-
2 months ago | 
thespectator.com | Calla Jones Corner |Ameer Kotecha |Nicholas Farrell |Gavin Mortimer
In November, I was privileged to attend the 91st Paulée de Meursault. There are three coveted invitations at that time of year in this part of Burgundy: the world-famous wine auction held in Beaune and the luncheons called la Paulée de Beaune and la Paulée de Meursault. La Paulée de Meursault celebrates the fine wines grown in this small village.
-
2 months ago | 
thespectator.com | Ameer Kotecha |Olivia Potts |Julie Bindel |Neal Pollack
Those who use TikTok, or are familiar with dance routines on social media, may have heard of the “Costco Guys.” For those with an aversion to TikTok, Andrew “A.J.” Befumo Jr. and Eric “Big Justice” Befumo are a father-and-son duo who became internet celebrities by gorging on food items in their local Costco in Florida and rating them on a “boom or doom” scale.
-
2 months ago | 
thespectator.com | Sean Thomas |Ameer Kotecha |Sam Meadows |Gavin Mortimer
I can still remember it: probably the worst seafood dinner of my life. A slice of fish that was simultaneously cold, hot, dry, crumbly and rubbery, surrounded by overcooked vegetables and accompanied by a mysterious whiff of cigarette smoke. It was so repellent that even though I was famished, I summoned the waiter, returned the dish and retired to my room, there to endure a dinner of Pringles from the minibar. What made it worse was that I was in a celebrated fishing port.
-
Jan 13, 2025 | 
spectator.co.uk | Ameer Kotecha
The jigsaw is having a moment. Ditto other puzzles, games and brain teasers. Couples engage in post-coital sudoku (apparently). Wordle was played 4.8 billion times in 2023 (the lockdown invention of a young Welsh lad, Josh Wardle). Board game cafes have sprung up in cities. This recent resurgence in the popularity of puzzles is partly a hangover from the Covid pandemic.
-
Nov 15, 2024 | 
spectator.co.uk | Ameer Kotecha
Ikea has opened its first high-street restaurant in the UK. There’s not a flat-pack in sight – but a hotdog is 85p and a children’s pasta dish with tomato sauce (plus soft drink and piece of fruit) is 95p. A nine-piece full English will set you back £3.75, while a serving of their famous meatballs (with mash, peas, cream sauce and lingonberry jam) is £5.50. Vegetarians are amply catered for. It’s open 12 hours a day (and that may be extended further to enable dinner).
-
Nov 12, 2024 | 
spectator.co.uk | Ameer Kotecha
Marco Pierre White – the first British chef to win three Michelin stars – may have earned a reputation as the tousle-haired kitchen bad boy who once made Gordon Ramsay cry, but these days he spends his mornings rather more quietly, enjoying his kippers.
-
Nov 1, 2024 | 
spectator.co.uk | Ameer Kotecha
I remember, vividly, when working at Raymond Blanc’s Michelin-starred Le Manoir, the moment the truffles were delivered. A frisson went round the kitchen staff as the napkin covering the precious morsels was dramatically whipped off. Physically inspecting the gnarled, knobbly nuggets was a right reserved for head chef alone. As a lowly pot-washer, I was confined to the back, neck craned for a glimpse. So I am not blind to the excitement and sheer theatre of the treasured truffle. I even like them.
-
Oct 2, 2024 | 
spectator.co.uk | Ameer Kotecha
They were loud, vivacious and gloriously un-PC. Sometimes they seemed to be learning how to cook as they went, barely one step ahead of the viewer. It didn’t matter. If anything, it only made the BBC’s Two Fat Ladies more watchable. And 25 years on – the last of the two dozen episodes pairing Jennifer Paterson and Clarissa Dickson Wright aired on 28 September 1999 – I miss terribly their jaunty style of cooking, glass in hand. I don’t think I’m alone.
-
May 23, 2023 | 
spectator.co.uk | Ameer Kotecha
I have been reading Ronald Blythe’s Next to Nature which came out in October, just a few months before the great man’s death aged 100. And so a weekend holiday in Suffolk was calling to me. I went to Aldeburgh, on the coast, north of the river Alde. The town appears to be thriving – full of bustling cafés and London money. It is fashionable and chic. In many respects it is a world away from Blythe’s Akenfield. But there is much here to charm you.
-
May 19, 2023 | 
spectator.co.uk | Ameer Kotecha
Text size Small Medium Large Line Spacing Compact Normal Spacious Comments When imagining a monarch’s wardrobe, what comes to mind? With the late Queen, it was bold-coloured dresses (as she famously said, ‘I have to be seen to be believed’), elaborate hats, silk headscarves and those black Launer handbags. Our new King is no less a style icon. For him it’s well-tailored double-breasted suits from Anderson & Sheppard (probably well-worn, for His Majesty is a great advocate of make do and mend...
