FOOD&DRINK

Healthy eating without the hunger pangs? Melissa Blease knows how. According to outspoken French lit chick Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, ‘January is the month of empty pockets and indigestion; an anxious evil to be endured.’ If you’re among the millions who have…

Tony Benjamin puts his money on our hottest new rising stars One of last year’s highlights (if you were lucky enough to get into one) were ‘evenings with the chefs’ organised by a discreet cohort of local kitchen artists. Representing some of our most…

And the winners of Eating Out West’s food and drink Oscars for 2011 are… Close the paper, turn off the telly, look out over the local food and drink scene… and it’s tempting to echo Jim Callaghan’s infamously insouciant ‘Crisis? What crisis?’ Maybe order…

With Tony Benjamin’s essential guide to the best festive food and tipples from the cream of local traders You’ve been in training for weeks. In between press-ups, you scour cookbooks, making gram-perfect calculations of the chestnuts and potatoes needed, the…

Tony Benjamin lures us off the beaten track on an alternative world food tour of Bristol and Bath For a nation once afraid of garlic and hot peppers, our eating tastes have grown admirably more cosmopolitan. Pub menus boast Thai green curry and rogan josh…

Don’t fancy the all-singing, all-dancing Christmas shebang? Melissa Blease books you into one of the West’s more intimate venues Big tables dominated by noisy revellers, Wizard, Slade and Cliff Richard on an endless loop, stressed-out staff losing their cool…

It’s never too early to book if you want to bag yourself the best Christmas party, says Tony Benjamin Listen…! Can you hear that tiny, far-off tinkling? Can it be the sound of… sleighbells? No - don’t run! We’ve locked the doors, anyway, and you have to face…

Melissa Blease is cream crackers about the stuff. Here she conjures up the ultimate cheeseboard A hurriedly assembled, mismatched selection of fridge-cold, supermarket end-of-the-aisle BOGOFs served with a couple of stale cream crackers does not a flourishing…

Artisan charcuteries are thriving round these parts. Tony Benjamin’s our man with the smoked sausage. Pics: Mark Simmons. It’s a hot August day and our bickering hands are picking away at the platter of delicious local charcuterie on our pavement café table.…

Melissa Blease peers through the autumnal mist to detect this season’s coming foodie fashions. As the late summer sunsets start to give way to the evocative harvest moon that’s all set to hang low in the sky, a whole new crop of fresh foodie delights promises…

As nature prepares to throw her autumn bounty at us, Tony Benjamin gets ready to deal with all that mellow fruitfulness Blessed as we are with a seasonal climate, we Britishers can look forward to an ever-changing supply of foodstuff as the year goes round.…

Wine tasting isn’t just for pretentious toffs, you know. Tony Benjamin puts on his nose-coloured glasses. To judge by the latest statistics from the IWSR (International Wine & Spirits Research), the British people are getting increasingly fond of wine. By…

Join Melissa Blease at the West’s tastiest alfresco hotspots. Summertime (nearly), and the living is easy. Well that’s the plan, anyway… In reality, alfresco experiences can all too easily become a lacklustre experience, fraught with fractious service,…

It’s a tough job but someone had to eat at all those restaurants we’ve reviewed over the years. Tony Benjamin hears from the man who put Venue on the food map. Times (and magazine formats) may change but food goes on forever, and as Venue moves into the next…

When it comes to food shops, restaurants and bars, Bristol and Bath are home to more than their fair share of big-name franchises. But there’s also a healthy independent sector which just goes on getting bigger and stronger all the time. Tony Benjamin gorges…

Give your shopping list a seasonal spring clean with the top 10 “right here, right now” flavours of the month. Words: Melissa Blease. What Purple sprouting broccoli Why A familiar classic takes on a fresher, more vibrant complexity How Steamed or stir-fried;…

Anna Britten learns how to tackle the minefield of children’s nutrition. Here’s another thing to add to that list of ‘Why The Babyboomers Had It So Good’: feeding children was a doddle for them. “But what do you mean?” protests an over-60. “We only had access…

Tony Benjamin learns how to cook up a Middle Eastern classic with the help of Edna Yeffet from Bristol’s St Stephen’s Café. Pics Matt Collins. Two years ago Israeli chef Edna Yeffet set about transforming the café at St Stephen’s Church, right in the centre…

Melissa Blease dons her Che Guevara beret and goes dining with the guerrillas. Imagine a restaurant so exclusive that only the very, very privileged few know it even exists... and by the time the hoi polloi find out about it, it’s gone: welcome, diners, to…

A conference in Bristol aims to help Tony Benjamin find out where his next meal is coming from. It’s all around us, food, and we take it rather for granted. It may have travelled halfway round the world and been processed on the way but almost everything we…

As the latest Jamie’s Italian arrives in the middle of Bristol’s thriving gastrozone Tony Benjamin finds out what the neighbours think. Despite a £1m refurbishment that took nine months, there’s been surprisingly little razzmatazz about the opening of Jamie’s…

Tony Benjamin takes a trip to the Michelin-starred Pony & Trap. The Pony & Trap is a smart little country pub out near the Chew Valley Lake. With splendid views across rolling countryside, the well-refurbished 200-year-old place is a welcoming sight…

Tony Benjamin keeps out of the way as chef Scott Vanderhoek shows him to cook rack of lamb Living Room-style and Matt Collins snaps the proceedings. We weren’t expecting to meet Scott Vanderhoek when we went to The Living Room, but then again neither was he…

Just what does the budding home chef need to keep in their drawers? Melissa Blease puts the kit into kitchen. Pots, pans, knives, chopping boards, baking trays and, erm, a cooker: your basic kitchen must-haves are all present and correct, but time, cash and…

Tony Benjamin gets down and dirty in pursuit of the perfect pizza. If you like getting stuck into a bit of proper cooking, then pizza making has to appeal. Not just for the ‘secret recipe’ mystique about the tomato sauce and sourcing some obscure salami,…

Using the local shop for local people needn’t cost you the earth, says Melissa Blease. Taste, conscience, convenience, novelty, an attempt to beat the battle of the bulge: all manner of influences conspire to dictate your food shopping habits. Right now,…

Tony Benjamin lines up the West’s most romantic places to dine out on Valentine’s Day. As anyone who works in the restaurant trade knows, there are two dates in the yearly calendar when legions of blokes abandon their scientifically developed “pies, pints and…

Tony Benjamin goes looking for the roast with the most, with help from Melissa Blease, Darryl Bullock, Henry Cave, Joe Spurgeon and Steve Wright.  The Grapes Tucked by the Suspension Bridge on the very edge of Clifton village, The Grapes’ street art and ‘Day…

Tony Benjamin learns the secrets of 35 years of successful cooking when Stephen Markwick throws the book at him. Stephen Markwick, chef/proprietor of Bristol deli-restaurant Culinaria, is a rare survivor of the 70s food revolution that brought the UK out of…

Just because you made a New Year’s resolution to eat more sensibly, you don’t have to miss out on fine dining. Melissa Blease won’t be ordering the deep-friend salami and chips. It’s January – and, inevitably, the nation is attempting to whittle its…

Meat came back, TV chefs discovered the West Country and Bath restaurants changed their names faster than a Hollywood divorcee. Tony Benjamin and Melissa Blease stew over 2010’s tastiest (and not so tasty) morsels. BRISTOL Well, we were all waiting for that…

Fancy a decent bottle of wine to go with all that Christmassy nosh? Of course, you do. But which one to choose? Melissa Blease has gotta lotta bottle. The season to be jolly is the perfect time for a good wine. Of course, the supermarkets go wine wacky right…

When it comes to food, Christmas isn’t just about turkey. There’s all the other tasty stuff as well. Like cheese. Tony Benjamin digs in to some festive fromage. You know when something’s become a Christmas institution when the supermarkets start packaging it…

It’s a tough job but somebody had to do it. Melissa Blease goes in search of the best places to quaff some suitably festive cocktails. DECADENT DINING In Bath, both 1453 and the Hudson Bar and Grill offer pre- and post-dinner cocktail selections that may well…

Sometimes having a stalker can be a good thing. Tony Benjamin takes a butcher’s at some wild food. Increasingly, those of us who eat the stuff are showing a concern for the life of the animals reared for the meat market. Sales of free-range, outdoor-bred and…

Westbury-on-Trym’s Casamia is the best restaurant in the country according to Gordon Ramsay – and Tony Benjamin isn’t going to argue. It’s just after 10am and Peter Sanchez-Iglesias looks fazed: “It’s been a bit surreal,” he explains. Brother Jonray agrees.…

It’s November. Time to track down some gourmet treats to give your loved ones at Christmas. Melissa Blease is gifted and talented. If you’re looking for inspiration for a Christmas gift for the foodie in your life, look no further: chic chocolates, winning…

Chances are, if you look out of the window right now, it will be cold, dark or both. And it’ll probably be raining. Rubbish. So what better way to stave off the wretched autumnal howl than to fill up on your favourite soul-nourishing, nostalgic comfort food?…

Tony Benjamin discovers it takes a mouse to catch a mackerel. Multimap claims it’s only two and a half hours from Bath to Brixham, one of the country’s busiest fishing ports. It’s not insurmountable, but not too many Bathonians would consider popping down to…

Did you know that dairy-dodging vegans can still eat cake? Tony Benjamin finds out more about the pleasures of animal-free living. This time last year a small group of Bristol vegans rented a hall in Broadmead shopping centre. Their aim was to give away…

In the quick-fire turnover of the restaurant trade a few local names have stood the test of time. Tony Benjamin and Melissa Blease investigate the secret of their longevity Fancy starting a restaurant? It’s a turbulent, competitive world out there and things…

Tony Benjamin has been hearing how proposed tax changes could make things bitter for the beer trade. It’s enough to drive jovial mine host/hostess to drink – if only to boost the beer sales. Considering it’s our one truly national drink and, even now, 90% of…

So you’re starving, you fancy a nice meal and all you’ve got in your pocket is a recession-diminished tenner… what you gonna do? Load up on carbs down the supermarket? Buy a fetid kebab? No – you’re going to dine out in style! Melissa Blease, Joe Spurgeon and…

Recently arrived at meat-free Bath institution, demuths, young chef Richard Buckley shows Tony Benjamin how to whip up a tasty pumpkin curry. As the nights draw in, a hearty vegetable curry is just the sort of warming comfort food to welcome you home. Bath’s…

Darryl Bullock looks forward to spotting some celebrity chefs – and learning a thing or two about cookery too, of course – at the Love Cooking bonanza at Colston Hall. How often have you heard the expression “food is the new rock ’n’ roll”? True, some of the…

Yikes! It’s already time to get booking if you want to score a tasty Christmas treat at some of the region’s top restaurants. Tony Benjamin stuffs the turkey. Don’t tell the turkeys but their days of clucking about in the hedgerows are numbered. We may still…

The original celebrity chef, Marco Pierre White, has opened a new restaurant in, erm, Congresbury. Melissa Blease profiles the man who made stock cubes sexy. Known to older foodies as the original celebrity chef – infamous for his volatile temperament and…

Whether you prefer yours full-bodied and fruity or lean and oily, salaciously spicy or rich and jammy, there’s a wine out there for every taste, occasion and budget – and there’s an expert on hand to tell you exactly how to find it. Melissa Blease pulls the…