March 2012
13 posts
A Lunch of Mild Excess
It all began at 8.15 outside Turnham Green Tube Station. That’s not strictly true, actually, because at this point, I had been up for 24 hours, having stayed with a friend who had received some devastating news. So, it’s fair to say that I was a little stressed and feeling ‘up against it’ at the prospect of cooking a four course ‘investors’ lunch for a friend,...
Who goes there? (My birthday party at Quo Vadis.)
Monday the 12th and all is quiet. I have arrived back to our great city of London from the Lincolnshire Riviera (Skegness). The sun is shining, and the weather is sweet, yeah.
I have just been to a lovely Loeb tasting (see previous blog), and I am waiting in Soho for my good friend Richard Siddle. Hungry, but as poor as the clothes on my back and the change in my pocket, I feel that I must eat....
Why don't I go to Ginger Pig?
I’ll tell you why. [[MORE]]Three or so weeks ago, I wanted to cook something special for my friends Paola and Mike to thank them for generously letting me stay with them for a while. I needed pork chops, and good quality chicken thighs. I went to the Askew Road Ginger Pig, on a busy Saturday morning. I’d heard good things about this particular butcher’s chain, and had bought some...
Foie Gras goes with...... My birthday supper.
OK. Confession time. Most of my dinners and associated glamorous wines usually belong to someone else. In the words of Steven Segal in The Seige, “I’m just the cook.” I don’t mind saying that I’m good at it though. So I should be. My dad was a bit of a cook himself. Egon Ronay Chef of the Year, Michelin and Egon Ronay stars, Head chef at Quaglinos when he was 24, and...
EL CAMION and The Pink Chihuahua
If you haven’t heard of Dick Bradsell, then look him up on Wikipedia. He has done as much as any single person in this country to create the globally enviable, almost unparalleled, cocktail scene that most of us enjoy, and a few take for granted, in this great city of ours. He was most probably best known as the head bartender at the eponymously named Dick’s Bar in the now extinct,...
O.W. Loeb. An unexpected tasting.
Returning from visiting my darling kids in Skegness, I received a text from Ashika Mathews, glamour model and ex-buyer from Venus and Wine Rack. “I’m going to the Loeb tasting. Were you planning to go?” (She wasn’t really a glamour model.)
Well, I had a couple of hours to kill and I was minutes away from King’s Cross. Short of drinking a Pink Chihuahua at El Camion,...
Who's coming to the Benevolent Ball?
I my capacity as tonight’s MC, and as it’s a charity after all, I thought I’d whet your appetite by leaking some of the auction lots. Companies! No point coming of you’re not going to be ‘benevolent’ on the night, and if you like your sport, bring the company checkbook! We have some amazing lots.
Any rugger fans remember last year’s record breaking...
Sunday Lunch. The Paddies and the Frogs lock...
Right. Back to the Rioja. This is the knackers. It is mostly Tempranillo.
Mostly.
It also has all the other essential herbs and spices that make a Rioja taste so damn well Rioja. Graciano, Garnacha, all that. I equate it do Jersey Royal spuds. It doesn’t matter how good they are, or that, pound for pound, they cost the same as rump steak if they’re any good. You need salt pepper and...
Spanish Tasting @ Old Billingsgate
Great day. God Spain rocks. If you had asked someone to line up 25 exciting Spanish white wines ten years ago, surely they wouldn’t have been able to manage it? Not like now, anyway. My close mate Norrell Robertson showed me a Garnacha Blanca at the Alliance stand that simply blew me away. A worked, rich, sinewy white grenache in the old skool Châteauneuf du Pape mould. It would behead a...
Champoo Part Too (Nerd Alert)
So. For those who wanted to know what was good to drink at the Champagne Summit, here is an informal list. But first, a warning.
This next paragragh might create the impression that I’m a little eccentric. I am writing it, because I want to try to explain why I write notes and describe wine the way I do.
People that have really known me over the past 20 years in the wine trade will know...
knackeredmother asked: Joe, I really wanted to comment on your Champoo blog but couldn't see a comment tab...love love love your take on it, absolutely about people and place for me as much as taste. Your tasting notes are an absolute joy to read, they make me laugh out loud (know exactly what you mean about DFWM character of LP) and genuinely want to try the wine. Which has to be what it is all about. Clever you x
Harpers Champagne Summit v3.0....
As I started saying in pt. 1 of this blog, I came to the Montcalm Hotel to taste a vertical of Moët et Chandon Grand Millesime. For all you Moët snobs out there, their vintage offerings are some of the most dramatic and colourful expressions of Champagne that you can buy. Having said that, you have to be prepared to put your money where your mouth is if you want to buy some of the more sublime,...
