Food and Drink

The first commercial brewery to open in Hackney since the 19th Century, London Fields Brewery was launched in the summer of 2011. Following a sequence of legal issues surrounding co-founder Jules De Vere Whiteway-Wilkinson, the brewery was acquired by Carlsberg in 2017, purchased in a joint venture with Brooklyn Brewery, with which the Danish company signed a UK distribution deal in 2016. Currently brewed at Truman’s Brewery in east London, the Carlsberg/Brooklyn takeover plans to return the brewing process to London Fields...

The Meat Shack mislabelled beef as Aberdeen Angus and British pork and chicken which he bought from the Netherlands

A symbol of the transient nature of life, the cherry blossom (sakura) season is a big deal in Japan. Dating back to the eight century, hanami (literally meaning “looking at flowers”) parties and picnics take place each year as the cherry blossom front sweeps the length of the country, typically beginning as early as February in Okinawa, concluding in Hokkaido around May. Throughout this period, countless festivals and celebrations take place throughout the country beneath the sakura trees, where families...

With plenty of exciting launches constantly taking place across the Capital, we pick London’s best new restaurant openings taking place over the coming month. BAO – Borough Since launching a street food stall at Netil Market, BAO has garnered a cult following. Returning to a market setting, the Taiwanese restaurant will open its third permanent site on the fringe of Borough Market next week, accepting reservations for tables of five or more, with three new bao buns joining the new...

A captivating shot of a celebration of the goddess Nuwa, taken by Chinese photographer Jianhui Liao, has seized this year’s crown at Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year 2019, the world’s leading celebration of food photography and film. Liao was presented with the £5000 prize at the awards in front of an audience of four hundred guests at a glittering Champagne Taittinger reception packed with celebrities from the food and photography world.  Legendary musician and cheesemaker Alex James hosted...

Following the success of Brunswick House in Vauxhall, Jackson Boxer and Andrew Clarke worked together on a brand new project last Summer. Occupying a long stretch of Shoreditch often untroubled by footfall (compared to nearby Old Street and Great Eastern Street, at least), St Leonards quickly became one of 2018’s most highly-discussed, devoutly genuflected new openings. Anybody who was anybody was utilising the space’s natural light to photograph their charcoal-baked oysters or opinion-dividing foie gras chawanmushi, plastering them all over...

With a name inspired by the four core ingredients used to produce beer (grain, yeast, hops and water), Fourpure Brewing Co. launched as a family-run brewery in October 2013. Since then, the brewery has gone from strength to strength, now regarded as one of London’s most exciting craft beer producers, recently bought out by Australian-headquartered Lion (joining a portfolio which includes Magic Rock and Australian craft breweries Little Creatures and Malt Shovel Brewery). Operating from a site on Bermondsey Trading...

The EU courted controversy this week after suggesting it may ban names like 'burger' and 'sausage' for vegan and vegetarian food products. If the proposal is voted into effect next month, vegan and veggie burgers could become 'discs' and sausages 'tubes' instead of conventional names.  It would also outlaw the use of the word steak for products that do not contain meat, which became a topic of contention last year after Marks & Spencer slapped a hefty price tag on...

This shows that the interaction between smell and taste, the primary components of food flavour, may begin on the tongue and not in the brain as previously thought.