,

You are offal but I like you! Grilling lamb hearts for my own personal Fergus-Stock

My modest home town of Todmorden boasts four butchers. Which is remarkable these days. Three in the Market Hall (voted Britain’s best small market in 2018) and another around the corner. There’s one I go to especially for good value game birds; another is the place for rose veal, Dexter beef and free range chickens, […]

Read more
/by
,

Chef Shaun: ‘Food should be sourced well, seasoned well, cooked well and served well’ 

It’s three years since an abandoned 200-year-old boozer off Cutting Room Square, Ancoats, was exhumed. Another reminder of my own imminent decrepitude – I’d propped up the bar at the Edinburgh Castle as a national hack working out of the nearby Express Building in the 1980s. Not the friendliest of street corner locals then; today’s […]

Read more
/by
,

Porcini, tarragon, crème fraîche help make this Pithivier pie perfection

I’m on a puff pastry roll at the moment. So to speak. No sooner had I hymned the praises of the vol au vent than I was grappling with another traditional French pie. Thanks to the arrival of a remarkable debut cookbook called simply Butter (Headline, £26). Spread the word (sic). Its author Olivia  Potts, […]

Read more
/by
,

Mushroom magic as Balance and Polyspore brew up a funky fungi storm

Such a joy when two of my favourite food and drink passions consummate a relationship and the twin offspring are equally appealing. That’s what happened when Balance Brewing and Blending met Polyspore to create a brace of tremendous mushroom beers, available to buy now. I tasted both Freckled Chestnut and Lion’s Mane from the bottle […]

Read more
/by
, ,

Exhibition opening – and its eclectic food offering is as handsome as the backdrop 

Some new destinations generate high expectations. Hence the enthusiasm with which I greeted Exhibition. Not just because it is heartening to see a historic Manchester edifice (home to a functional Pizza Express in its least interesting incarnation) given a stylish makeover; the presence of three quality indie food operators alongside a slick bar operation promised […]

Read more
/by