Think twice about your resolutions December 21, 2009 AFTER a season of excess, it’s no wonder New Year’s Day comes with a hearty dose of self-recrimination and impassioned vows to improve. There’s no doubt that the more your liver is aching, the more painfully your belly is straining against your belt, and the emptier your bank account, the more you feel the need [...]
A resort that leaves you feeling brand new January 31, 2010 NESTLING in warm Caribbean waters, sun-kissed Antigua washes over you, covers you in sunshine, and leaves you feeling as laid-back as the locals. The island is a prime wedding and honeymoon destination, but is also perfect as a place to turn over a new leaf. I’m used to spending my time off doing as little [...]
Coffee is good for you, but I’m eating broccoli instead December 21, 2009 IT SEEMS like only yesterday that we were writing in these pages about how bad coffee is for you. Too many cups a day, we reported, can lead to exhausted adrenal glands, an increased chance of osteoporosis, huge swings in blood sugar levels and other more obvious effects such as indigestion and sleeplessness. Enough to [...]
Clive Owen proves that he’s the daddy January 21, 2010 Film THE BOYS ARE BACK Cert: 12A NOTHING to do with Thin Lizzy (sadly), this adaptation of Simon Carr’s memoir stars Clive Owen as Joe, a macho Brit sports journalist living in happy isolation on the Australian coast with his wife and young son, whose cosy idyll is swept away by her sudden death from [...]
The raw and the cooked rock at Roka January 25, 2010 Roka 1st Floor, 4 Park Pavilion, 40 Canada Square, E14 5FW FOOD ***** SERVICE **** ATMOSPHERE **** Cost per person without wine: £55 HAVE you ever been to Roka before?” asked our waiter, poised to take us through the Roka concept, as though this was the posh, pan-Asian equivalent of a Harvester. I regretted to [...]
Koffman goes for one final foodie push November 2, 2009 WE ARE the Napoleons of the kitchen,” chuckles the affable Pierre Koffman. He is sitting with his trusty lieutenants, fellow Michelin-starred chefs Eric Chavot and Bruno Loubet, in the lounge area of his restaurant on the roof of Selfridges, sipping a ristretto after the lunchtime service. They have certainly earned it. Since Koffman came out [...]
The deep south comes to Camden January 4, 2010 The Blues Kitchen 111-113 Camden High Street, NW1 7JN Tel: 020 7387 5277 Cost per person without wine: £25 WHAT is it with fatty food these days? Low-fat dining – dressing on the side, steamed vegetables,“low fat” in brackets next to the dish – seems to belong to some distant era wholly unrelated to the [...]
How London fell for American cuisine January 27, 2010 FIVE years ago, McDonalds was the best-known export of US cuisine in London. Yes, there have been other venues dedicated to that fine nation’s culinary tradition, such as Joe Allen and the Chicago Rib Shack, which have both been around since the 1970s. But mostly it’s been burgers and bad steaks, confined to slightly grotty [...]
Koffman’s pop-up proves that he’s still the king of London fine dining November 9, 2009 NOSTALGIA is a wonderful thing. When it was announced that Pierre Koffman would come out of retirement to run a restaurant on the roof of Selfridges for one week only, the phones rang off the hook with former customers who remembered his Chelsea restaurant Tante Claire, which closed several years ago. But the crowd wasn’t [...]
The Cornwall haven that’s just for grown-ups July 18, 2010 THE Scarlet. Where to begin? The 37-bedroom eco-hotel in Mawgan Porth, northern Cornwall, is a nexus of cutting-edge green technology and style; of character and sleekness. It’s cosy yet minimalist; an architectural statement yet completely at one with its environment. Of all the above, the latter is the most impressive. The boundary between inside and [...]