Valentine's, Pancakes and Chips Coming Up

Its a busy time coming up next week; Sunday is Valentine's and Chinese New Year: next Tuesday Pancake Day: all next week is National Chip Week. Not sure which way to turn with recipes, cooking and promoting what's going on. Best place to start is probably here in Yorkshire and a quick look and who is up to what in celebrating. Will check around and get back to you.

In the meantime, if it's recipes you need then there's plenty here.


Valentine's Recipes

Pancake Recipes

My Interview with Gordon Ramsay

Recently I was fortunate enough to meet Gordon Ramsay having been invited to a judge for the final of the F Word here in the UK. As well as being honoured to be asked, I was also quite nervous about his feisty reputation but I can say I found him to be polite, charming and extremely hard-working. I am not sure if I was disappointed or not, but he didn't shout or swear once during 9 hours of filming.

Not only did I get to meet Chef Ramsay but am happy to report that despite his busy schedule and business pressures, he agreed to an interview.

You can read the interview, get recipes and news of his latest book here 

Do You Have a Favourite?

This year’s pre-eminent Northern Hospitality Awards are now taking nominations for the 2010 awards.  The awards are a celebration of the formidable culinary and hospitality skill of chefs, restaurants, bars, pubs and hotels from across the North West, Yorkshire and the North East. The awards take place on the evening of Monday 12 April 2010 at The Hilton Deansgate, Manchester and presented by renowned food and drink journalist, Nigel Barden. 

The entry categories for the 2010 Northern Hospitality Awards are as follows:

• Best Restaurant
• Best Hotel
• Best Bar
• Best Pub
• Best Newcomer
• Best Wine Offering
• Best General Manager
• Best Chef

Entry  for the awards  can be downloaded here or by calling 0161 235 5224. Deadline for entries is Friday 19th February. 

New Yorkshire Restaurant Review - Brio, Leeds

My latest Yorkshire Post restaurant review appeared Saturday. Brio at Thorpe Park is the latest from the Italian chain. It is in a strange location but as you will read in the review, that's not stopping customers arriving in droves.


Brio Thorpe Park - Restaurant Review

Get Wild with Stephanie Moon

I love this new blog from super-chef Stephanie Moon. Steph left her post as executive head chef at Rudding Park last year but remains as a consultant. In her new role she has launched this entertaining, and informative blog about wild food. In Steph's own words "Any chef turning to the hedgerow for inspiration could be baffled by the amount of potential food available - in this blog we try to make some sense of it all."

Check it out, even if you aren't into foraging around the hedgerows, it is still a great read.

The Wild Cook