A chance to explore Manchester

It’s funny how time slips by. I regard myself as pretty well travelled within the UK, but that doesn’t mean I’m without blind spots. Given its proximity to York it’s a little surprising that Manchester is one of those. Even more surprising was that, when I gave it some thought, I realised it was 21…

Meeting a cheerful Masterchef with Naked Noodles

It’s funny how some Masterchef contestants slip from your mind despite avidly having followed the show for years. Occasionally these days I’ll fall into a Wikipedia hole and realise that large numbers of the contestants I’ve followed on Masterchef over the years have escaped my memory entirely. One of the characters in last year’s edition…

The Grand Cookery School opens in York

The Grand Hotel is something of a landmark in the centre of York, occupying a prime location on the route from the train station to many of the city’s tourist attractions. It’s been worthy of a visit on its own merits for a number of years now, with two restaurants, relaxing space for drinks and…

Yorkshire’s finest food & drink entrepreneurs revealed at Garbutt and Elliot Awards ceremony.

Eleven of Yorkshire’s leading food and drink businesses have been recognised for their entrepreneurial spirit, business acumen and product or service excellence, as winners were revealed at the second annual Garbutt and Elliott awards, last night. The winners emerged from over 100 entrants to be crowned across nine categories, including the coveted ‘Garbutt + Elliott Business…

Jaguar XF

Can the Best of British defeat the endless onslaught from Germany? I tried the Jaguar XF to find out… Now that Jaguar has finished the important business of separating its current model line up from memories of the X & S Types, rounding out the saloon models with the F-Pace and F-Type, it’s moved its…