Project Food Blog

Holiday highlights from a foodie perspective



What a foodie summer it's been. Whether at home or abroad, we've both been lucky enough to experience many new culinary joys this month. Good food to me is synonymous with so much - time spent in an unhurried fashion with family and friends, passing on my passion and sharing new experienced with my daughters, meeting chefs and food producers who are passionate about their craft and constantly strive to create sustainable quality. Here are four of my personal favourite foodie moments of the past month:

Ancient Egyptian feast for 16 in Ibiza
Researching and creating ancient Egyptian cakes with my 7-year-old, Jasmine, who chose the theme for our annual Ibiza villa's fancy dress party this year. She's crazy about Egypt and learned so much as we poured through text books seeing what they would have eaten. We finally settled on a dried fruit, honey and nut concoction, only to remember that one of our villa party had a severe nut allergy. Luckily, we improvised, and the resulting cakes really made the feast (have to hold my hand up here and confess that the other dishes had a certain amount of poetic licence - well, when you're asked to create fresh fish from the Nile, what would you do…?)

€30 10-course gourmet feast in SW France
Ah, our time in Miradoux, home to some of my dearest friends and most-loved foods! On our last night, we took our lovely hosts to the restaurant in Gramont, home to an exceptional cookery school and an exceptional chef. For €30 a head and €10 for the children, we feasted on excellent food in unimaginably huge quantities, including a raspberry Champagne cocktail, plenty of foie gras, and all wines and coffees. http://www.gastronomie-petit-feuillant.com/

First ever family sushi experience
A great new restaurant, Toyko Joe http://www.just-eat.co.uk/restaurants-tokyo-jo-cafe has just opened round the corner, and we tried our first sushi takeaway once back from our holidays to keep that vacation spirit alive. Watching my four-year old try her first bite of ebi sushi, nod vigorously and say "That's really nice" filled my heart with joy. Next stop - sushi making at home, we've got the mat and all the ingredients.

Wild sea bass and samphire
It had been a frantic week and we were on our last legs. The obvious choice would have been to go out for a meal. Instead, I thought we'd try and relax over a bit of husband-and-wife cooking. We headed to the excellent fishmongers in Chelsea Green and that night feasted on a wild sea bass (caught that morning) and buttered samphire, which we served with a few Jersey Royals. Travelling the world and eating the delights of each area is fantastic, but nothing can beat a best-quality, locally-sourced, simply cooked supper - the memory of that dinner eaten in our back garden will linger long after my tan fades.