Food and Drink

For this month's Travel Tales interview we caught up with Michelin star-winning chef, Tom Aikens. The London-born, 48-year-old told us all about his parent's renovated 19th-Century barn in France, sailing around the Caribbean, getting caught up in a monsoon in India and, of course, how travel continues to influence his food.   Tell us about your first travel/holiday memory? When I was 6-8 years old we used to go on holiday to Cornwall to a place called Noss Mayo and...

After spending the entire summer complaining about the blistering heat (I’m British, it’s what I’m good at), I recently caved and reached for the thermostat, having been left undisturbed for the past seven months. Erstwhile, the leaves are discolouring and dropping; the days are getting shorter, and Oxford Street is already beleaguered by Christmas lights. Autumn has fallen and roast season is upon us. I’ve eaten a few roast dinners over the past month, but none have yet topped that...

Earlier this year, new figures published by the Wine and Spirit Trade Association have shown that annual rum sales in Britain have surpassed £1billion for the first time. As a result, rum now ranks alongside whisky and gin as one of the nation’s favourite spirits. Beside a collection of famed rum brands readily available in supermarkets and off licences, a number of premium sipping rums have also risen to prominence. Established in 1976 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the...

Takeaways have been warned not to serve a morbidly obese man after doctors warned he was eating himself to death.

Sustainability is at the heart of Nine Lives, a neighbourhood bar tucked away on Hollyrood Street, near London Bridge station. Opened last year as a project from Sweet&Chilli, the bar is committed to reducing their carbon footprint: many of the ingredients used are sourced from the bar’s own back garden, or within close proximity. The bar’s herbs are grown alongside the help of St Mungo’s homeless charity; apples are grown in co-founder Allan Gage’s garden to replace the need for...

Wine glorious wine, with hot sausage and mustard. As the nights grow cold and green leaves turn amber and red we have an Oktoberfest alternative for you this week in the shape of a 2016 Pinot Noir that pairs wonderfully with classic Bavarian cuisine and other autumnal dishes found closer to home such as light game dishes and pies. Hailing from the renowned Australian region of the Yarra Valley this is a classical bright and complex wine that will ease...

Based in Bristol, Lost and Grounded Brewers began brewing in the summer of 2016, following a year of preparation. Fascinated by the precision of German brewing and the idiosyncratic nature of Belgian beers, Lost and Grounded have a 25HL brewhouse from Krones, located in Freising, Germany – home of Weihenstephan. Here, the brewhouse includes a traditional lactic acid propagation plant, giving brewers the ability to naturally produce “sour” wort with a special strain of lactic acid bacteria used to naturally adjust the...

Opened in London earlier this year, vegan fast-food restaurant by CHLOE. will launch ‘FEELZ’ – a new range of CBD-infused desserts on Monday 15th October, following the success of last month’s pop-up in New York. Since having launched its flagship venue in the heart of the West Village in New York during the summer of 2015, the fast-casual brand has championed plant-based food, with 13 locations now operating internationally, including restaurants in New York, Boston, California and London. Aiming to...

On the slopes of the Kentish North Downs, Wye is a medieval village-cum-town quietly nestled between Canterbury and Ashford. Voted third best place to live in the UK by The Sunday Times in 2013 (behind Kendal in Cumbria and Stamford, Lincolnshire), Wye’s settlement origins date back to the Roman period, used as a royal manor and site of a royal court during the Saxon era, then utilised as a market come medieval times – renowned as a historic resting place...