How to sweet talk your way onto the shelves at Harrods August 11, 2013 Annabel Palmer talks trade fairs and sherbet lemons with the founders of premium confectionary company Jealous LUXURY confectionary brand Jealous has been in a year-long hiatus following a modern-day tale of David versus Goliath. Like many startups before it, the company has been tied up in a trademark tangle with a market leader, and [...]
Review: Ametsa with Arzak Instruction August 6, 2013 The Halkin Hotel, Belgravia, SW1X 7DJ Tel: 020 7333 1234 FOOD Four stars VALUE Three stars ATMOSPHERE One star Cost per person for tasting menu and matched wine: £145 Ametsa With Arzak Instruction; there’s a restaurant that’s just begging to be hated. It’s the first fine-dining export from the Arzak family (the current iteration being [...]
Review: Rock Lobsta at Mahiki August 20, 2013 RESTAURANT 1 Dover St, Mayfair, W1S 4LD Tel: 020 7493 9529 FOOD Four Stars VALUE Three Stars ATMOSPHERE Three Stars Cost for two with drinks: £100 Once upon a time I worked for a newspaper in Bermuda called the Mid Ocean News. I say “worked” – we didn’t actually do very much. Every Friday we’d [...]
Review: Joe’s Southern Kitchen & Bar August 13, 2013 RESTAURANT 34 King Street, Covent Garden Tel: 020 7240 4008 FOOD Three Stars VALUE Three Stars ATMOSPHERE Three Stars Cost for two without drinks: £45 Restaurant critics are like Eskimos: we lead isolated lives and are prone to eating seal blubber. No, that’s not it. We’re like Eskimos because we both have 20 words for [...]
Tech whizz who knew online video was more than a fad October 27, 2013 Blinkx founder Suranga Chandratillake talks to Annabel Palmer about his success in Silicon Valley THE MAN behind video media company Blinkx, Suranga Chandratillake has strong views about why Britain lacks its own Facebook. Negative perceptions of tech engineers and software developers are holding people back. Whether this would mean all eight-year old schoolboys, when given [...]
The City A.M. guide to keeping fit, fresh and healthy in the City October 27, 2013 The City is bursting with different ways of getting you back in shape – and most of these activities can be enjoyed in your lunch break 1. Take intensive bursts of exercise LAX St Botolph’s, the City’s largest gym, opens today with a fitness programme specifically aimed at reflecting the lives of busy City workers, [...]
Blown away by Dorset October 13, 2013 Head to a hotel on the south coast for wholesome activites, fresh salty air and inexpensive fine dining OF ALL the pastimes that governments enjoy, most involve splashing our cash around, telling us what to do, and chucking in a dose of mild nationalism to make it seem a bit more palatable. Little surprise, then, [...]
Restaurant review: Baiwei July 30, 2013 8 Little Newport Street, WC2H 7JJ Tel: 020 7494 3605 FOOD Two stars VALUE Three stars ATMOSPHERE One star Cost per person without wine: £25 I find Chinatown incomprehensible. It’s an ever-shifting tangle of restaurants and takeaways and bars and brothels. It morphs and skews before your eyes. You can sit down in one restaurant, [...]
Restaurant review: Urban Meadow October 15, 2013 RESTAURANT Urban Meadow, 150 Bayswater, W2 4RT Tel: 020 7792 7066 FOOD Three Stars VALUE Five Stars ATMOSPHERE Four Stars Cost for two with drinks: £50 THIS is one of those columns restaurant critics write after they’ve been on holiday, where they bang on about the nice places they’ve been eating while you’ve been stuck [...]
Greece’s catastrophic 1930s-style depression is a salutary tale August 17, 2013 SORRY, but the fact that Greece collapsed at an annual rate of 4.6 per cent in the second quarter, rather than a little bit faster, isn’t good news. It’s terrible, awful, horrible news. Greek output is down by 23 per cent since 2008 and unemployment is at around 28 per cent; no wonder, given the [...]