Author: Sarah Kemp

Malmaison Manchester review

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It’s back to work today after an extremely eventful weekend and there’s one thing sticking in my mind – the wonderful stay at the Malmaison in Manchester on Friday evening. I was invited to try out the new restaurant and cocktail bar Smoak and Embers, along with an overnight stay. We arrived, threw our bags down and retreated to the buzzing restaurant. We were sat on a table for two right next to another couple who took great pleasure in listening to our conversation more than concentrating on their own. And despite taking pictures of the food themselves on a small compact digital camera, they looked gobsmacked when I got my DSLR out. Luckily they only ordered a main and were gone before our mains arrived. Malmaison Manchester is situated in the heart of Manchester, literally a stones throw away from Piccadilly station and I get the feeling that Smoak is a destination restaurant in it’s own right, rather than just the usual run of the mill hotel restaurants. Having visited the London Malmaison and …

The Good Table review

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This is the age of the foodie. The amount of emerging talent is quite fascinating but there is only really one person who can get me truly excited about cooking, who can make any ingredient sound like king. Valentine Warner burst onto our screens in 2008 with his seasonal ingredients programme ‘what to eat now’ and wowed us all with his cheeky charm and utter passion for fantastic ingredients. But it’s not just watching his adventures that gets me excited, it’s his way with language and the way he describes the dishes in his books. I have all three but was recently sent the newest ‘The Good Table’ by publisher Mitchell Beazley for winning a Twitter competition. From the outside the book is enticing, the graphic simple yet endearing. I also love the title, although I wasn’t sure what it meant until I read in the foreword. I’m glad the polisher let Val role with it. Inside the book is literally jam packed with my favourite kind of recipes. Bold, simple and packed with flavour. …

Bread Street Kitchen

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Last week I was invited to try out Bread Street Kitchen, Gordon Ramsay’s newest venture. Now, that name might ring a few bells. Yes, he’s the one that shouts and swears a lot on the tele and you may have seen him on programmes such as Hell’s Kitchen. Yes, you all know who he is don’t you. Already having some very fine establishments under his belt, although I have never visited myself, including Maze, Claridges, Petrus and Plane Food, Gordon has decided to go all East London on us. Earlier in the year I visited Pollen Street Social, Jason Atherton’s (ex Maze) first solo venture, which has a sociable fine dining theme. It was his breakaway from prim and proper fine dining and it allows diners to eat food of fine dining standard but in a more sociable environment. I went in the first week and it was fantastic. Although Gordon has gone a similar route with Bread Street Kitchen, the end result differs completely. I love the name Bread Street Kitchen, it conjures up …

Bill Granger’s coconut bread

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Anyone that knows me will be fully aware that brunch is my favourite meal of the day. Why wouldn’t it be – it’s an excuse to eat sweet, sugary, cakey goodness for breakfast. So when I saw Bill Granger’s recent brunch spread in The Times Magazine, I got all excited and put the Coconut Bread recipe STRAIGHT to the test. The results were fabulous, utterly fabulous! Ingredients 2 eggs 300ml full fat milk 1 vanilla pod 310g plain flour 2 tsp baking powder 2 tsp ground cinnamon 230g golden caster sugar 150g desiccated coconut 75g unsalted butter, melted Butter and icing sugar, to serve Method 1. Preheat oven to 180C/Gas 4. Lightly whisk the eggs, milk and vanilla together. 2. Sift the flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a bowl, add the sugar and coconut, and stir to combine. 3. Make a well in the centre and gradually stir in the egg mixture until just combined. Add the melted butter and stir until the mixture is just smooth, being careful not to overmix. 4. Pour …

Quadrille guest post – Enjoying your Fish Responsibly

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You can see this post on the Quadrille website here. Over the last few years, mine and I’m sure a lot of others attention has been brought to the sensitive issue of overfishing, which is happening in seas all over the world. This in turn has lead to a huge shortage of certain species. Celebrated chefs have done their part in educating the masses about which species should and shouldn’t be consumed. Restaurants also had to sit up and realise the problem. And if they continued to serve endangered species, they would be frowned upon. Probably the most well known example is when Nobu continued to serve Blue Fin Tuna, but recommended that their diners either don’t eat it, or ask for an alternative. Odd. You see, if we carry on eating these endangered species, they’ll quickly fade out and we’ll have to kiss goodbye to them forever. What the likes of Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall and Jamie Oliver have been telling us is to substitute certain species for ones that do exactly the same job. …