Lessons in wine: Tis the season to get tipsy on our top Christmas picks November 17, 2015 Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat and it is time to start planning Christmas lunch. While the true meaning of Christmas is peace and goodwill to all, a delicious lunch and good wine comes in a strong second. Sometimes the only way to get through TV re-runs, that protracted and competitive game of [...]
The fine art of Nordic cooking November 13, 2015 Chef Magnus Nilsson has compiled the definitive guide to the subtle art of Nordic cooking. The Nordic Cook Book combines a series of stunning photographs of his epic culinary journey through Scandinavia – from the grandiosity of the frozen fjords to simple strips of mutton hanging to age in a Faroese warehouse – with recipes [...]
The Burgundy Puzzle: a frustrating wine that can astonish or appall, here’s how to get it right November 13, 2015 The other day I was invited to a friend’s birthday party where the wine was given star billing. It was a Santenay 2012 and we were told it was “amazing”. I was bitterly disappointed: it was green and desperately thin, like over-diluted Ribena without the vitamin C. And probably cost a fortune. It put me [...]
South Carolina, the home of barbecue, is redefining itself with the help of pulled pork November 13, 2015 London has a growing fascination with the foods of the American South. In recent years we’ve seen an explosion of Blues kitchens, artisanal fried chicken joints and barbecue boutiques. It’s like restaurateurs made a collective decision some time around 2010 that any new restaurant, anywhere in the city, must offer piles of sweet, tangy pulled [...]
Turkish Delight: a culinary journey through one of the world’s most diverse nations November 13, 2015 When most people think of Turkish food, they imagine kebabs and Turkish delight. In reality the food of this vast nation is among the most vibrant and diverse in the world, drawing influences from the olive-scented villages on the Aegean coast to the dusty towns near its border with Syria. The epic landscape – the [...]
Films to see this weekend: Tangerine, The Hallow, Fathers and Daughters, The Lady in the Van November 13, 2015 The Lady in the Van (12A) ★★★★☆ This adaptation of Alan Bennett’s play about his 15 year friendship with an eccentric old lady (Maggie Smith) who lives in his driveway is a cosy film with a van-load (sorry) of charm. After an hour of ‘odd couple’ shenanigans between the two leads, the final act delivers [...]
Henry V at Barbican, theatre review: The RSC’s production lacks emotion but it’s riotously funny November 13, 2015 Barbican | ★★★★☆ The RSC’s production of Shakespeare’s Henry V is curiously lacking in drama, but more than compensates with a brilliant injection of humour. Serious passages often lack emotional clout, but traditionally straight characters are successfully played for laughs. The Archbishop of Canterbury, for instance, becomes an ecclesiastical Sir Humphrey and the Dauphin is a [...]
Theatre review: Waste at the National Theatre November 13, 2015 Lyttelton Theatre | ★★★☆☆ “The road to hell is paved not with good intentions but with high ideals”; it’s a statement delivered as a sardonic zinger but it turns out to be sadly prescient for the hero of Harley Granville-Barker’s 1906 play. This dense, long-winded story focuses on the political intrigue surrounding a bill to disestablish [...]
Steve Jobs review: Fassbender carries a poignant biopic of Apple’s dysfunctional tech messiah November 13, 2015 12A | ★★★★☆ You can’t code, you’re not a designer, you’re not a programmer,” says exasperated Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak (Seth Rogan). “But every day I read that Steve Jobs is a genius. What do you actually do?” This is the billion-dollar question asked by Danny Boyle in his follow-up to the London 2012 Opening [...]