Putting white wine grapes in red wine is not quite as bizarre as it sounds. In some cases there are sound reasons for including a few green-skinned grapes along with the purple. In Côte Rôtie in the Rhône Valley, for instance, there is a long-standing tradition of co-fermenting a small proportion of pale Viognier grapes with the Syrah to make the wine taste smoother and stabilise the pigment of the red grapes. Copies of this recipe were all the rage in Australia a few years ago and Shiraz/Viognier has become a staple offering there.

But the white grapes that once routinely diluted Chianti, including that from its Chianti Classico heartland between Florence and Siena, were there for a much less noble reason than Viognier is to be found in Marcel Guigal’s seductive La Mouline, my favourite Côte Rôtie. The requirement that Chianti contain between 10 and 30 per cent of white grapes was written into the original 1967 DOC (Italy’s answer to Appellation Contrôlée) regulations for the entirely expedient reason that it provided a convenient use for the substantial proportion of pale-skinned grapes then planted in the zone. Some of them were Malvasia, an ancient Greek variety with real character that is today dried to make Vin Santo, Tuscany’s sweet wine treasure. But the great majority of white wine grapes that used to go into Chianti, blanching its colour and diluting its flavour, were the most basic sort of Trebbiano whose wine is generally near-flavourless and best distilled, as it is in France’s Cognac district where it is known as Ugni Blanc.

By Jancis Robinson

Published: July 4 2008

more: www.ft.com

France has the highest consumption of snails in the world, cooked in Burgundy's famous butter, garlic and parsley recipe or in variations with wine and cheese. Last year, the French processed 14,300 tonnes of gastropods, including snails and whelks. But 99% of France's snails come from abroad, notably eastern European countries or the Balkans and Greece.

Angelique Chrisafis in Paris Monday July 07 2008 The Guardian

more: lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk

Such names as Shaun Hill of the Walnut Tree Inn, Michel Roux of Waterside Inn at Bray and Vineet Bhatia from Rasoi in London’s Sloane Square are helping British Airways in this initiative, coming up with such British classics as shepherd’s pie and afternoon tea with strawberries and cream, which seem to be the current trend. Whereas Gate Gourmet, which supplies cabin food for a large number of airlines, is now turning to the local sourcing of ingredients. Again mirroring a current trend in British dining.

Few of us remember the days when food really was cooked on board! The micro-climate in modern airliners is one which enjoys a pressure of what one would experience at 8,000 ft at which the taste-buds are deadened and wines lose their middle fruit. So it is quite demanding to create a menu which can be pre-prepared and wines which suit and it is often these aspects which the chefs find particularly challenging. In addition to the constraints of the actual work place, that a working gas stove is a no-go and some passengers fly more than the cabin crew the menu has to be a compromise between what the guest expects and what actually still an attractive and tasty meal.

And in fact, when asked what meal would work best at 35,000ft Mr Steevenson, who runs the UK wine distributor which supplies business-only airline Silverjet said that funnily enough, it was a combination that tends not to be associated with business or first-class travel: “If you look at all the constraints, a curry and a beer is pretty much the perfect in-flight food.”.

We wish Liam Steevenson all the best as the demise of Silverjet was reported in the same edition of the Finacial Times Online as the original food article was published!

To read the original article: www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b699f61a-2608-11dd-b510-000077b07658.html. Editing by Jane K. Clouston

And that is what makes the Volkenborn Restaurant Hitlist so interesting. After entering the data from three major British restaurant guides ( the AA, the Good Food Guide and Michelin) and having done the calculations Gordon Ramsay at Gordon Ramsay has made it to number one in this wholly unbiased listing.

Blumenthal is not alone in having to keep an eye on the competition but Alain Roux at Waterside Inn took a cropper too. Shane Osborn, Andrew Fairlie, David Everitt-Matthias and Sat Bains all have in common the fact that they have lost points over the last twelve months and have dropped from up there where the air is becoming continually rarer.

The list of movement is possibly an indicator as to the rearranging of interests and developments over the past few years and of what is to come. Within the top twenty over half have fallen to lower placings. On taking a look further down towards the second half of the first century there is an upward surging of newcomers to the higher ranks.

Interestingly enough the Briton’s willingness to eat non-European food is mirrored in the new list. With Cheong Wah Soon at Yauatcha, Atul Kochhar at Benares and Karunesh Khanna at Amaya bearing witness to a traditional delight in the exotic as they slowly make their way up the ranks of the top one hundred.

This is a serious website but would it not be amusing to give the true punter a chance to see if he can pick next year’s winners?

Text by Jane K. Clouston

The Foodies office confirmed this morning that locally-supportive supermarket Waitrose, leading Spanish Tapas Restaurant La Tasca (who have over 70 restaurants nationwide), fine organic producer of food and spirits Godminster Vintage, locally produced fine rapeseed oil producers Oleifera and the Scottish independent Macleod Distillery will be among hundreds of the specially selected exhibitors who will be selling and demonstrating their wares, giving Festival-goers the opportunity to sample and learn more about the excellent food Scotland has to offer.

Moving the market outdoors allows more space for more stalls, and a larger arena for hot food preparation and café-style seating areas. Roy Brett, head Chef at Dakota in South Queensferry will also be launching a ‘Seafood Shack’ where wide ranges of fresh seafood will be available and prepared in front of the public.

One of the main attractions for gourmands is the demonstrations from top Scottish chefs in a purpose-built chefs’ theatre in the 5-star Sheraton Grand Hotel. The hour-long demonstrations focus on Scottish ingredients and aim to inspire visitors to recreate the dishes themselves; many of the ingredients used can be sourced at the outdoor market. Michelin-starred chefs Martin Wishart, Tom Kitchin and Liam Ginniane of Champany Inn are booked as well as award-winning Paul Tamburrini of Hotel du Vin in Glasgow and Roy Brett, Head Chef at Dakota, which recently won Scottish Restaurant of the Year and Scottish Hotel Restaurant of the Year 2008.

Sue Hitchen, Foodies Director, commented:

“We are delighted that Foodies has become a showcase for Michelin-starred and top Scottish chefs who come together over the weekend to show off their culinary skills under the spotlight of the chefs’ theatre and to cook their signature dishes. The idea is for members of the public visiting Foodies to be inspired by the eclectic mix of chefs who demonstrate every hour on the hour, and to select the freshest, seasonal ingredients at the extensive producers’ market.”

For more information on Foodies at the Festival please check their website:

www.foodiesfestival.com. The press release is dated 12th May 2008.

Could it be that future starred and rossetted restaurants will be posh equivalents of fast food eateries? Maybe along the lines of please take a number, this is where you will be sitting. You will find a menu on your table with all dishes explained. Please help yourself to a suitable wine for which you will find recommendations accompanying the dish of your choice in the self-service display.

What makes a good restaurant? Well, apart from good/great cooking and fantastic wines we have come to expect the food and chosen wine be brought to the table and served competently. We expect to be able to ask about what we are eating, about taxis, about the ingredient sourcing. And we don’t want to have to read about it. Foreigners expect waiting staff to speak English, French or the local language. This is called service: they serve who stand and wait.

However, they who sit and wait may in future not be served due to the increasing lack of able staff. To quote the article by M. Hickman in the Independent Online of 28th April 2008 standards of service are deteriorating as restaurateurs find it increasingly difficult to find adequate staff. The pay is atrocious, the shifts not family friendly, the status worse. So it would appear that restaurants are becoming increasingly dependent on staff from abroad, Eastern Europe in particular.

Payment by card rather than cash is one possible cause of the lack of interest of the service staff in good performance. But, hey. Who pays cash nowadays? If you know you are going to a place where one tips then you either take extra cash with you for the tipping or you up the ante on your credit card slip. And yes, everyone appreciates a little extra for being especially accommodating. And no, not many of us can keep a family nowadays on the quoted € 1,400 a month.

Waiters, especially those in high class establishments, go through training as long as a university student or chef. They are experts in their field. The chef’s creation plonked down on the table no longer appeals in the way it would if presented the way the chef planned it: with the tiny strip of leek still parallel to the plate and not hanging over the edge like a drunken sailor.

They want to serve. However they are not your mother and not your therapist. They take cheek from you without slapping your backside for it and do not get paid as well as a therapist! Good service is a two-way street. Maybe the British do not deserve good waiting because they are not good customers? The customer is king they say in Germany. But it only works if you have an enlightened and modern monarchy, otherwise the dictionary says it is dictatorship.

Please check the following for the background: http:// www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and drink/news/english-lose-the-appetite-for-a-career-in waiting-816638.html

This comment was written by Jane K. Clouston for DBK.

The appetite for locally produced food in Britain has risen dramatically in recent years, with more and more consumers realising the benefits in terms of flavour and quality. Food that hasn't travelled thousands of miles before it arrives on your plate is fresher, tastier and healthier, and choosing to buy locally also gives a financial boost to your community.

The 2008 Taste Festivals are the perfect opportunity to find out about the best food and drink available in your area. This year there are five festivals being held in the UK, plus two in Ireland, all set in the stunning surrounds of the UK's top city parks and each one proudly focuses on the finest local restaurants and produce. They are showcases for the country’s best restaurants and chefs whom one can meet on site. Gary Rhodes, Jeff Blunt and other biggies are there to show how it’s done.

You can travel the country from Edinburgh in May/June, via Leeds in early June to a taste of London in the middle of June. A couple of weeks later after digesting these three one can toddle off to Bath at the beginning of July before going off back northwards to Birmingham.

Cookery demonstrations, seminars and degustations are often booked out so it is good that one can spend the time strolling up and down the alleyways between the stalls of the chefs’ supply ‘heroes’. Food tourism in Britain with a difference.

Source: timesonline.co.uk/16th May 2008

With its rich smoky, peaty taste the Black Grouse will be appearing in pubs, clubs and bars throughout the country from July. For every bottle sold a donation of 50 pence will go directly to the RSPB to fund urgently required conservation work on up to 85,000 acres of land in Scotland, England and Wales.

Once a common sight throughout Britain’s birch, pinewoods and moorland areas, the numbers of black grouse have been declining at an alarming rate. In the 1970s there were estimated to be 25,000 pairs and this had decreased to just 5,000 by 2005. The birds are now on the UK Red List of conservation species.

The black grouse is one of Britain’s most strikingly beautiful game birds with an extraordinary courtship ritual known as lekking. In spring, the male birds gather together in a group and perform a dramatic display involving them raising their tails, inflating their necks and emitting a distinctive “rookooing” call. And of course the ones that display with greatest aplomb are the ones that get the ladies. It doesn't bear thinking what a couple of drams might do to the human male ego and courting style.

So it is a nice thought that one sometimes maybe can have one's whisky and drink it!

Source: Scottishfoodanddrink.com/ 30th May 2008

After long absorbing hours of spending or viewing you really do not want to have to travel for an age to enjoy the equivalent in eating. So it is nice to know beforehand just where the food trough will be when your tummy starts to rumble like Thor getting cross. The website for Food and wine Magazine has come up with a list of the top 10 restaurants where the food is as good as the nearby sights. The list starts with the recommendations by foodandwine.com(foodandwine.com/golist) but we have added a few more taken from our own databank.

1: Alto, New York City (Museum of Modern Art).

Chef Michael White has taken over the Alto and sister restaurant L’Impero. His elegant presentation of satisfying north Italian cooking can be enjoyed just a short walk from the MoMA.

2: Fafiuche, Rome (the Forum).

So new that it is not yet listed in The-best-Chefs.com this is a trendy combination of restaurant and food shop in the Monti neighbourhood next to the Forum.

3: The Goring, London (Buck ‘as, aka Buckingham Palace).

Having enjoyed a Royal make over (designer David Linley, Queen Elizabeth’s nephew) The Goring is now glitzy and Swarovski, but the food is still memorable with an excellent wine cellar.

4: Karim’s, Delhi (Jama Masjid mosque).

The most iconic kebab joint in Delhi sits in the shadow of the Jama Masjid mosque and has been owned for nearly a century by a family that claims to have cooked for India’s Mughal emperors 200 years ago.

5: Les Cocottes, Paris (Eiffel Tower).

At this dressed-down spot chef Christian Constant of Le Violon d’Ingres and Café Constant bakes a half-dozen Southwestern-accented French dishes in mini Staub cast-iron pots which customers can purchase.

6: Martha Kitchen and Bar, Tel Aviv (Tel Aviv Museum and Opera House).

Within walking distance of the Tel Aviv Museum and Opera House Martha serves excellent Middle Eastern dishes such as lentil salad with eggplant puree, Western dishes and some that fuse the two.

7: Ocean Room, Sydney (Opera House).

Excellent sashimi is the lovely surprise provided by young Tokyo-born chef, Raita Noda who has access to a thrilling variety of seafood, though the living contents of the huge indoor aquarium are not listed on the menus.

8: Omotenashi BAR at Isetan, Tokyo (in must-visit Isetan food hall, also near Shinjuku shopping area).

The glamorous Isetan department store’s basement food-floor recently underwent a massive renovation, resulting in a new array of food stands, chef counters and covetable ingredients. The floor now houses Omotenashi BAR which serves nihonshu (the Japanese word for sake) paired with small plates.

9: Palatium, Rome (Spanish Steps).

This sleekly designed restaurant just off the Spanish Steps concentrates on the food of Rome and the Lazio region.

10: Pasaji, Athens (city centre).

Chef Nena Ismirnoglou, who spent several years at NYC’s Estiatorio Milos, cooks smart, modernized Greek cuisine. In the meantime the restaurant has become one of the latest people-watching hangouts in the city centre. It is named for its location in a gorgeously renovated, covered passage behind the famous Grand Bretagne hotel.

11:Aigner Gendarmenmarkt, Berlin (Museumsinsel).

It is almost appropriate that this restaurant is in itself virtually a museum piece having been transferred from Vienna with the original furnishings after 85 years on the Danube. Food for thought and the body in the form of local and regional specialties offered by chef Andreas Klitsch.

12: Dallmayr, Munich (shopping along Maximillian Strasse).

Not the cheapest place in town, but then you have been spending your money discerningly throughout the morning. Dallmayr offers a panopticum of foods and delicacies downstairs in the café and bistro whilst Michelin starred Diethard Urbansky makes you wish you’d come earlier to this traditional upstairs and up-market eatery.

13: Meinl am Graben, Vienna (Stephansdom).

Shopping all morning, lunch at Meinl’s and a visit to the magnificent cathedral of St Stephan’s as a dessert. The relaxing view over the streets of Vienna helps one to relax and open ones senses to the Mediterranean influenced cuisine of Joachim Gradwohl.

14: Number One, Edinburgh (Princes Street).

This must be one of the most dramatic shopping streets in the world with the Castle towering above like a Harry Potter remake and the Princes Street Gardens set in what used to be a small lake. Gone are the days when one met at the Balmoral for ‘afternoon tea’ with your wealthy aunt. Now Jeff Bland rules and his take on Scottish dishes using the freshest of local ingredients has earned him a coveted Michelin star. Though the teas are still available. This is Scotland!

Original text: www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/travel/story (May 03, 2008) Additional text by Jane K. Clouston, DBK.