Spain I watched the storms lashing through Andalucia recently and, like everyone else, I was horrified to hear about the loss of life and the destruction of homes and infrastructure. I have now started to think about the wider implications of the disastrous weather for agriculture and in particular for the olive harvest. Things were…
Miscellaneous
The Gift of Oil: Websites revisited
In May 2020 I featured The Gift of Oil website, the brainchild of Phil Bianchi. He had spent many years working for blue chip food companies ending up in Athens working for a large olive oil company. Here his interest in top quality olive oil flourished and he decided to set up a website to…
Radio Times recommends some drastic changes for our everyday food
I am concerned that the Radio Times recommendations for diet changes in the Earth Day Special 20th to 26th April edition, have not been thought through and could be misleading The article talks about the eco costs of farming cows for milk and says we can reduce the amount of land use going into our…
Giant honey comb attracts attention
Calling all bee keepers and indeed hoteliers looking for innovative ideas. So often food products are best sold after a tasting and there is no better way to promote a new product than when people are on holiday. Malcolm and Diane Tait discovered a wonderful local honey when it was served to them on the…
Tuscany on a plate in Brighton
In the midst of strong December winds and rain I found the sunshine of Tuscany. A great morning hosted in Hampton Place with Tuscan chef Alessandro Piccinini. Alessandro has a cookery school in the small medieval village of Montisi not far from Montalcino in southern Tuscany. Along with his work at the school he holds…
Curious and Curiouser
Can wine be blue or maybe even green? I was asked recently. “Of course not!” I announced firmly. But think again. When I researched the subject I found that there are quite a few references to “blue wine” in various European wine producing countries. The Linos winery in Cyprus, for example, going so far as…
Changes to my one-day olive oil tasting and appreciation classes
From now on I will only be offering my one-day tasting classes to ready-made groups of colleagues or friends. It is no longer efficient for me to gather together groups of people one by one. The numbers required for such classes will be a minimum of four to a maximum of seven. As a result…
Brexit Border Problems
It is not just the English/northern Irish border that is experiencing delivery problems due to Brexit as I am finding out. It is also currently quite a serious problem for small importers bringing in premium products from the EU. So, if like me, you are keen on food from small artisan producers rather than from…
Website of the month: https://www.thegiftofoil.co.uk/
The Gift of Oil website is the brainchild of Phil Bianchi who spent the early years of his working life working for blue chip food companies, ending up in Athens working for a large olive oil company. There he was inspired by the quality of the Greek olive oils and vinegars which he felt were…
One Day Olive Oil Courses
Thanks to popular request I am continuing my one day olive oil tasting and appreciation courses in London and Brighton in 2020. The next courses in London will be held on Tuesday 18th February and Friday 27th March. Brighton dates are open to negotiation anytime between now and late April. I keep the classes fairly…