Category: Guide

  • How to Build a French Charcuterie Board

    How to Build a French Charcuterie Board

    It was during my first visit to see Gaylord in France that I realised how seriously the French take charcuterie. While it took me another year to eat snails, then a whole year after that I finally encountered frogs legs, charcuterie has been a weekly snack since my plane touched down in 2020. As you…

  • Moist Carrot Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

    Moist Carrot Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

    Unlike many bakers, I didn’t grow up baking at my grandmother’s knee. In fact, my most regular activity in my granny’s kitchen was drying the dishes (can you even qualify that as a skill? – ‘oh her baking is delicious’ ‘you haven’t seen anything, just watch her dry up’). My granny was of the generation…

  • The Best BLT

    The Best BLT

    There’s been a change of plan. The essential guide to making your own French charcuterie board – taking us all one step closer to living with joie de vivre no matter where we are in the world – never got off the ground. Instead of cheese and cured meats, there came a vicious cold and…

  • Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci – Book Review

    Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci – Book Review

    Stanley Tucci is a chameleon. Turn on any film from a range of genres and his face is bound to pop up. Regardless of these artistic capabilities though, ask anyone whose age falls within the millennial generation and Mr Tucci is famous for just one film and one film alone. Gaylord’s memory for names is…

  • A Foodie’s 24 Hours in Toulouse

    A Foodie’s 24 Hours in Toulouse

    It goes without saying, but I’ll write it anyway – France is famous for it’s food. So, what could be on the agenda for a real foodie with 24 hours in Toulouse in the south of France? Out of France’s five major cities – which also include Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon and Marseilles – Toulouse is…

  • I’ve launched something very exciting…

    I’ve launched something very exciting…

    Once you’ve cooked a delicious meal and the smell wafts from the kitchen making everyone ravenous, you try to quickly take a photo to put on your blog or website. But are you disappointed that the picture doesn’t do justice to the food? Calling everyone who completely understands what I’m talking about! I have just…

  • The Waterway Review: Gorgeous View, Disappointing Food

    The Waterway Review: Gorgeous View, Disappointing Food

    Many believe you can’t go wrong with gastro-pub grub. Others, including myself, think that it has a time and a place, ideally at actual gastro-pubs where the main courses cost a tenner, not at canal-side alfresco restaurants. Dining in the sun is in demand once again, and it just cries out for the flavours of…

  • The 4 Best Pickles

    The 4 Best Pickles

    There is something utterly charming about France beyond the bicycles, baguettes and éclairs, and that’s their love of jars. Chickpeas, crème fraiche, and my precious pâtés and rillettes all come in elegant glass jars, and it’s just so rustic and homely scraping crème fraiche out of a jar, why don’t we do it everywhere? Recycling…

  • The Ultimate Tuna Melt

    The Ultimate Tuna Melt

    In my opinion, lunchtimes don’t get any better than a tuna melt, full of molten cheese. But can such perfection be improved? Nostalgia is a peculiar thing. Flavour is a major culprit. Just the smell of certain foods can transport us back to our childhoods – whether it’s a snack, drink or particular ice cream,…

  • My Food Bucket List: 2022

    My Food Bucket List: 2022

    January is month of philosophising. I live in my head as the year abruptly changes and I seem to think it’s like cleaning out the attic – shifting around boxes of to-do lists, piles of hopes and dreams, trying to gain some sense of order. This way, I think we all feel like we can…