food

July 28, 2020

What you do when your year turns out to be a lemon?

As 2020 turned out to be a proverbial lemon, I decided as the saying goes to make the most of it. Refreshing as an addition to your summer lemonade or as an ‘amuse bouche’ but I like it on its own as a light dessert after a meal, cleans and refreshes the palette. This dessert […]


July 7, 2020

Amen Ramen – Some like it hot!

OK, so we entertain a lot and we do not have time or inclination to get into canapés, starters, main, etc etc. Truly nobody does and although everything has its time cooking for me should not be a stress rather a pleasure and so I am always after how to get the biggest culinary bang […]


May 26, 2020

Coastal Comfort Potted Shrimp

Many classics, such as pies, smoked meats, pickles and indeed the potted shrimp are all a product of resourcefulness and the inventiveness of people in the past to extend produce seasonality, availability with these simple preserving methods.


May 19, 2020

Mussels In A Garlic Butter Sauce

Mussels In A Garlic Butter Sauce My mum cooked this often and she served it with dad’s own, home baked sourdough bread. I buy a fresh loaf and I cheat by warming it up in the oven and pretending I am back on the island waiting for all to gather around for a BIG FAT […]


May 12, 2020

Georgia on my mind

There is a taste of place that you cannot replace. But we try, we try! We are at home and cannot travel, but we miss, we miss! Friends and open roads and hot foreign skies, the whispering of cathedral canopies in forests, murmuring sea shores, a rough wooden tables laden with dishes and label-less bottles of wine, all empty. 


Wednesday 27 May 2015, 7:00 PM

Preview Screening: Food Chains + Q&A

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Sanjay Rawal and producer Eric Schlosser.
There is so much interest in food today but very little interest in the hands that pick it. Featuring Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, and actress/advocate Eva Longoria, the award-winning documentary Food Chains exposes the horrific abuses farmworkers face and reveals the forces behind that exploitation: the $4 trillion global supermarket industry.


Tuesday 26 March 2013, 7:00 PM

Can we fix a broken food system?

Food is on the agenda this year. The recent horse meat scandal has left many people questioning where their food comes from, and in the lead up to the G8 summit a coalition of aid agencies has launched The Enough Food For Everyone IF campaign. We will be joined by those involved in the campaign and others to break down the problems with our food system and ask what can be done to fix it.


November 12, 2012 7:00 PM

Screening: Land Rush + debate

In Land Rush directors Hugo Berkeley and Osvalde Lewat look at the situation in Mali where 75% of the population are farmers, but rich, land-hungry nations like China and Saudi Arabia are leasing land for agribusiness farms.


July 1, 2010

Frontline Summer roundup: Intelligent debate and fine food & wine

The Frontline is a busy place – and though some might slow down during the summer months it’s as exciting as ever at Norfolk Place and we’ve got some great events and plans for the coming months. Here’s what’s going on: The finest food and wine We pride ourselves on serving the best  food made […]


February 16, 2009

Breakfast in Khartoum IV (Although I’m frankly not sure of the number)

Ozone is a quiet place these days. Ever since the US embassy in Khartoum warned its citizens to avoid places where expats tended to gather there have been fewer white faces here at the world’s best coffeeshop on a roundabout. Ozone is a particular target apparently. People are on tenterhooks waiting for the International Criminal […]


October 24, 2008

Lunch in Kisumu

Fish and chips at Kisumu’s Imperial Hotel. With condiments So Friday saw me in Kisumu, on the shores of Lake Victoria, and I’m a great believer in the Catholic/Luo tradition of taking fish for my lunch on such occasions. OK so it wasn’t exactly Superfish, or as tastable as Omdurman’s fish breakfast, but the tilapia […]


October 15, 2008

Urban Hunger in Nairobi’s Slums

John Kilonzo and his wife Lucia Kamene with their young daughter Esther in the miserable slum of Mathare In his tiny one-room shack in a Kenyan slum, John Kilonzo and his family are the new faces of urban poverty – squeezed by rising food prices and trapped by disease. Hunger is stalking Nairobi’s shanty towns […]


October 8, 2008

Guilt by Emigration

Ugali and cabbage. Mmmm For much of the 1980s I simply refused to smile. My country was being wrecked by Thatcherism, the pits were shut down and four million people were thrown on the scrapheap. The least I could do as I caught the bus from Royal Tunbridge Wells to my school (best A-level results […]


October 4, 2008

Ethiopian Famine Averted

Among many of the titbits of useful advice I picked up as I worked my way through Britain’s regional newspapers was one that has caused me no end of trouble. “Rob,” one of the old hands at The Herald (I should point out this is a Scottish national paper – not a British regional paper) […]


September 8, 2008

Feeding Africa

Julius Njoroge Kinuthia and his biotech bananas The biotech debate has been rumbling along nicely in Africa recently. A couple of days ago William Ruto, Kenya’s agriculture minister, said he planned to allow the planting of genetically modified crops as the best way to improve yields. Then this morning the UK’s former chief scientist, Professor […]