Welcome

Welcome

Hello!                                                              

Welcome to my food blog. Imaginative title, I know, but it does what it says on the tin. My name is Ben; I used to work in various kitchens but now I tend just to eat out a lot, cook from home and get a bit fat. I am insanely passionate about food, whether it is meat, game, fish, cheese, desserts or…wait for it…fruit and vegetables (I can hear my friends gasping in horror). I love to cook and love to eat even more.

My obsession (whether medical or not is yet to be determined) began with the airing of the first ever series of the Great British Menu on BBC Two. Although this particular series was the worst of the lot, taking the form of a competition between the majority of TV personality Chefs such as Worral-Thompson*, Rhodes** and Rimmer*** it introduced me to the realm of cooking at a higher level. With entries unknown to me before such as Marcus Wareing and Richard Corrigan, haute cuisine reared its beautiful magnificent head and beckoned me to dive into the world that would one day swallow me whole, rather than the other way around.

Following this series I decided to cook my first meal for my parents; Rhodes’ roasted Aylesbury Duck with duck hash which turned out, to my parents’ surprise, rather well for the first attempt of a thirteen-year-old. I know many more thirteen-year-olds can cook better than I could back then but I felt as though the Michelin guide should have handed me at least two stars at the time. I progressed through the years working summer stints at various restaurants and built a repertoire of skills. Television helped a lot with this, as did Gordon Ramsay’s YouTube video tutorials on certain techniques. I filleted, peeled, picked (rather slowly, admittedly) cleaned, squeezed, grated, cleaned, stirred and cleaned my way through the long hours of prep, receiving the occasional bollocking from a less than pleased Chef Dean and Chef Donovan (yes, the slow peeling and stupid vessel choice) but the baptism of fire galvanised a better home cook, if not chef.

Since leaving my days of kitchen-bitching, I have slowly eaten my way around London’s restaurant scene, trying to seek out the best gastronomic bolt-holes in the capital. My ventures have taken me further out, to Marlow and Singapore (okay, a bit further out) and I have found some delightful surprises and nuggets around that I will share with you over the coming undetermined period of time that I can be bothered to plague you all.

I hope you’ll enjoy reading this blog. It will have recipes, restaurant reviews, perhaps a skills section if I’m feeling brave, and cook book reviews (time permitting).

Yours in food

Ben.Y

  

*Yes, I’m talking about the very same Worrall-Thompson who was caught stealing cheese from Tesco. It isn’t slander if it is true, Anthony.

**I actually respect Gary Rhodes very much for his classical take on British cuisine. His Scotch-eggs are bloody marvellous. He’s a rather lovely chap in person too, and easy on the eye (so my Aunt Maureen tells me).

***Whoever thought that the Queen would like a biriyani for her 80^th birthday banquet is, quite frankly, a fool. Come now, Simon. You can do better.