Yesterday I was spoilt by my friend Katie Friedman, who took me to lunch at The Hinds Head in Bray, one of three restaurants owned by Chef Heston Blumenthal in this tiny Berkshire gourmet village.
Bray first attracted attention when the Roux brothers Michel and Albert opened The Waterside Inn in the village in 1972, and have held a three star Michelin rating for the past 25 years. Chef Heston, whose father grew up in South Africa, was attracted to the village too, Continue reading →
Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines
* The FNB/Bureau for Economic Research Consumer Confidence Index ‘plummeted’ to -4 in the first quarter of 2015, reflecting the pessimism created by loadshedding, increases in income tax and the price of petrol, as well as ‘social and political turmoil‘.
* Angelo Scirocco of Chef’s Warehouse and winner of the S. Pellegrino Young Chef of the Year Award for Africa/Middle East, has been ‘paired’ with fashion designer Ashi Studio of Beirut, each designer reinterpreting Continue reading →
Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines
* Pop-up restaurants are here to stay, and are increasingly supported by food lovers who are prepared to pay a premium to attend such a restaurant. They give young chefs an opportunity to try their hand in running their own mini-restaurant.
* Cape Town’s Tourism Big Six has grown to the Big Seven, with the addition of the Cape Town City Walk, a new service which is to be launched on Saturday 18 April, a walk covering the Company’s Garden, the Fan Walk, St George’s Mall, Waterkant Continue reading →
The topic of whether restaurants should prevent their diners from photographing food arises regularly. Now Michelin star restaurant chef Heston Blumenthal has attracted attention with the new photograph policy in his restaurants.
While most diners would think that any and all photographs taken of a restaurant’s dishes would be to the benefit of the establishment, a wonderful form of free marketing, it appears that restaurant chefs are nervous about the photographs, and whether they present their dishes in the correct light! Other diners are irritated when a flash is used for the photographs.
The downside of course is the dreadful quality of photographs one sees on Social Media platforms, in a yukky Continue reading →