RESTAURANTS: Brasserie Chavot

“LIFE – you’ve got one shot,” says Éric Chavot. The fast-talking, Vespa-riding, Gascon chef says he wanted to captain a grand brasserie since spending every July admiring them in Paris as a young teenager. Finally, aged 45, with decades of craftmanship at fine dining establishments under his belt, including 10 years at The Capital Hotel where he gleaned two Michelin stars, and recently, a season as private chef at Vero Beach, enclave of Hilary and W. Galen Weston, owners of Selfridges, Chavot achieved his goal. “This is not my first rodeo,” he says.

Read at Harper's »

RESTAURANTS: Mehmet Gürs

Interpreter of Food History (for Vertu) 

BORN in Finland to a Turkish architect father and Finnish-Swedish sculptor mother, Mehmet Gürs describes his family as “hardcore foodie”. “I’d spend Christmas hunting, fishing and smoking produce” he says, English impeccable. “And I remember learning to pick perfectly ripe figs at my grandfather’s by the Black Sea.” 

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SPIRITS: Befriending Mr. Martini

CLAIRE Smith, global ambassador for super-premium Polish vodka brand Belvedere, co-hosted a Martini masterclass at Duke's Hotel with head barman Alessandro Palazzi. Amid oils of shiny horses and brass-buttoned riders, Smith preceded proceedings with: "It's not a hard sell to hang out with Alessandro at Duke's..."

Read at Harper's »

DESIGN: Giovanni Corrado, Worldly Lighting

Creative Director of Baroncelli lighting design, whose clients include Dubai’s Burj Al-Arab, Sandy Lane in Barbados and Aspinalls, London (for Vertu)

‘OUR glass is hand-blown in Murano, Venice, a miracle of a city where everything’s romanticised, but everything’s difficult,’ says Giovanni Corrado. ‘There’s little visible infrastructure, making it a logistical extravaganza. To transport a large work, we need to order a special boat with a crane, get it to the port of Mestre, and onto the depot...’

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TRAVEL: Raw Wines in Slovenia

OUTSIZE ants crawl over crazy paving at the Klinec homestead’s terrace. The vista in their midst – Medana’s vineyards a few miles from Friuli – may matter little aesthetically to the insect society (at least compared to the pleasure of eating the plants). But the gnarled, native varieties bring the rolling valley a profound depth of colour and texture, and are the lifeblood of winemakers such as cook and art collector Aleks Klinec...

Read at The Arbuturian »
See also - article at Harper’s »
...and photos at Visuals »

Travel: High Aims, Low Lands

‘THEY can’t stop working ‘cause you’re here,’ half-jokes Andy Barker, the persuasive American Social Mission Specialist for Ben & Jerry’s. Either side of press and students and NUS student representatives imported from Finland, Germany and the UK, ruminating cows freely and flagrantly - but far from fragrantly - pass liquids and solids. Meanwhile, a mean wind threatens to tear-free the corrugated roof which hazily filters the grey gleam onto our long trestle table. At this those with a steady constitution sip small cups of soup and bite into firm, not crusty, vegetarian sandwiches.

Read at Foodepedia »
More photos at Visuals »

Travel: Langkawi Mangrove Safari

Photographic safari in lush island geopark (for Vertu) 

‘ALLOW me to introduce the totally lunatic ecosystem known as the mangrove,’ says husky-voiced Aidi Abdullah, the self-taught, self-confessed ‘tree hugging’ naturalist annexed to Four Seasons’ Resort, Langkawi. ‘It’s a forest between land and sea where trunks never touch the ground.’ He gestures towards a tangled mangle. ‘The roots do all the work, naturally grafting with those of the other trees to form a common society.’ 

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Wine: Super-Rhône Producer, Chêne Bleu

Lizzie Shell of boutique "Super Rhône" producer, Chêne Bleu, demonstrated the versatility of its output at North African restaurant, Momo, in Piccadilly, London recently (for Harper's)

AGAINST a vigorous soundtrack, including Maghrebi songs, Shell poured 2011 rosé into fancy glasses which amusingly resembled enhanced versions of those once available via vouchers at petrol stations. It seems life begins at 40 for this confident, slightly glycerous (down to part use of carbonic maceration) Grenache, Syrah and Cinsault, made mostly of grapes from re-trained scraggy, tough vines of that age. Not only did it match in colour the veins of Momo's marble tabletop - it also partnered refreshingly well with the intricate, sweet spice of their pigeon pastilla.

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Spirits: Colin Field: Best Bartender on Earth?

Douglas Blyde meets the Paris Ritz’s legendary barman, Colin Field (for Vertu)

COLIN Field, ‘best bartender on Earth' according to Forbes magazine, was the debonair raconteur and host of the Hemingway Bar at Paris’s Ritz for 18 years. Adorned with nine decades of memorabilia, from sharks' jaws to gramophones (Field collects them) and the ledger of cocktails invented here, the cosy, panelled room is named in honour of author Ernest Hemingway, once an habitué of the palatial hotel.

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Restaurants: Sweet Thursday

BIOCHEMIST turned pastry chef, Bethany Chellingworth realised her love for cooking when her IVF doctor mother, Kay, gifted her a place on an Acton cookery class. “The tutor, Angela Malik, a former accountant, was the first change-of-lifer chef I’d met,” she recalls. Inspired by the experience, Chellingworth swapped science, “a brutal and competitive business,” for a year at Leith’s School of Food and Wine. There, she gained the WSET Intermediate and award for best theory mark. 

Read more at Harper's »

Restaurants: Roland Schmid: Switzerland’s Michelin Maestro

Swiss chef harnessing thermal water (for Vertu)

BENEATH the barrelled ceiling of an eighteenth century Abbots palace is ‘Äbtestube’, the leading restaurant of eight within spa destination, Grand Resort Bad Ragaz. Supplied by the healthy warm waters of nearby Tamina Gorge - as neutral in taste as Switzerland is politically according to the on-site water sommelier - the resort also includes a medical facility catering to the national Olympic team and regular check-in, Roger Federer.

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Wine: Barossa's Very Special Dirt

Peter Lehmann Wines - Learn Why He Is the King of the Barossa and How to Purchase His Wines (For Kevin The Wineman)

82 year-old Peter Lehmann and wife, Margaret live in Tanunda where their home overlooks acres of gnarled Shiraz vines. Taking the aborigine title for 'water hole', the Lehmann's town is home to nearly 4,000 inhabitants, served by, and serving four Lutheran churches, purportedly the oldest brass band in the southern hemisphere and, most importantly, a clutch of the continent's most revered wineries, including that founded by Peter Lehmann.

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Travel: Jesús Parrilla: Explora

Unfiltered remote Andes adventures (for Vertu)

2013 is our twentieth anniversary,’ says Jesús Parrilla, CEO of explora. ‘To celebrate, we’re asking the first visitors to our lodge in Patagonia back as our guests. 

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Wine: Beringer’s Winemaker, Laurie Hook

Douglas Blyde meets Beringer’s Winemaker, Laurie Hook (for Harper's)

LAURIE Hook, Beringer’s seventh winemaker since the winery was founded in 1896, hosted dinner at Wolfgang Puck’s first European restaurant, CUT, Park Lane. This occurred in the five-star’s former cinema, recently reclaimed as a private dining room, and lined with prints of neon versions of the statue of Liberty, a cowgirl, and pool-player by Brendan Neiland (the hotel’s collection also includes works by Damien Hirst, Sir Peter Blake and Bill Wyman). Wishing to continue reclamation in the name of gastronomy, CUT’s Head Sommelier, Vanessa Cinti, who hopes to visit Sicily this year, mentioned that the small gym adjoining the new dining room “might make a fine cellar...”

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Design: Rolf Sachs: Form and Fun c'tion

SON of the legendary playboy Gunter Sachs, the work of this artist-designer and art collector has a certain surrealism, with his expressed intent to leave a twinkle in the observer’s eye...

Read at Billionaire »

Travel: Secrets of an International Jet Broker

Douglas Blyde meets Steve Varsano, the London-based jet broker to the world’s elite (for Vertu)

Steve Varsano observes opportunity in cars creeping Hyde Park Corner. ‘When the light changes, the guy in the chauffeur driven car has to look right into this 10ft of window. The highest net worth window in four continents.’

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Restaurants: Searching for Perfection

“IF you know how to hire, you don’t need to fire,” asserts Alvin Leung, brushing his crucifix-shaped earring. “Money’s often not enough to motivate staff.” Leung goes on to mention that he once printed chess pieces on the back of his employees’ shirts. “Pawns are potentially powerful. Although rare, they can become Queen. Rooks and castles are stubborn. A knight is the silent killer, because you don’t know where they’re coming from. And only the King can move in every direction, one step at a time.” Leung considers himself King, “because once you’re gone, it’s Game Over.’”

Continue reading at Harper's »

Design: Filamental

Glamour, not glare, care of Russell Norman (for Civilian Global)

“THE music should be slightly too loud and the lighting slightly too low,” says Russell Norman, revealing the “USP” of his restaurants. He removes his much-loved, much-repaired Crombie – revealing electric crimson lining – and orders an Americano. It arrives, black and shiny, in a Duralex tumbler. Meanwhile, I sip a steaming, whisky-spiked hot toddy through a straw. We meet in the semi-private booth at the back of E. Mishkin, Norman’s “kind-of Jewish deli with cocktails”. Its’ wooden doors, which open onto a chequered floor, once fronted a BBC radio booth. They show age’s patina. A dimmed fluorescent tube, evocative of those illuminating the classic Formica cafes which became popular in the London of the 1950s, but less glaring here, grips relocated floorboards tacked to the wall. “It’s an architectural tube which might normally be used behind a bathroom mirror,” says Norman.

Read more at Civilian Global »

Art: Realising Nostalgia in a Rising Economy

Douglas Blyde discovers the work of artist Liu Qinghe capturing nostalgia in a rising economy (for Vertu)

‘ALTHOUGH it might be good to grow fast economically, it’s against our natural development,’ says the artist Liu Qinghe with the patience of a teacher.

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Wine: Name of the Father becomes Empire of the Son

Philippe Magrez, son of millionaire “collector of chateaux”, Bernard Magrez talks to Douglas Blyde about opportunities in Bordeaux during the global recession (for The Wharf newspaper)

BEGINNING in 1962, self-taught businessman, Bernard Magrez amassed an empire of 40 wine estates across eight countries, as well as a burgeoning wine tourism agency. Holdings range from top growths in Bordeaux (including chateaux: Pape Clément, Tour Canet and Fombrauge) to international territories including Japan, from which fewer than 1,300 bottles per year are produced. His motivation appears to stem from a ruthless upbringing whereby his stonemason father would force him to endure daily walks to school bearing the sign, “I am lazy”.

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Restaurants: Introducing The New Breed - MASH

DOUGLAS Blyde learns how the founders of the Modern American Steak House are training up a new wave of sommeliers... 

Read at Harper's Wine & Spirit

Wine: Codorníu’s Bruno Colomer Martí

HARPER’S speaks to Barcelona-born, Bruno Colomer Martí, a winemaker since 1990 and head winemaker at the Codorníu cellars since 2008.

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Spirits: Guillaume Glipa

IN THE aftermath of International Pisco Sour Day, Douglas Blyde talks to Guillaume Glipa, General Manager of Coya, London’s latest Peruvian restaurant. 

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Wine: Primo Franco

PRIMO Franco, of Prosecco producer, Nino Franco, marked 30 years since he produced his first vintage by hosting a lunch at Hawksmoor restaurant, Air Street, Mayfair. Franco mentions that his choice of restaurant - the latest in the clubby Hawksmoor quartet, and first to offer dishes devised by celebrity fisherman, Mitch Tonks alongside signature steak - happens to lie close to the recently-refurbished five star, Café Royal. It was in those kitchens during the early 1970s, explains Franco with a wry smile, that he toiled as a kitchen porter. After his first shift, during which he confronted "an endless seeming conveyor of dishes", the disorientated, young navvy found himself spending the bulk of his earnings on the taxi home to Acton.

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Restaurants: The Lamb Inn

MY room is named after The Glenlivet, and part of a spent cask from the Speyside distillery protrudes a wall. This is The Lamb Inn, fifteenth century outpost of the Boisdale group. Ranald Macdonald, whose clan is from the remote Outer Hebridean port, Boisdale, founded his first whisky and cigar focussed bar in Belgravia in 1988. The business expanded to Bishopsgate in 2002, with the especially opulent, purpose built Canary Wharf site opening in 2011 The signature green ceilings, blood red walls and slightly salacious art works work well in The Lamb, although here, combined with four blazing fires and the lack of live music and mobile phone signal makes the ambience especially romantic. 

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Restaurants: Italy's Deep South in The City

BEYOND plate glass, which reflects strings of LEDs in trees and a surging line of well-chilled commuters decanting their offices, is L’Anima’s beautifully-composed dining room. A serene set before service, and minimal except for the giant splay of flowers precariously perching the stone bar, it is also seemingly as pristine white as when it opened almost five years-ago. But the venue is more substantial, given that the shiny glass fence overlooking the street was extended to the original outline following resolution of a planning nuance. Within the £4.5m cocoon, charismatic head chef, Francesco Mazzei curates and crafts the familial cuisine of his native Calabria, 1,500 miles away in Italy’s toe.

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Restaurants: Five Arrows

THE Five Arrows Restaurant with Rooms takes its name from the Rothschild logo. Its downward arrows represent the five sons of Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744-1812) who rose from the Frankfurt ghetto to launch the Rothschild international banking dynasty. Forbes magazine named him the “seventh most influential businessman of all time” and a "founding father of international finance".

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Wine: Little Blue Rinse at The Cuthbert

PACTA Connect's Trevor Long and Judith Burns, enthusiastic importers of quality Croatian wines from Umag to Pula and also Slavonia and Dalmatia, invited Harper's to taste a tailored menu of British food and Croatian wines at The Cuthbert, Brighton. An Enterprise Inn with appealingly quirky decor by landlady, Susanna Searle, which evokes a 50s street party, was reopened after a year's closure by a young trio. This also includes Searle's partner, Robin Koehorst, an Anglo-Dutchman and late starter to professional cooking from age 28 (now 35) and Dave Mothersill.

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Spirits: ‘кулаке все пальцы равны’ (Teeth are all friends among each other)

"We'd like to be as much of a cultural destination as a culinary destination," says Anton Efimov, restaurant manager of Mari Vanna's Knightsbridge outpost.

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Spirits: Porter, No Stout: The Luggage Room

LUGGAGE porter, Dan, leads me to a small, unmarked door flanked by flames. "You'll be impressed by the first sight you see," he says. "Some places have women. But we have goddesses."

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Travel: Runnymede-on-Thames

AIR, water and road traffic flies, floats and rolls beside the strategically located Runnymede-on-Thames hotel and spa. Although its face is arguably blighted – the blank facade from 1974 oddly leaves the impression of a slap head forehead – a recent refurbishment of the four-star saw it given a good cosseting of character (and soundproofing) within.

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Restaurants: What Does 2013 Hold For Diners?

'AFTER Alex Renton’s article on the future of food in The Observer (5 January 2013), Douglas Blyde would rather look no further than 2013, with some exciting trends and themes predicted from England’s most prominent foodies...'

Part I 

(Andy Lynes, Noah May, Nick Harman, Richard Johnson and Chris Pople)

Part II 

(Pip McCormac, Richard Siddle, Jon Massey, Richard Vines, Russell Norman, Gordon Cartwright, David and Nicole Williams, Maureen Mills, Magnus Hultberg and Ben Spalding)

Part III 

(Chris Skyrme, Mark Poynton, Lucy Shaw, William Drew, Andrew Barrow and Tom Harrow)

Design: Britain’s Boutique

“CAN collectors, already comfortable with spending thousands of pounds on paintings, be persuaded to invest in crafted items showcasing the very best of the British Isles’ heritage?“ asks Mark Henderson. The New Craftsmen, an initiative founded by Henderson – a law school drop-out turned Chairman of Gieves & Hawkes – seeks to bring specialist craft-makers to the luxury market, achieving “honest prices“ for their work.

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Spirits: Suntory Time! at Roast

ZORAN Peric of "Cellar Trends" hosted a tasting of Japanese whiskies from Suntory as part of a series of masterclasses being held at London's Roast restaurant in the eaves of Borough Market. It began with a pretty, tart "Shard Sour" invented by bar manager, Sebastien Guesdon. "Every barman wants to leave behind a legacy which survives them," said Guesdon, dispensing the subtly smoky Suntory Hakushu (pronounced "pronounced ˜Hack-shoo") 12 year-old single malt blended with lemon juice, egg white, and cherry, which represents Japan's most celebrated blossom.

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Travel: The Loneliness of the Long Distance Writer

MY piece on the world’s first ‘pop down’ restaurant (under Finland) very nearly never saw the light of publication. When offered it (for free) one precociously jaded editor responded: ‘you write in a style so dense and clever-clever it feels like armour...’ before recommending that I cover an arms fair, while another (who had published three pieces from me) admitted: ‘I'm going to be honest now - I'm not a fan of your writing style - it's probably better suited to other magazines...’ How sharp, and to the point. Thankfully, Tim Hayward took this poorly puppy of prose off my hands for his enchanting Fire & Knives, available via your letterbox not inbox at: www.fireandknives.com.

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Spirits: Mixing Martini, Shabani Style

‘TOO many people get stuck thinking about lack of money rather than focus on developing an idea,’ lectured my taxi driver en-route to this interview. Without waiting for a reaction, the cabbie went on to list his prospective inventions, including electric indicators for push-bikes to reduce carnage witnessed on London tarmac. 

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Film: Canary Wharf Screen

ALL films are worthy of study, advised a rather underwhelming professor. That one of his favourite flicks was The Belles of St. Trinian's slightly undid his appearance of attained wisdom. Had he shown me some of the thought-provoking films currently playing one of the capital’s largest public screens, I might have accorded him more respect...

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Wine: South West Wines at Comptoir Gascon

‘COMPTOIR Gascon is our maison du vin,’ says actor turned wine PR director for agribusiness specialist, Sopexa, Chris Skyrme. He gestures to the three ISO glasses in front of me. They are a third full with three of a total range of 91 wines from the South West of France in rotation as a complimentary aperitif to diners of the Smithfield bistro.

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Fashion: Silk, Denim, Oestrogen

CLAD in what looked like a comfy jumper and wearing hair up, mighty Gascon, Héléne Darozze, muse for the character, Colette in ‘Ratatouille’, pledged her support to ‘Afghanistan Libre’ over lunch at The Connaught. 

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Wine: Sommeliers of The World

DOUGLAS Blyde talks to four leading wine buyers/sommeliers about the intricacies of the wine market both at home and abroad...

Read at Harper's (pp. 38-39)

Restaurants: Three Faces and a Tiger: Fire Cracker-Free Diwali

‘DIWALI’ marks the Hindu New Year. The ‘festival of light’ is tied to the worship of Lakshmi, Hindu Goddess of prosperity, and ‘Remover of Obstacles’, Lord Ganesha. Overt financial gestures characterise the five-day holiday, including gambling (thought to bring luck), while businesses begin new books.

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Art: Food, Meet Art: Valeria Napoleone

NAPOLEONE enters the spacious, sunlit lounge of her white-walled Kensington home for our hour-long interview. We are surrounded by what she terms ‘an invasion of artworks’ on canvas, curled in Perspex, moulded in wax, curved in metal and even lightly coated in cement. Those spanning the floor are cordoned off, an incongruous notion in a family home. An embroidered cat graces Napoleone’s Miu Miu collar, detached from her shirt. In lithe hands she cradles her just-released hardback. Beyond its subtly shimmering, ‘pepperoni’-coloured cover with Pacman font are signatures by some of the 49 contributing women artists given the freedom of ‘no real guidelines’.

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Wine: José Galante

CONSIDERED one of South America’s most influential winemakers, José ‘Pepe’ Galante is head winemaker at Bodegas Salentein. He has undertaken 37 harvests in Argentina, including 34 at Bodega Catena Zapata. Between visits to Asia and the Ukraine, Douglas Blyde catches up with him at Salentein’s headquarters – a sixteenth century castle in the Netherlands which gave the brand its name...

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Argentina’s Opus at Vinoteca

CHARLIE Young, co-founder with Brett Woonton of London’s ‘Vinoteca’ micro-chain, took 19 guests including his father and the former translator of Mikhail Gorbachev, on a culinary tour of Argentina at dinner. He introduced the territory: “It is the most dynamic country for wine production – one which has risen to the international stage with immense speed in recent years. Remarkable diversity and quality is to be found in the boundaries of it, the fifth largest wine producer.”Despite admitting to suffering jet-lag following a fortnight-long wine tour of Australia which was so intense that he only managed to speak to his young family once, Young’s talk proved taught and educative. Indeed, despite never having visited South America, he showed curiosity in its wines and food culture.

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Le Cercle: finding wealth in double meanings

‘THE past is a foreign country: they do things differently there,’ wrote British novelist, Leslie Poles Hartley. Today, more French subsist in London than Bordeaux. Nearly one third of the capital’s Michelin-starred restaurants are out-and-out French (let’s not forget the guide’s French pedigree), with up to a third more adhering, somewhat, to the culture’s classic gastronomic grammar. It is hard to imagine, then, that early attempts at a tunnel connecting continents failed on account of the British fear of invasion.

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Opinion: Culture Feast

Alas, my love, you do me wrong

To cast me off discourteously;

And I have loved you so long,

Delighting in your company...

AN agitated version of Greensleeves ricochets the lift to the restaurant. Like many romantics, my father attributes the original composition to King Henry VIII. He claimed, in order to seduce Anne Boleyn, ‘Old Coppernose’ wrote the wistful romanesca on an envelope atop the battlements of Hever Castle. Nearly 500 years on, converted into muzac, and piped in a moving cubicle plastered in garish, gleaming, oversized food temptations including face-for-radio mollusc, abalone, it feels rather less profound...

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Power with Responsibility: Bastianich at Bibendum

ROCK 'n' roll in appearance, and relaxed in manner, Wayne Young hosted a tasting of the wines of Joe Bastianich’s Friuli vineyards upstairs at Bibendum. Until his body “began to break down” under the stress, Young spent five years as Bastianich’s cellar rat, learning the science behind the pure tasting but preened drink. These days, he is Bastianich’s special envoy and official “storyteller”. He told one blogger he was in “Special Ops”.

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Meeting Mister Amarone

BEDECKED in stripes, from suit to socks, Sandro Boscaini, President of Masi Agricola, was in town to celebrate the launch of a hardback about arguably the best-known wine from Valpolicella, from where he was born. ‘Amarone - The Making of an Italian Wine Phenomenon’ is written by British expat, Kate Singleton (who also collaborated on Wines of Sicily and The Golden Book of Chocolate). Six corks, one embossed grace its cover.

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Historic Wine Huis

EN-ROUTE to the sixteenth century Salentein castle in Nijkerk, wind-farms replace windmills. Once crunching the gravel drive, I glimpse decorators painting window frames. The structure has evolved from mud house to mansion and children's home. For the past 30 years it served as headquarters of Pon Holdings, established by entrepreneur-tycoon, Mijndert Pon, also founder of Argentinian wine brand, Salentein. 

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The New Face of The Languedoc and Roussillon

Can character be combined with commerce in the world’s biggest wine producing region? Douglas Blyde met three producers prompted to improve.

SWEPT by persistent winds and beaten by intense sun, the Languedoc and Roussillon, which have fifth century BC origins, comprises 700,000 acres of vines spanning 150 miles, from AOC Banyuls by the Spanish border to the Rhône and Provence. At times, the territory has yielded more wine than the US, and during both World Wars, the Languedoc was responsible for providing wine rations for French soldiers. On gaining independence from France in 1962, Algeria, no longer able to supply strong wine to disguise the light “le gros rouge”, saw the area become the largest filler of the European "wine lake".

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