I’ve written many times about the unfair tarnishing that restaurants based in hotels seem to suffer in York, with The Park at Marmadukes Townhouse and Hudson’s at The Grand unfairly failing to find the audiences they deserved leading to the chefs involved moving on to pastures new. One of those though is starting to turn…
York might look like it’s been frozen in time when viewed from many angles, but it doesn’t take much scratching of the surface to start uncovering the ways in which the city has changed as buildings are repurposed and residents impose their personalities upon them. Buildings find themselves subjected to the whims of those changing…
The back end of 2021 seems to have featured a disproportionate number of trips to Harrogate for me, with Hospitality Action, Golden Fork Awards and the Deliciously Yorkshire Judging and subsequent ceremony all pulling me in that direction. Another reason to make that recently familiar trip dropped into my lap recently with an invitation to…
The history of Il Paradiso del Cibo in York neatly reflects the growth of the city’s food scene, from modest beginnings through bursts of ambition to become something of an institution before settling comfortably into a rhythm as one of the mainstays of the burgeoning Walmgate food scene. Now affectionately referred to as Paolo’s in…
What’s the best meal you’ve ever eaten in the confines of your own home? How much does the fine dining experience suffer from being transplanted into a domestic setting and losing the serving staff? How do your plating skills compare to highly regarded chefs? This lockdown is posing a lot of questions that I never…
People can get a bit sniffy about tasting menus these days. I thought we were past the backlash of a couple of years ago when luminaries such as Daniel Clifford declared that they were over and that a la carte was the way forward. That said, there still seems to be some background noise murmuring…
It’s safe to assume that I witter on about food and restaurants an awful lot, occasionally to the detriment of my close friends and relations. I’m frequently nudging whoever is nearby to point out whatever interesting titbit has just caught my eye on social media, observing details of presentation and technique of varying interest to…
A dinner was held in York last week at the 3 Rosette Restaurant, The Park, by Adam Jackson to show support and raise funds for Yorkshire chef Tim Bilton who earlier this year was diagnosed with stage four melanoma cancer. As widely reported last month, TV Chef Tim Bilton has battled on and off with…
Any opportunity to eat food from a Michelin Starred chef is a thing to be grasped with both hands. A set menu for a very reasonable price with input from a well-reputed forager makes the occasion even more special, so the idea of dinner cooked under the watchful eye of Andrew Pern featuring ingredients from…
It’s a tough thing to build a reputation as a restaurant when you’re based in a hotel. For reasons that have always been slightly beyond my grasp, the challenge involved in convincing non-residents to make a few steps from their usual route is a significant one regardless of the quality of the restaurant in question.…