kitchen and you might surprise yourself and find that you could be the next Gordon Ramsay… well not quite but by the end of the night, you will definitely feel like a pro.

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What was all the more special and brilliant about this event like was that it was such a social and interactive experience giving us a chance to fully revel in our good efforts! I found myself quite the Sushi making master but equally having a laugh at a failed Mille Feiulle after a few cocktails was definitely a good talking point. So swap the sadly catered food at the Christmas Party for a Mobile Kitchen event and who knows who you’ll bond over a burger with… one that you’ve made yourself!

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All of the recipes we made can be found at http://www.atelierdeschefs.co.uk/en/recipes.php  as well as details on their other cooking classes at the cookery school with prices starting from £15

And if you’re running to your phone to book a Mobile Kitchen event contact Veronica Suess on 020 7659 9961

Happy Cooking!