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Perfect for Chicken Katsu Curry

Proudly made in Japan

Available in Waitrose & Ocado S&B Foods Inc. www.sbfoods-worldwide.com

ST~GERMAIN ® IS THE WORLD’S FIRST ELDERFLOWER liqueur created in the artisanal French manner from fresh elderf lower blossoms handpicked once a year in the late spring. Add a splash of ST~GERMAIN to your gin & tonic, top up your glass of champagne or try the ST~GERMAIN® Spritz for a delicious apéritif “à la Française.” #stgermain

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23 SEPTEMBER â€” 3 OCTOBER 2019

A city-wide celebration of the food and drink of Japan #JAPANWEEK #ESCAPETHEORDINARY japanweek.co.uk Join us and some of the best restaurants in the city, including:

ME XI CAN

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FRONT COVER: Photography by Ian Dingle

EDITORIAL EDITOR

Mike Gibson STAFF WRITER

Ally Head

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Lucas Oakeley TRAVEL EDITOR

Lydia Winter BEER EDITOR

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Ronan J O’Shea CONTRIBUTORS

Adam Dulye, David Harrison, Ian Dingle, James Lowe, Lucy Holden EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

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ore often than not, I start this editor’s letter with something light-hearted – a vaguely self-referential anecdote that segues seamlessly (if I’m being generous) into the things we cover in the issue. This time, I’m not going to do that. Instead, I’ll offer this: many scientists estimate that, with our current model of food production, there are around 90 harvests left before the Earth can no longer produce enough food to feed its population. At the same time, around a third of all the food in the world is wasted. There is, quite obviously, a disconnect here. Food production is inexorably linked to the environment, and the environment is at a crossroads. We probably shouldn’t need to see videos on social media of the Amazon burning or TV shows where Sir David Attenborough stands in front of an ocean strewn with plastic to remind us that our buying choices and the way we feed ourselves has consequences. But sometimes it does. This is our fourth annual sustainability special issue. We do this because we believe that over time people have lost a sense of connection with where their food comes from. But it’s a sense of connection that’s slowly but surely being rediscovered – a fact that’s hopefully evident from the stories we’ve pulled together for this year’s issue. Take Thomasina Miers’ comments about the importance of organic produce on page 50. Or outspoken chef Douglas McMaster and his commitment to showing his customers and peers that you can create an entire restaurant without causing any waste [p58]. Or Yeo Valley, whose methods of production show that industrial food production and truly sustainable farming can be two sides of the same coin [p122]. Personally, I believe they’re a reminder that it’s not too late to change, but also that the conversation has never been more important than now.

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THE DIGEST

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WEAPONS OF CHOICE

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© Square Up Media Limited 2019. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher. All information contained in this magazine is, as far as we are aware, correct at the time of going to press. Square Up Media cannot accept responsibility for errors or inaccuracies in such information. If you submit unsolicited material to us, you automatically grant Square Up Media a licence to publish your submission in whole or in part in all editions of the magazine. All material is sent at your own risk and although every care is taken, neither Square Up Media nor its employees, agents or subcontractors shall be held liable resulting for loss or damage. Square Up Media endeavours to respect the intellectual property of the owners of copyrighted material reproduced herein. If you identify yourself as the copyright holder of material we have wrongly attributed, please contact the office.

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NORWEGIAN SEAFOOD

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ORIGINS: YEO VALLEY

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THE GETAWAY: ANOTHER PLACE

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ON THE TRAIL: JAMES LOWE

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THE ITINERARY: CORFU

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THE SELECTOR

PROUD SPONSORS OF JAPAN WEEK PROUD

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VOTED THE NO.1 TASTING WORLD BEER Kirin has been voted as having a superior taste vs. Heineken, Peroni and Asahi*. Kirin creates beer in its purest form. The first press brewing technique sets itself apart from all other world discovery lagers.

CELEBRATING JAPANESE CULTURE We believe that brewing beer is a dialogue with natural life. Itâ€™s about respect for nature and respect for the art of brewing beer the Japanese way. *Kadence International Brand Audit January 2018.

— PART 1 —

GRAZE “I WAS AS OBSESSED WITH RECYCLING AS I WAS COLOUR COORDINATING” LIZ SMALLEY ON OPENING UP HER PLASTIC-FREE DESIGN CAFE, 016

014 THE FOODIST | 016 THE ESCAPIST | 018 THE DIGEST 022 FOODISM 100 | 025 RECIPES | 032 WEAPONS OF CHOICE

THE LONDON LARDER

This month: Peter’s Yard’s sourdough ﬂatbreads

THE FOODIST

Thanks to companies like Fairtransport, food miles can actually become a positive thing, says Lucas Oakeley

T’S BEEN A hot summer at times, hasn’t it? Might have been too hot, really. Climate change has caused the planet to go a bit bonkers over the last few years. The Amazon rainforest’s up in flames, the ice caps are melting at an astonishing rate and we’re all destined for doom and disaster. When it comes to doing your bit, avoiding any food source that seems even vaguely tropical seems a good place to start, right? Wrong. According to a climate scientist at the University of Edinburgh, bananas imported from the Dominican Republic, apples from New Zealand and oranges from Brazil are actually some of the most carbon-friendly foods that UK consumers can buy. But how do you attain those goods without creating a Size 12 carbon footprint? If you’re Fairtransport, you do the only logical thing: set sail. Fairtransport is the world’s first modern emission-free shipping company. Set up by three friends with an ambition to take our international food deliveries back to basics, Fairtransport has established the

reintroduction of traditional sailing cargo ships. Yep, that’s right: big pirate-style boats not dissimilar from the kind that Francis Drake used to cut about the ocean on. The company’s first restoration was the brigantine Tres Hombres – a vessel that’s become part of the company’s emission-free freight service travelling the Atlantic. Fairtransport’s second engineless ship is the Nordlys: an 1873 restoration able to carry up to 30 tonnes of goods that sails across Europe. Fairtransport’s aim is to sail cargo emission free, transporting organic (or traditionally crafted) products like olive oil, cacao beans, wine and rum while raising awareness about the pollution created by the modern shipping industry. A message backed by the example that Fairtransport sets, it’s a proper swashbuckling way of promoting a greater level of sustainability throughout the food world. Invest in the business and you can even – become part-owner of a ship for yourself. f Find out more at fairtransport.eu

What is it? Scandiphiles will have heard of knäckebröd, Sweden’s much-loved crispbread, which was developed in the 1500s as a bread alternative that would last the winter without going stale. Bringing the age-old recipe to London is the Peter’s Yard team, whose products were termed “the crispbreads I have always dreamed of” by none other than Nigel Slater. Yep. We’re sold already.

Who makes it? Originally made with love by bakers Peter Ljungquist and Jan Hedh in their small bakery (or skånegård, meaning old farm) deep in the Swedish countryside, the crispbreads are now made in small batches in Surbiton. The recipe is simple: organic fresh milk, Shipton Mill organic flours and their daily-fed sourdough starter, which ferments for 16 hours before baking.

What does it taste like? The new sourdough flatbreads are subtly malty, crisp and light, the perfect base for slathering with cheese, draping with smoked salmon or dolloping with sauerkraut. Sweet tooth? Try honey, peanut butter or jam. Options include sea salt, smoked chilli and seeded – and they’re high in fibre, low in sugar and free from hydrogenated fats, too.

Where can I get it? You can pick up the new Peter’s Yard Sourdough Flatbread range in Waitrose stores nationwide, or online at petersyard.com

JAPANESE CRAFT GIN: 6 UNIQUE JAPANESE BOTANICALS

JAPANESE CRAFT WHISKY: A HARMONIOUS BLEND OF YAMAZAKI, HAKUSHU & CHITA

P R O U D PA RT N E R S

PRESENTED

JAPANESE CRAFT VODKA: BAMBOO CHARCOAL FILTERED TO PERFECTION

LOCAL HEROES V EGAN SWAP S

LINDA MCCARTNEY SAUSAGES

Sausages form the focal point of many a good meal: toad in the hole, bangers and mash, slightlytoo-chargrilled hot dogs, to name but a few. To save you vegans from living a life sans sausage, try these alternatives from Linda McCartney, made entirely out of soya protein. They’re one of the best meat-free options out there. lindamccartneyfoods.co.uk

OGGS CUPCAKES

PLENISH ALMOND M*LK

Drink two and a half pints of cow’s milk a week – the national average – and you’re creating 3.6kg of CO2 emissions. Swap to almond milk and your footprint halves to just 1.6kg. Plenish almond milk has just three ingredients, almonds, salt and water, and tastes bloomin’ great, too. No watery alternatives over here, thanks. plenishdrinks.com

Like the sound of gooey chocolate fudge, strawberry-slathered victoria sponge and sticky salted caramel cupcakes? Yeah, we thought so. Also like the sound of egg and dairy-free versions that actually taste like – well, real cupcakes? Then you’ll love OGG’s, vegan sweet treats made with aquafaba (aka chickpea water) in the place of eggs. They may sound wacky, but they taste wonderful. loveoggs.com

THE ESCAPIST

Liz Smalley, founder of plastic-free design cafe Common, on finally realising her dream

top fashion design schools and even studied in Seoul before heading to London to work for some of the big high-street names. I was living a very sought after dream but couldn’t help feeling frustrated by the culture of throwaway fashion. After four years, I didn’t feel I could continue putting my energy into something that had such a negative impact on the environment. I left everything behind to volunteer for a charity supporting survivors of a recent earthquake in the Philippines, eventually deciding to set out on a new career in the charity sector. I got a job for the international children’s charity, War Child, who run astonishing programmes in some of the worlds most

challenging places. It was when I was on maternity leave in 2018 that I saw an opportunity to fulfil my dream of running my own business, bringing together my love of design and passion for sustainable living. Balancing motherhood and getting a new business off the ground was hard, but after a really exciting first seven months it feels like the hard work has been worth it. We have a new café menu launching soon and the shop range continues to grow as more alternatives to plastics are launched on the market. We also are working on a new online shop and looking to expand our zero-waste station as more people swap to a plastic-free lifestyle. f wearecommon.co.uk

Photograph by [London larder] Mowie Kay

ROM AN EARLY age, my passions were art and the environment. I was as obsessed with recycling as I was colour coordinating, and I was determined to be a fashion designer. I went to one of UK’s

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Japan Week

SHAKE IT UP

Get into the spirit of things from the comfort of your own home with first-rate cocktail recipes from House of Suntory – our official Japan Week spirits partner

fruit The array of serve is th in rs flavou balmy on make it sing nights r be em pt Se

ROKU CLUB WITH HOUSE OF SUNTORY

This zesty gin-based serve is ideal for end of summer sipping.

ING R E DIE NTS ◆◆ 50ml Roku Gin ◆◆ 20ml lemon juice ◆◆ 15ml raspberry syrup ◆◆ 10ml Luxardo Maraschino ◆◆ ½ egg white

Add all ingredients to a shaker and shake hard without ice for 10 seconds. Add ice and repeat, before straining into a cocktail coupette and garnishing with lemon zest and a garnish made out of rice paper.

GIN AND TONIC WITH MERCHANT’S HEART

Your old-school gin and tonic just got a new-school, Japanese upgrade thanks to the addition of herbaceous, warming fresh ginger.

made Roku Gin is nese pa Ja x with si cluding botanicals in peel yuzu sencha and

I NGREDI EN TS ◆◆ 50ml Roku Gin ◆◆ 150ml Merchant’s Heart Tonic Water ◆◆ Ginger, cut into matchstick shapes

Fill highball glass with ice and add gin. Stir briefly to chill before topping up with more ice and tonic water. Garnish with ginger matchsticks.

Japan Week

KEY EVENTS

Looking for the best events, discounts and exclusive menu items on during Japan Week? Look no further To find out more about exclusive Japan Week events, go to japanweek.co.uk

SAK E AT G ING E R L IN E Secret location

F O O D I SM X AMETSA MAST ERC LASS

15% OF F AT NOB U

F OODISM X SE XY F I S H

19 Old Park Lane, W1K 1LB

Berkeley Square House, Mayfair, W1J 6BR

5-6 Halkin Street, SW1X 7DJ

Enjoy 15% off breakfast, lunch and dinner (excluding weekend evenings); attend whisky and gin masterclasses; and sip an exclusive Asian Monkey Japan Week cocktail while you’re at it. Fancy a spot of Japanese afternoon tea? Enjoy during Japan Week and you’ll save £10 – bargain.

Dine with sake expert Raul Diaz, Sexy Fish restaurant and foodism at their Japanese -influenced supperclub on Friday 27 September. But be quick: there are only 20 places, so grab them while you can. You’ll be whizzed through a two-hour sake tutorial worth far more than the ticket price. f

P RAWN ON T H E LAWN’S K E RNOW K ATSU SANDO 292-294 St Paul’s Road, N1 2LH

Ametsa might not be your first port of call for Japanese food and drink but that’s all set to change. Learn all about sake’s best food pairings with foodism at this muchloved Basque-inspired restaurant at Como The Halkin hotel in Belgravia.

Photograph by [Nobu] Steven Joyce

Fishmonger and seafood bar Prawn on the Lawn is getting into the spirit of things for Japan Week with a uniquely Cornish take on a traditional katsu sando. You might have spotted these picture-perfect sandwiches on Instagram of late – but this one will have a Cornish twist. Dubbed the ‘Kernow Katsu Sando’, this take on the sarnie is a fine, fresh, and fierce seafood sandwich comprised of homemade Japanese milk bread, breaded Padstow pollock, shredded Padstow kitchen garden hispi cabbage, Cornish seaweed mayo, and Cornish farm-fermented chilli sauce. Salty, sweet, spicy and seafood-y? Don’t tell us that doesn’t sound downright delicious.

Gingerline’s Grand Expedition is an eating experience like no other. Literally. The fivecourse set menu is a full-on 180-minute multimedia experience that combines elaborate set design, dance, storytelling, interactivity and immersive performance. If you’ve never been before, just know that it’s not the sort of place where you can expect a quiet chat over a bowl of udon noodles. It’s more of a get-up-and-dance-or-else sort of vibe. Which, y’know, isn’t exactly for everyone – but it’s still a great place to be during Japan Week. Why? Because sake. That’s why. Yep, dine at Gingerline during Japan Week and use the code ‘JAPANWEEK’ when prompted and you’ll receive a complimentary bottle of sake to enjoy during the experience. Cheers, or as they say in Japan,kanpai!

PROMOTION

EAST MEETS WEST Japan Centre Ichiba in Westfield White City is a one-stop shop where you can get your hands on the very best food, fresh ingredients and loads more that Japan has to offer

OCATED JUST A minute's walk from White City tube station in Westfield is a little slice of Japan right here in London: Japan Centre Ichiba, Europe's largest Japanese food hall. This is the

cafe that make us swoon the hardest. You can find almost every Japanese dish you could ever dream of here. From small bites to hearty meals that'll keep you going throughout the day, Japan Centre Ichiba is determined to cater to all your culinary desires. Donburi? They've got you sorted. Beef teriyaki? Easy as pie. Melonpan and dorayaki? Okonomiyaki and yakisoba? Not a problem – you’re in safe hands here, no matter which direction your stomach sends you in. The only problem will be finding a reason to leave... ● To find out more, go to ichibalondon.com, follow @IchibaLondon on social media or head to the store itself, located near John Lewis at Westfield White City, W12 7HB

Photography by Steven Joyce

place to find more than 3,000 Japanese products, all the way from bento boxes, books, confectionery and sake to fresh handmade sushi and curries. You'll quickly find yourself lost in the endless shelves of premium lifestyle items, engrossed by a scrum of curios you won't find anywhere else in the city. Looking for Japanese skincare? No? Well, you've just bought six hydrating face masks and a botanical-scented deep cleansing oil. That's the magic of Japan Centre Ichiba. There's even a fishmonger and butcher on site where you can get your fill of finely sliced sashimi and Wagyu beef. Yet, in spite of all its various attractions, it’s really the Japanese street food and dedicated bakery and

PROMOTION

ISN'T LIFE S'WELL? Tackling sustainability isn't easy, especially when you're always on the go. S'well's stainless steel products are an effective and stylish alternative to single-use plastic

HEN YOU’RE TRYING to live as sustainably as possible, everyday brings a spate of new challenges to overcome. Thankfully, there’s companies like S’well that are trying to make it easier for you to make sustainable life choices. Food packaging waste is on the rise

(known as S’well Eats and S’nack by S'well) designed to keep your meals hot or cold for longer. S’well Eats are available in two sizes and five styles, with a stainless steel exterior bowl and a microwavable nesting inner prep bowl. S’nack by S’well, on the other hand, is available in two different sizes and 11 styles. The 24oz style even features a handle and the smaller 10z bowl nests inside for easy storage. Not content with tackling the world of drinks, these new products have allowed S’well to extend its mission against single-use plastic to a whole new territory. That territory being, of course, your packed lunch. ● For more information, visit the website at swellbottle.com or follow S’well on Instagram and Twitter at @swellbottle

Photograph [S'nack] by Dave Puente

S'WELL IS WORKING TO REDUCE THE USE OF SINGLEUSE PLASTIC

in the UK and eating takeout lunches generates more than 10.7 billion tons of packaging waste each year. By making meal prep and dining-on-the go that little bit easier, S’well is working to reduce single-use plastics. How? Well, S’well creates reusable stainless steel products, seeking to provide alternatives to single-use plastic wherever possible. With a wide range of products that keep liquids hot or cold for hours, including traditional bottles, wide-mouth Travelers, large-format Roamers, a complete barware line, and accessories like stainless steel straws, S’well has a sustainable solution for pretty much every everything. The darn do-gooders have even recently launched vacuum-insulated food containers

TOG kitchen knives are designed in Britain and made in Japan.

Each blade is forged from layers of steel and antimicrobial copper by skilled craftsmen in Seki, the Samurai sword capital of the world. www.togknives.com

— PART 2 —

FEAST “IT’S ABOUT KNOWING WHAT’S COMING OUT OF THE SOIL AND THE SEA” ROBIN GILL ON THE FIVE DISHES THAT HAVE DEFINED HIS CAREER SO FAR, 066

050 SUSTAINABILITY ROUND-UP | 058 DOUGLAS MCMASTER 066 FIVE DISHES: ROBIN GILL

IT’S EASY BEING GREEN Feeling overwhelmed by the wealth of information out there about how to live a greener, cleaner lifestyle? You’re in luck, because we’ve asked the experts to tell us what really matters – and what we can do about it

M “

Photograph by [main] Rustic / Shutterstock; [plant]

yuris / shutterstock; [table] Photographee.eu

Y ACTIONS WON’T make a difference.” “Recycling is a waste of time.” “It’s too difficult.” These are all common excuses when it comes to trying to live a more sustainable, ethical lifestyle. And no one can blame us: while we all know that sustainability is a priority, these days there’s so much confusing messaging that it can be hard to know what to do. That’s why we’ve enlisted the help of several experts within the food and drink industry, asking them to debunk existing misconceptions around sustainability and show you exactly how your actions can have a positive impact on people and the planet – without compromising your lifestyle. Considering going vegan in the name of sustainability? Flip the page to read why maybe you shouldn’t. Stopped eating bananas because you’re worried about food miles? A scientist explains why that isn’t necessarily the answer. Don’t think organic food is worth it? Here’s exactly why it is. At the end of the day, trying to live a more sustainable lifestyle presents a vital ongoing – and frequently rewarding – challenge. Whether you’re a business working to effect positive change, a supermarket trying to maintain quality but reduce environmental impact, or simply a human trying to make better choices, we’re all in this together.

THE MYTH: BEING SUSTAINABLE IS EXPENSIVE

Megan Perry, communications manager at the Sustainable Food Trust on the true value of food

By taking a more holistic approach to the way we buy food, we force ourselves the wider impact of our purchases. Today, we spend about 10% of our disposable income on food, but in the 70s people used to spend around 30%. Although we may feel like we can’t afford it, the price we pay for food often doesn’t reflect its true cost. For every pound we pay for cheap food, it actually costs us more in hidden ways: pollution clean up, water bills, healthcare costs and so on. Other costs include environmental damage, because the intensive farming processes that make most of the food we eat aren’t held accountable for the damage they’re doing. For example, the overuse of nitrogen fertiliser has polluted our water and degraded our soils, yet food produced in this way is still sold for very little. Conversely, there is currently little business incentive for farmers to follow sustainable practices. They receive limited additional financial reward for farming in a way that helps the environment and benefits public health. We have a skewed economic system which fails to honestly reflect production costs, and it can seem to consumers that sustainable food is not affordable. Until fundamental policy changes come into play, it is crucial that citizens play a role in driving the market away from ‘cheap’ food and that, as much as possible, they support sustainable systems. A great way to do this is buying directly from farmers at farm shops, or local farmers’ markets. Buying from a local butcher or greengrocer is also a great option; you’ll likely be surprised just how competitive prices are with the main supermarkets. Eating eco doesn’t have to be costly. sustainablefoodtrust.org

THE MYTH: YOU SHOULD CUT OUT MEAT AND DAIRY

Lizzie Rivera of ethical lifestyle website BICBIM explains why this isn’t always the case

There is no question that a vegan food system is better than a factory farming one. The fact that almost half of crops produced worldwide are fed to intensively bred livestock when more than 800 million people suffer from hunger is unacceptable. As are the many environmental problems linked to this way of producing food. But mass-produced, plant-based alternatives are unlikely to be the answer. Key ingredients in these foods such as soy often come from monoculture farms where swathes of land are sprayed with herbicides and insecticides, which is devastating for biodiversity, the planet, the farmer – and, ultimately, us. Similarly, foods that don’t contain animal products but do contain palm oil are likely to have contributed to rainforest deforestation. Whether we’re vegan, veggie or flexi we need to consider where our food is coming from: who is farming, who is profiting and at what cost. Beef especially gets a bashing when it comes to the Meat vs. Environment debate. But in the UK, there is mounting evidence to suggest farming with ruminant animals can have positive effects on biodiversity and on climate change. Essentially, grazing animals help to remove carbon from the atmosphere and store it in soil. Here, where two-thirds of our land is grassland, rearing cows and sheep solely on pasture could make sense as part of a wider ecosystem. If we continue eating meat, we should eat much less than we do currently. But whatever our diet, the most sustainable way to eat is seasonally and locally. The important thing is farming in tune with nature, not rearing animals in factories. Hopefully, it’s on this point that vegans, veggies and conscious meat-eaters can align. bicbim.co.uk

THE MYTH: ‘ORGANIC’ DOESN’T MEAN ANYTHING

Soil Association ambassador, chef and doyenne of the London food scene Thomasina Miers on why ‘organic’ matters

Ultimately, choosing organic food certified by the Soil Association is one of the easiest ways to know if your food has been produced in the best possible way for people and the planet. All organic food is fully traceable from farm to fork so you can be sure of what you’re eating. The standards for organic food are laid down in European law and organic farms have to be certified to strict standards. Yes, organic can sometimes be more expensive, but not every time. Staples like pulses, pasta, rice and whole grains are often the same price and, when you can, buying directly from farmers or through box schemes helps too. When organic does cost more, you’re paying for the extra care organic farmers place on the environment and animal welfare. What’s more, organic food is more common than you think. In fact, organic is available in more than 8,000 shops across the country. Aldi, Lidl and Tesco have increased their organic lines, all milk at both McDonald’s and Pret is organic and schools, hospitals and universities across the country serve it every day. As for what it means for our health, organic food is nutritionally different – scientific research

THE MYTH: YOU CAN’T SHOP ETHICALLY IN SUPERMARKETS

Tor Harris, head of CSR, health and agriculture at Waitrose & Partners on how to choose more sustainable produce in the supermarket

Photograph by [organic] The Len / shutterstck; [food] zi3000 / shutterstock

found organic milk and meat contains around 50% more omega-3 fatty acids than nonorganic, and organic fruit and vegetables have up to 68% more antioxidants. Eating organic also reduces your exposure to antibiotics and pesticides. Organic farmers avoid the use of pesticides. If all farming was organic, research suggests that pesticide use would drop by 98%. More than 320 pesticides can be routinely used in non-organic farming, and these are often present in non-organic food. Farm animals account for almost two-thirds of all antibiotics used in the EU and these are passed down to us through the food chain. In organic farming systems, the routine or preventative use of antibiotics is banned. When you see the Soil Association Certification organic symbol you can be sure what you buy has been produced to the very highest standards. It means fewer pesticides, no artificial additives or preservatives, always free range, higher standards of animal welfare and absolutely no GM ingredients. soilassociation.org

EATING ORGANIC REDUCES YOUR EXPOSURE TO ANTIBIOTICS

Although some supermarkets have a wider selection than others, you can still get loose fruit and veg in most stores. Waitrose, for example, offers packagingfree produce in all stores, alongside compostable bags to take home if you forget your reusable one. As for meat and fish, across the board moves are being made to ensure the animal’s life and general sustainability requirements are met. Supermarkets realised that not enough was being done and that consumer demand for sustainable produce was on the rise, and rightly so. With their Sustainable Fisheries Partnership, last year, 100% of Aldi’s fish was responsibly sourced – fresh, frozen and canned. And, in most Waitrose stores, you can shop at counters, which offers not only a guarantee of ethically and sustainably sourced product but the option to take your meat and fish home in your own container, too. Most major supermarkets are working to make the plastic they use recyclable, reusable or home compostable in the next few years. Others are moving towards refill stations – in June, we launched Waitrose Unpacked, a trial where a refill station was introduced for more than 200 products in store. We’ll be extending the scheme later this year. Thanks to a sharp rise in organisations offering to take produce off our hands, more and more ‘waste’ is being reused and re-homed rather than thrown away. Last year, Asda launched the first ‘wonky veg’ box, allowing consumers to buy slightly abnormal-looking vegetables that would otherwise have been thrown away, with supermarkets such as Aldi, Co-op and Tesco quickly following suit. And in June, more than 100 UK food chains, including all large-scale supermarkets, signed a government petition to halve their food waste by 2030. There’s still a long way to go, but change is definitely in action. waitrose.com

– Thomasina Miers

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THE MYTH: ALWAYS EAT LOCAL FOOD

Professor David Reay, author of ClimateSmart Food, explains why minimising food miles isn’t as simple as you think

Photograph by [recylcing] hiv360 / Shutterstock; [produce] Dragana Gordic / Shutterstock

Our food is a major driver of climate change, and time is against us. Each carrot and tomato, burger and chicken drumstick has a carbon footprint and feeding us all requires a lot of it. The United Nations’ Food & Agriculture Organisation is a global powerhouse of research. They share good practice on how food systems can become more productive, more resilient to climate change and produce less carbon. A study found just one day’s food and drink had travelled more than 40,000 miles and encompassed an array of climate change risks. Surprisingly, miles weren’t actually the best indicator of a food’s total carbon footprint. For example, apples all the way from New Zealand, bananas from the Dominican Republic and Brazillian oranges were among the top carbonfriendly foods for UK consumers. Why? Because the conditions for those fruits were just right to grow them carbon efficiently, whereas producing them in climates without these conditions means more energy usage to mimic these conditions. Buying local is great, but should also encapsulate buying produce that’s in season to keep air miles down. For example, government stats revealed that British-grown tomatoes have more than three times the footprint of Spanishgrown tomatoes harvested and eaten in season. Shop locally, and shop seasonally; the best way you can reduce your carbon footprint is by buying produce from countries that are meant to be producing said product at that time of year. For the UK in September, that’s figs, plums, pears, butternut squash, kale and leeks. Climate-Smart Food is out now. palgrave.com

THE MYTH: RECYCLING IS INEFFECTIVE

Orlaith O’Byrne, sustainability manager at commercial recycling company Paper Round on why – and how – we should recycle Despite the recent bad press, our consumption of plastics is increasing. Even worse, single-use plastics are often non-recyclable – a WWF study found that only 29% of single-use plastics get recycled. Yet plastics are very efficient at what they do. They are lightweight, cheap and clean, so switching to other materials might not always be the most carbonefficient option. For instance, you’d have to use a paper bag three times and a reusable cotton tote more than 100 times to have a lower global warming potential than using one plastic shopping bag. If we treat our plastics properly by washing out containers, we could recycle as much as 4% more. Grease and liquids from food can render paper and card unrecyclable. The best solution is to consume less. The best alternative to a singleuse straw is no straw at all. If you over order at a restaurant but you reckon you might fancy seconds later, ask to take your leftovers with you to reduce food waste. Always check your council website to see if items can be recycled. Recycling is not the best solution to our waste problem, reduction is. paper-round.co.uk

THE MYTH: MY ACTIONS WON’T MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Cemal Ezel, founder of coffee roasters Change Please, on why even your choice of coffee can help

THE MYTH: FOOD WASTE IS ONLY A SMALL PART OF THE PROBLEM

Anoushka Grover, marketing manager of food waste-fighting app Too Good To Go on why minimising food waste is one of the most important things we can do

Photograph by [Change please] Debbie Bragg; [main] pipicato / Shutterstock

Globally, wasted food is responsible for 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. If it were a country, it would be just behind the US and China in terms of its impact on global warming. It’s such a big deal that climate change expert Chad Frischmann has said that reducing food waste is one of the most important ways we can help. Yep, that forgotten carton of eggs, those ends of the bread loaf – they’re all heating up our planet. What’s more, food produces methane as it decomposes, and we’re also wasting all the resources it took to produce it. From the water required to the land set aside, it all creates needless strain on the environment. There are all sorts of easy ways we can reduce our food waste. Going through our fridge every week and cooking meals out of leftovers is a start: turn wilting vegetables into a frittata by whipping them into eggs; or blitz them into your morning smoothie. Make use of your freezer if you cook food in bulk. Outside of the home, bakeries, cafés, and restaurants are often left with extra food. The Too Good To Go app lets you discover unsold food in your local area – you’ll be fighting food waste, but you’re also getting your hands on restaurant-quality food at discounted prices. toogoodtogo.co.uk

We don’t like referring to ourselves as a social enterprise because people doubt the quality of the coffee. Actually, we’ve won a Great Taste Award for our coffee every year we’ve been open – and we keep our prices competitive. We want to make it easy for people to do good. When you buy a coffee from us, several good things happen. We find people that are homeless and train them to be speciality-level baristas to an STA-level standard. We provide them with a living-wage job – £21k a year – and housing in ten days, using a job-first model. We’re making it sustainable for people to go into housing rather than depend on the government for welfare. Then we also help with bank accounts, mental health support, therapy support, taking pressure off the NHS and government services, and we’ve calculated that in the last three and a half years we’ve saved the government £2.6 million. Our graduates move into a new job typically around six months in, going on to work with our partners, other cafés, other restaurants, or even as graphic designers or accountants. The coffee is that initial platform back into society. We purchase coffee from a farm in Peru that supports women who are victims of domestic abuse, and another farm in Tanzania that supports landmine victims. The coffee comes to London, where it gets roasted by people that are homeless at our sister company Old Spike Roastery. The roasted coffee then comes to Change Please and its 35 sites around the country. We also supply coffee to big companies like Barclays and Virgin Atlantic. The last thing we do is look at our environmental impact. We convert our waste coffee grounds to biofuel. Even now we’re moving away from plant-based cups to takeaway bamboo cups – it only takes six months to grow compared to years for other varieties. changeplease.org

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ZERO WASTE CAN BE HIGH END After five years in Brighton, Douglas McMaster is moving Silo – claimed to be the first zero-waste restaurant in the UK – to a space above a brewery in Hackney Wick. He tells Lucas Oakeley about his plans for the restaurant, sustainable eating and “the world’s most invasive martini”

Photograph by David Harrison

HE LEGENDARY WRITER David Foster Wallace once asked his readers to consider the lobster. Douglas McMaster is asking us to imagine a world without waste. While the former implored us to explore the moral dilemma of killing another being for one’s own carnal satisfaction, the latter has his sights set on a slightly larger casualty than a singular crustacean: the planet. As the owner and chef of Silo – which claims to be the UK’s very first zero-waste restaurant – McMaster is better placed than anyone to describe what a waste-free future might well look like. “We want to change the way that people think about sustainability and sustainable restaurants,” says McMaster, as he shows me around the cavernous space above the creative-friendly Crate Brewery, set to be transformed into Silo’s new home, in East London. “It doesn’t always have to be rough and ready,” he says. “I want to prove that zero waste can be high-end.” Although Silo shut its doors for good after five years in Brighton this April, the sustainable venture is set to be reborn in Hackney Wick before the end of 2019. A far cry from its previous pared-back premises, Silo London will house large round tables and a classy 18-seater bar. Expect plenty of natural light and a projector displaying a real-time menu on the walls to let customers know when a certain

dish is running low. In short: it’ll be just as swish as any hot new restaurant opening you’d see in the capital. Except, of course, for the rather large difference that Silo won’t have any bins. Or single-use plastic. In fact, it won’t produce any kind of waste at all. According to McMaster, Silo’s ethos is all about closing the loop of production, employing what he calls a “cradle-to-cradle” process by which everything from flowers and seeds to flesh and skin is given a purpose. Food waste, for example, is fed into BERTHA, a compost machine capable of turning 60kg of organic waste into compost in just 24 hours. Empty wine bottles are ground down and turned into plates. McMaster has already embraced his new big-city ecosystem, and the menu at Silo promises to make the most of London’s local produce and producers. One of those producers helping to shape the cuisine on offer at Silo is Dr Johnny Drain. Drain (who previously worked with McMaster at Cub) is a fermentation specialist with a PhD in Materials Science. He also happens to live on a houseboat moored on the canal opposite Crate Brewery, which is about as local as it gets. “He’s got a game-changing way of looking at the waste that comes from a kitchen,” McMaster says of Drain, “even taking something simple like buttermilk, he’s been able to make this buttermilk garum. And, honestly, if there’s anything I could ever

SILO WILL SERVE DISHES LIKE CARROTS COOKED IN COMPOST describe as liquid gold, it’s that. It tastes absolutely mind-blowing.” As we talk, it’s clear that working in that liminal space between the everyday and the spectacular is where McMaster feels most in his element – foraging from his immediate, ordinary surroundings to create the extraordinary. McMaster’s sourdough miso – a beautiful, butterscotch-flavoured miso made from the excess waste produced by freshly milling and baking sourdough bread – is a testament to that fine line. McMaster has gone over Silo’s entire supply chain with a fine-toothed comb to ensure that nothing is left to waste at any stage of the process. “London is harder to get into but there are more brilliant suppliers that can deliver to London than Brighton,” he says, “and there are some really spectacular producers who we’re going to be working with, so I’m very excited about that.” As if the excitement levels about Silo’s opening weren’t already high enough, the restaurant’s arrival (scheduled tentatively for “some time in October”) has coincided with the release of McMaster’s book, Silo: The Zero Waste Blueprint. It’s a concise – if occasionally terrifying – insight into how industrial processing of food is destroying our planet, and what we can do to change that. “Do you remember in school when you did a science project?” posits McMaster, as we sit by the canal outside Silo’s soon-to-behome. “You’d gather some research, you’d create a hypothesis, you’d find a formula and then have a conclusion? That’s the concept of the book, with Silo as the main case study.” Along with serving unorthodox plates of food such as potato-skin ice cream and carrots cooked in compost, McMaster’s

Photograph by [cucumber[ Xavier D. Buendia; [assorted dishes] Matt Russell

spent the last four years of his life writing this blueprint, crafting his manifesto on what a feasible and sustainable future could look like. “I’ve not really thought about selling copies or what people will actually think,” he says. “I’ve just been so engrossed in the project, down a rabbit hole so far that it’s only really now that I’m coming up for air and thinking: ‘oh shit, this is an actual product that’s out in the world and people are going to be sat there reading it.’” And they really should be. A statement like ‘waste exists because of humans’ might sound simple enough coming from McMaster’s mouth but it’s a sobering realisation that can be hard to fully get your head around. A bit like finding out that you’re the villain in a film. It’s not easy to admit one’s own culpability in the damage you’ve inflicted on the planet, but that introspection is a good place to start. “Hopefully this is just the beginning,” McMaster says of his larger vision for Silo, “and in years to come there will be more advanced looks and perspectives.” That self-critique seems to come easier to McMaster than most. Then again, he has also had a bit of a headstart in the realm of sustainability. Cutting his culinary teeth at St. John when he was just 20, McMaster was thrown into the deep end of one of the country’s most innovative and pioneering kitchens. “St. John was the most important establishment that I’ve worked at because of their philosophy and approach to gastronomy. Fergus [Henderson] and Trevor [Gulliver] were very much like: ‘there’s a rulebook, but we don’t believe that rulebook, so we’re not going to use the rulebook. We’re going to make our own rulebook.’” St. John was – and still is – what McMaster refers to as a “blue ocean business”. Whereas a “red ocean business” is full of “sharks eating each other – all doing the same thing and competing for the same water and territory”, a blue ocean business does the exact opposite. It was restaurants like St. John that swam in the face of the current and inspired Silo to do the same. Glancing at the sharkless River Lea and its luminescent film of algae, McMaster is reminded of a Desmond Tutu quote he finds himself often coming back to: “There comes a point where we need to stop pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.”

DISHING UP THE GOODS: Douglas McMaster’s beautifully presented plates take the concept of zero-waste food and make it feel luxurious

So, why is it that we’re all tip-toeing in the deep end, up to our metaphorical necks in the waters of a slowly dying planet? McMaster’s answer is simple: apathy. “There’s a lot of things that I’ve seen in the industry that don’t make sense to me,” says McMaster. “Obviously waste, but the lack of respect to origin and farmers and fishermen as well. There was a particular kitchen that I worked in – which I won’t name – which was just so disrespectful to the produce. It really was some of the world’s best produce but the way they prepared it, and wasted it, there was just no love of the person who made it. It was all just money, money, money. There’s a lot of things that I’ve seen along the way that have made Silo exist the way it does.” One of those “things” was a move to Australia. Following the death of a close friend in 2010, McMaster experienced a crisis of faith and made the decision to travel to the other side of the globe in search of, well, life. “I went to travel and have fun – to get my

head straight. But within no time I’d run out of money and I was in Australia at the time and there were all these amazing restaurants, so I thought: ‘well, I’m here now, I might as well’.” McMaster underwent stages at some of Australia’s finest restaurants including Attica, Vue de monde, and an extended six-month stint at Quay Restaurant. “It was all very fine dining-y and experimental and enlightening in different ways,” he says. While it’s clear to see the impact that highend tutelage has had on the refined plates of food McMaster is known for magicking up, the chef’s time in Australia was just as important in starting the chef on the path of his zero waste odyssey. It was in Sydney where McMaster met Joost Bakker – a man McMaster has namechecked as the “zero-waste messiah” and the sustainable shaman who first tempted McMaster down the rabbit hole to a waste-free world well before he opened Silo’s first iteration in Brighton. →

CRATE EXPECTATIONS: McMaster cut his teeth at St. John before working in Australia, where he met ‘zero-waste messiah’ Joost Bakker

→ “Sustainability was always a bit of a dirty word. It’s kind of shedding that now but, especially at the time, it was as if everything that was sustainable was unattractive. Joost was a game-changer because everything he did was beautiful. His buildings and his art were so extraordinary that you’d just want to be a part of them. And then of course they were zero waste and sustainable.” McMaster admits he wouldn’t have been interested in sustainability at all if not for Bakker’s handling of the subject in such an attractive manner. It was only then that McMaster started to think he could “make world-class food without a bin”. Bakker’s influence further inspired McMaster to throw caution to the wind and start his own ‘Wasted’ concept – a zero waste pop-up restaurant in Sydney and Melbourne. The pop-up only lasted six days but cemented the seed in McMaster’s mind that a zero-waste restaurant was something people were, at the very least, curious about. Customers came in droves. “The first one in Sydney, we had no money, no sponsorship, we just winged it basically. It was a cafe that could sit 20 and we somehow got 33 people in there eating a ten-course fine dining menu. It was insane. It was such a raw event. The ideas were at such a liminal stage where now it makes me cringe a bit. We went to a load of

landfills and we found this stack of frisbees and thought it would be a good idea to serve food on that. It was a bit cringey when you think about it now but it got people talking.” McMaster’s food, as it often is, was another one of the major talking points. “There was one dish we did that was a bit St. John: poached brains that’d been panéed in dehydrated pig’s skin so they’d puff up like a quaver. I served that with a blood sauce. Yeah, it was pretty out there,” he laughs. It was selling such an “out there” idea to a UK audience that proved the first of many obstacles that McMaster had to surmount to achieve his vision. Opening up a restaurant in the UK is hard enough as it is. Opening up a restaurant as a militant chef who insists on using a coconut shell as a scouring pad is practically impossible. “It was such a young, infant idea that even five years ago it was super tough,” says McMaster, “we got loads of attention for doing it because it’s so easy to get attention when you do something radical but then it’s like a double-edged sword because there’s an equal amount of skepticism for what we do.” So how did McMaster manage to convince the fat cats of the financial sector that Silo was a concept that could actually be profitable? “I didn’t,” he says. “I tried and miserably failed. I went through six potential investors – people who were just interested to hear what I was talking about. They saw my business plan and they all quite rightfully said ‘eh… no thanks, I’ll see you later’”. Getting the funding needed to open up Silo in Brighton meant

McMaster had to remortgage his mother’s house. “Me and my mum had been paying for this house since I was 18,” he says, “but there was literally no other way, so we took a remortgage out for an extra £30,000 and opened Silo on that. Which is absolutely outrageous looking back now. For a space as big as Silo was it was nothing.” After getting off to an admittedly bumpy start, Silo spent five years in Brighton thrilling critics and customers alike. In spite of the restaurant’s popularity, McMaster decided it best to shut the operation down in April of this year; the end of the venue’s Brighton lease allowing McMaster to expand his horizons and set his sights on bringing his zero-waste mission to London. Thankfully, funding for his latest venture didn’t involve remortgaging family homes. On leaving Brighton, McMaster told hospitality industry website BigHospitality he wanted “to serve crazy dishes that are fit for the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list”, and questioned whether the city had the “contemporary food culture” needed to take Silo to the next level – a suggestion that displeased many who view Brighton as a hub of alternative ideas and ecological awareness. Nevertheless, the bright lights of London beckoned McMaster, offering him a grander stage to perform on than ever before. After meeting – and exceeding – its £500,000 crowdfunding target, Silo secured its new home in Hackney Wick, taking over a space previously occupied by Crate Brewery’s taproom. “I think the success of that crowdfunding represents the fact that the world’s changed. Maybe Silo’s helped a little but I think people believe that the future can be better. There’s a lot of goodwill →

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→ behind a movement like Silo or a movement like sustainability. And we raised a lot more money than anticipated.” McMaster is keen to emphasise the pivotal role that Crate Brewery played in making it all happen. “The professionalism of the organisation is breathtaking. I’m lucky to have landed a position with them and I’ve got high hopes for what we can achieve with them as a support system.” The relationships and support systems that McMaster has built over the years made Silo what is it today. The partnership between Douglas and cocktail maestro Ryan Chetiyawardana (aka Mr Lyan) led to the creation of Cub – an innovative bar and restaurant that serves excellent cocktails and sharing plates to Hackney residents, with a commitment to cutting out wastage. That’s not to say McMaster is a saint. The chef’s passion – some might say obsession – has damaged numerous relationships over the years. Writing about these difficulties in his book, McMaster cites his own manic behaviour as something that led to “many burnt bridges” and at one point resulted in the restaurant manager sending out a group email saying McMaster needed psychological help. While Silo provided the highest of highs, it was also responsible for the lowest of lows. “When I wasn’t disintegrating on life support, I was drunk on success,” he writes.

GRAND DESIGNS: (above) McMaster’s new book, Silo: The Zero Waste Blueprint explores ways we might achieve greater food sustainability

The one consistency throughout Silo’s journey from conception to reality, however, has been McMaster’s steadfast commitment to his cause. “I’ve always had this vision of this food system for the future. It’s always been this idea on the horizon and I know I’ve got to go there. It’s not been a smooth road but I guess the best things aren’t. It was never going to be easy to do something this radical.” No other chef but McMaster would be brave or crazy enough to transform Japanese knotweed (one of the UK’s worst garden invaders) into a delicious canapé, a functional straw and an ample olive-surrogate in the “world’s most invasive martini”. McMaster shrugs. “I just love to turn something with no value into something of great value.” Speaking of great value, Silo looks set to prove that sourcing ethically doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. The menu will consist of 10-15 constantly rotating dishes with each plate costing between £9 and £12. Which is, taking London prices and the quality of McMaster’s cooking into consideration, not bad at all. McMaster even intends to introduce an option where diners can split the entire menu between two or three people for a “super affordable” price. Silo isn’t as restrictive as you might think when it comes to the actual food, either. It’s not vegan, it’s not paleo, and it’s not afraid to use “cow juice” (his words) in liberal measure. The food philosophy at Silo is one that adopts and embraces Neolithic proagricultural principles. McMaster believes in the importance of foraging for our own food but he’s not under

any illusions about getting the entire world to eat that way. “It’s just not rational to consider 9 billion people eating only wild food. So, to work with agriculture – not against it – is, I’m pretty sure, the only way forward.” Silo is proud to include sustainable meat and dairy on its menu as well as vegan dishes. “We can eat dairy, we can eat meat, we can eat fish. But it shouldn’t be in excessive amounts,” explains McMaster, “both for our own health and for that of the planet.” The wine list will, naturally, be natural, and packed with the world-class winemakers and producers that Silo worked with during its five years in Brighton. “The drinks are going to put me under pressure with the food just because they’re so good,” admits McMaster. The list will include a rotating selection of specially made beers, cocktails and kombucha, including everything from the leaves of the fig leaf trees outside Silo to waste juice from a rejected fruit facility that sits across the road from the restaurant. It’s that bigger picture perspective – one that still recognises the bounty of nature that sits right in front of our faces – that makes Silo capable of living up to McMaster’s vision of a “food system of the future”. Just as Henderson and Gulliver thumbed their noses (and tails) at convention by tearing up the rulebook at St John, McMaster is eager for Silo to pave a similar path for chefs moving forward; one that doesn’t involve just thinking outside the box, but questioning why the box was ever needed. f silolondon.com

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Photograph by ###

A MY CAREER CAREER IN IN DISHES: DISHES: ADAM ROBIN HANDLING GILL 67

IT’S ABOUT KNOWING WHAT’S COMING OUT OF THE SOIL AND THE SEA Robin Gill quietly opened The Dairy in 2013. Within a few years, the low-key neighbourhood restaurant in Clapham became a model for a new style of cooking in London. The chef shares five careerdefining dishes with Mike Gibson Photography by David Harrison

ALKING TO ROBIN Gill, you get the sense that he could probably have been whatever he wanted to be. As the son of creative parents – a choreographer and a musician – he initially struggled to find a niche as a young man. “I dabbled in different things like acting, dancing, music. I never stuck to any of it,” he says. After Gill almost accepted a job as an electrician’s apprentice, his father suggested he try becoming a chef. He took to it. “The moment I got into a kitchen,” he says, “I thought ‘This is definitely for me.’” Good thing, too. Because after time in the Michelin-starred kitchens of his native Dublin, with Marco Pierre White at the Oak Room in London, a stint cooking in Italy, a move back to the UK with Raymond Blanc at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons and then a sabbatical travelling and cooking around Europe, Gill returned to the capital to quietly open The Dairy in Clapham. Borrowing more from the bistronomy movement of Paris and Scandinavia than the traditional, fine-dining kitchens he cut his

teeth in, it was an approachable restaurant that showed a commitment to the craft of cooking, and to careful and sustainable sourcing. He followed it up with The Manor (now reborn as Sorella) down the road, and the bigger, statement-making Darby’s in Nine Elms, which has been an overnight success. Gill wears many of his influences on his sleeve, but perhaps the one that changed his outlook the most was Ristorante Don Alfonso 1890 near Sorrento, in south-west Italy. “It was so seasonal, so farm-to-table,” he says. “It was real back to basics, and that had a huge impact on the way I cook. So I call my style of cooking now ‘ten steps back’, where we’ve got direct relationships and communication with farmers. It’s about knowing what’s coming around, what’s coming out of the soil and the sea, and buying it in whole. It’s ten steps back, as the planning starts long before you place an order.” These dishes show the career of a man with the clarity of vision and focus to suggest he’d be a success at most things. It’s just lucky for Londoners that he decided to be a chef.

CHICKEN LIVER PARFAIT Photograph by ###

This was one of the first things I learned when I was on the larder section in the Oak Room. The recipe back then was something like 50% foie gras, a lot of butter, chicken livers, the best of armagnacs, ports, madeira, a madeira jelly, and

then finish it with a whole load of truﬄe with toasted Poilâne bread. It’s sheer indulgence, and it was such a challenging recipe. It was one of those dishes that brought tears and joy in equal quantities, but there’s a real skill to doing it properly. It ended up being one of the first things that we put on in The Dairy and now we’re known for it, and it’s a great skill set for young chefs to learn as well.

ROBUCHON POTATO My nickname at the Oak Room was either Irish or Potato, which I bet you couldn’t get away with now. Potato is one of my favourite ingredients, and I learned how to prepare this perfect mashed potato. Joël Robuchon was the cook with the most amount of Michelin stars in the world, and Robert Reed, who was my head chef at the Oak

Room, taught me how to prepare this dish. It’s 300% butter – you get the best potatoes, you boil them till they’re just cooked, and then you have to pass them through a very fine tamis sieve. Then you add room-temperature butter, a tiny bit of milk, butter, and you continuously whisk until you create a whipped cream consistency that’s quite heavy in salt. It’s just the most luxurious thing you’ll ever taste.

BREAD, CHARCUTERIE AND PICKLES Photograph by ###

When I worked at FrantzĂŠn, they had a 20-course tasting menu that began when they showed your bread course proving in front of you. Later, they brought back the freshly baked bread with loads of condiments. It was

there I realised that breadmaking is an old craft with real skill to it, but itâ€™s been ruined. I had a similar thought when I was at Asador Etxebarri, about the chorizo and charcuterie. This focus on craft is what we wanted to bring to The Dairy. When we launched, I wanted to have baking, charcuterie, preservation and butter churning. Now, that bread course with the pickles and meats really sums up what we do.

TRUFFLED BARON BIGOD Photograph by ###

This is another dish from the Oak Room, a brie de meaux stuffed with truﬄed mascarpone served with a Poilâne bread. You sandwich the two cheeses together and the cheese takes on the flavour of the truﬄe. When we launched

The Dairy we inherited two beehives on the roof, so we had our own phenomenal honey. We make the sourdough fig and walnut bread, too. The cheese is Baron Bigod because we try to support smaller producers. Then we finish it with a generous shaving of a fresh truﬄe. We took it off the menu for a couple of weeks and there were almost pickets outside the restaurant, so we had to put it back on.

SWEETCORN, POLENTA, DUCK HEARTS

5 Photograph by ###

When we launched The Dairy we did it very quietly, no marketing or PR. Then big chefs started to eat in the restaurant. We hadnâ€™t realised that people were talking about it. And then Alain Ducasse came to eat, but he only

had an hour and a half, so we had to shorten the menu. He actually cancelled his meetings because he was having such a lovely time. The sweetcorn with polenta was one of the dishes that I had on. We confit the duck hearts in duck fat and barbecue them so theyâ€™re pink in the centre. Ducasse said that it was one of his favourites. It was a real career moment. f the-dairy.co.uk

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CARNABY EATS A FOODISM GUIDE

Discover Carnaby, one of the most vibrant dining and drinking destinations in London this September

CONTENTS ◆ Carnaby: an introduction

◆ Carnaby Eats: what to expect

during the month-long event

◆ Carnaby: global dining and

sustainability

◆ Carnaby Blue Turtle: pledge and map

PROMOTION

WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBOURHOOD Located right in the heart of London, Carnaby is home to some of the city’s most diverse restaurants. Experience the best of it this September with Carnaby Eats

ECKED OUT WITH brightly coloured buildings, historic streets and vibrant venues, Carnaby is a mustvisit destination for anyone who’s into their food and drink. Whether you’re after group feasting or an intimate lunch with a loved one, the area is a prime place to dine. An impressive variety of global cuisines is spread across over 60 eateries of all shapes and sizes to ensure you won’t struggle for choice. Sustainable and conscious eating is at the core of Carnaby’s dining scene, and the iconic Kingly Court is a three-storey food and dining mecca in the heart of the West End that’ll suit even fussy eaters.

LEFT: Utterly delicious-looking plates of tapas at Carnaby stalwart Tapas Brindisa

Carnaby Eats: a homage to all the delicious cuisines in a unique area

Blue Turtle: an ocean-friendly initiative that makes a difference

If you needed an extra reason to visit Carnaby, we’ve got it. Taking place in the legendary area this September is Carnaby Eats, a month-long food celebration of excellent eats and refreshing drinks. From live music, masterclasses, interactive activities and cookbook launches to exclusive menus and limited-edition cocktails, Carnaby Eats has got a little bit for everyone. Carnaby Eats will be bringing new life to the month of September – just in time for the end of summer – and with more than 20 global cuisines scattered throughout the destination for you to enjoy, it’s the perfect edible reminder of what an incredible melting pot of cultures the city of London has to offer.

Carnaby has collaborated with ocean conservation organisation Project 0 to inspire the food community of Carnaby to take action and help protect the ocean. More than 40 restaurants, bars, cafés and pubs have pledged to commit to the new Blue Turtle sustainability scheme. The initiative aims to reduce single-use plastics and encourages businesses to adopt more sustainable practises. Carnaby faves who have already pledged include Tapas Brindisa, Darjeeling Express, Whyte and Brown, OKA, The Rum Kitchen and Polpo. Want to find out more? Check out our handy Blue Turtle Trail map on p74. ● To find out more, go to Carnaby.co.uk and follow on social media at @CarnabyLondon

CLOCKWISE FROM MAIN: Carnaby Street; Wright Brothers Soho; The Detox Kitchen

CARNABY EATS Taking place throughout September, Carnaby Eats is a month-long celebration of the neighbourhood's dining scene, with great offers from some of its best-loved venues

September, including a grilled tiger prawn taco and Tamworth pork skewers. Elsewhere, health food experts Kaleido will be hosting their salad roll demos throughout the month. On the special menu side of things, The Good Egg is launching a new Green Menu (perfect for veggies and vegans alike) while INKO NITO are throwing their hat into the ring with a delicious Sunday brunch. And there’s not just good eats about but good deeds, too. In partnership with Grind coffee, Disrepute is using its ‘waste’ coffee and re-distilling it to make a coffee distillate, raising awareness for mental health in the industry through donations. Kebab legends Le Bab are also getting charitable and donating £1 of every grilled halloumi dish sold to ocean conservation organisation Project 0.

Ugly Dumpling has set up an exclusive tasting menu created by chef Emilian Craciun while Pizza Pilgrims is serving a special Biscoff S’mores Brownie Pizza made in collaboration with Crumbs & Doilies. Sounds like a perfect month for eating out if you ask us. ● See the full list of participants at Carnaby.co.uk/CarnabyEats and follow @CarnabyLondon for more information

IN SEPTEMBER, CARNABY WILL BE TURNED INTO A FOOD LOVER’S PARADISE

Photograph by (Wright Brothers) Anton Rodriguez

E’RE NOT THE sort of people who generally need an excuse to go out and explore London’s enduring and enticing food scene. That being said, if you are the sort of person who needs a little extra incentive to leave the comfort of your flat, the sights, sounds and smells of Carnaby Eats should more than do the trick. From 1-30 September, the West End locale will be turned into a food lover’s paradise as all things eat and drink become the front and centre of importance in the area. From masterclasses and croqueta competitions to exclusive dishes, there’ll be plenty of fun to be had at Carnaby Eats. It seems like nearly every eatery in the area is getting involved. Breddos Tacos has created some special dishes that’ll be served over the course of

PROMOTION

JINJUU

DINING ARE AS

JIN CHICKEN THIGH The restaurant

Jinjuu is a vibrant spot that brings contemporary Korean flavours to Kingly Street. Kimchi, fried chicken and more classic flavours from South Korea are well represented here, as well as creative cocktails and a great wine list across its two floors.

The dish

Throughout Carnaby Eats, you can find this sumptuous dish, the ‘Jin Chicken Thigh’, served with three different kinds of sauce – soy, gochujang and honey mustard.

Kingly Court Kingly Court is a three-storey al fresco courtyard where you won’t be stuck for choice. Fancy a bit of chicken and craft beer? Whyte & Brown willl sort you out. Oysters? Wright Brothers know their bivalves better than most. Posh kebabs? Le Bab practically invented ‘em. Only drink in London underground-themed bars? Cahoots has got your number.

DIRTY BONES PIMP YOUR DOG

Kingly Street

The restaurant

Kingly Street is the perfect place to spend an afternoon. Start off your day by queuing up at Dishoom for an absolutelyworth-the-wait bacon naan roll. Follow that up with one of Island Poké’s fresh bowls of poké from before working off some of that good eating at one of the many gyms and fitness studios nearby and end the day with a post-workout meal from The Detox Kitchen. Bliss.

Dirty Bones in Kingly Court is all about Americana-style comfort food: great burgers, hot dogs and fried chicken, with a cracking cocktail list. There are also tonnes of great veggie and vegan dishes to be found, too.

The dish

The classic Yankee Dog has been a mainstay on the Dirty Bones menu for good reason, and throughout September you can pimp it by customising the toppings to your heart’s content. Yum.

TAPAS BRINDISA

THE PERFECT APERITIVO

Ganton Street

The restaurant

Here’s a fun little fact: Boy George used to work as a window dresser on Ganton Street back in the early 1980s. While you’re not likely to find the Culture Club singer there nowadays, there are still some excellent reasons to visit. Namely, edible reasons like Pastaio’s carbonara bucatini, Sacred Cafe’s superlative pastries, Dehesa’s top tapas and The Diner’s shakes, pancakes and burgers.

Known as one of the best importers of fine Spanish and Mediterranean produce in the UK, Brindisa also has a restaurant arm – a group of tapas restaurants serving simple and traditional Spanish tapas dishes in a warm, buzzy environment.

The dish

For Carnaby Eats, Tapas Brindisa on Broadwick Street will offer a glass of Vermut and a Gilda (an olive, anchovy and guindilla skewer) for just £5. The ultimate aperitif.

GLOBAL DINING A visit to Carnaby gives you the chance to try food from some truly global chefs and restaurants. Here’s exactly what to look out for – and some hero dishes to try, too

RAVELLING THE GLOBE ain’t cheap. Booking flights, buying travel insurance, organising an AirBnB. All of those costs add up before you’ve even arrived at your destination; leaving you little money to spend on actually enjoying yourself. Our solution? Don’t go abroad. Just go to Carnaby instead. If you want a taste of some of the best and brightest international cuisine going in the capital – spanning everywhere from Indian to Peruvian cooking – Carnaby’s a grand place to explore. Carnaby is home to the largest collection of independent restaurants,

pubs, bars and cafés in London’s West End, with more than 60 places offering weekend brunches, quick lunches, fine dining and late night cocktails. There’s so much hustle and bustle in the area that a simple walk through Carnaby can feel a bit like a Phileas Fogg-esque trip around the world. Except, of course, it won’t take you anywhere near 80 days. Up for Indian? Dishoom and Darjeeling Express are excellent examples of what that region’s kitchens can offer. Craving some Peruvian cooking? Señor Ceviche is the answer. Feel like getting all Thai’d up? Rosa’s

Thai Cafe isn’t a bad place to get your tom sum on. Italian for your eye? It’s hard to go wrong with a glass of wine and some fritto misto from Polpo or a plate of fresh pasta from Pastaio. All Greek to you? The Life Goddess is the Mediterranean gift that keeps on giving. For a proper taste of British comfort food, spud specialists Mother Mash are on hand to remind you exactly why pie and mash have been such an iconic dish since London’s dining scene first began. And for a touch of luxury, head to The Court, a member’s club with live music. Visit Carnaby.co.uk and follow @CarnabyLondon

PROMOTION

COURT IN SESSION: [clockwise from top left] Kingly Court in the sunshine; the Carnaby Street flag; the water refill station at Kingly Court; a spread from Pizza Pilgrims; Le Bab

The water refill station Carnaby’s a historically rich part of London, so how about this for a bit of modern history-making: Kingly Court is the first place in London to house a public water station. Yep, it’s hard to believe but it’s true. The fountain was created as part of the Mayor of London’s campaign to rid the capital of polluting single-use plastic water bottles. Since its launch in 2018, the refill station has saved the use of over 60,000 plastic 500ml bottles. Thirsty? You can find the water station located on the ground floor in between Pizza Pilgrims and Shoryu Carnaby. Drink to your heart’s content.

Carnaby X Project 0 In need of a tote bag to carry all your clobber, but want one that’s fashionable yet at the same time announces to the outside world that you deeply care about the planet? You’re in luck. Carnaby has teamed up with Project 0 to create an exclusive range of tote bags this September. Not only do they look good, but they do a fair bit of good, too. The limited-edition reusable totes cost £15, with 100% of funds raised from the sale of the bags going to conservation work in the Thames. The bags feature designs from the likes of Tracey Emin, Fearne Cotton, Georgia May Jagger, Holly St Clair, Julian Höenig and Suki Waterhouse – simply put, you won’t find hotter accessory for your wardrobe. Fact. ● Weareprojectzero.org/shop

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PROMOTION

BL UE T URT L E

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BLUE TURTLE TRAIL

These restaurants, bars and cafés have pledged to save the ocean with Blue Turtle

If a restaurant has the Blue Turtle logo, you know it’s doing everything it can to uphold the following values: ◆ Eliminate avoidable single-use plastics, including water bottles,

straws, cutlery, takeaway containers and more by 2022

◆ Provide and promote free tap water to all

◆ Practice waste management throughout the restaurant with the

three Rs – reduce, reuse, recycle

◆ Source all seafood sustainably, removing all endangered species

from the menu and adopting responsible sourcing practices

THE VENUES IN D B RN AS EO TA PL

IS A

5 Bread

Ahe ad

1 Acai Berry 2 Ain’t Nothin’ but the Blues Bar 3 Antidote 4 BEAR 5 Bread Ahead 6 Cahoots 7 Chai by Mira 8 Crumbs & Doilies 9 Darjeeling Express 10 Department of Coffee 11 Dirty Bones 12 Dishoom 13 Disrepute 14 Farm Girl 15 INKO NITO 16 Jakata 17 Jinjuu 18 Le Bab 19 Leon 20 Mother Mash 21 Oka

22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

Pastaio PITTABUN Pizza Pilgrims Polpo Pure Rosa’s Thai Café SACRED Café Señor Ceviche Shoryu Carnaby Soho Grind Stax Diner Tapas Brindisa The Court The Detox Kitchen The Diner The Good Egg The Life Goddess The Rum Kitchen The White Horse Two Floors Ugly Dumpling Urban Tea Rooms Whyte and Brown Wright Brothers Soho

Visit Carnaby.co.uk/BlueTurtle to download the Blue Turtle Trail map

DISCOVER MORE

www.smeguk.com Smeg Flagship Store, 14 Regent St St Jamesâ€™s, London SW1Y 4PH

— PART 3 —

QUENCH “DRINKS ARE MADE WITH AN EAST LONDON ETHOS, BUT SERVED WITH MAYFAIR PANACHE” MIKE GIBSON ON THE STRATFORD HOTEL’S NEW MEZZANINE BAR, 088

088 MIXOLOGY: THE STANDARD 095 HOP CULTURE | 102 BOTTLE SERVICE

FOODISMUK

NATURE OF THE EAST

At The Stratford hotel’s new Mezzanine bar, an inventive approach to food waste and some serious bartending credentials make for one of East London’s most ambitious new openings, writes Mike Gibson QUENCH

T VIVI MARGARITA A fun take on the classic margarita, this is made with a blend of tequilas, mezcals and Muyu Chinotto, an amaro made by iconic bartending team Monica Berg, Alex Kratena and Simone Caporale. Waste citrus fruits are used for the citrus element, while the rim is a house-made tajín-style seasoning made of salt, sugar and a blend of dehydrated waste fruit and vegetables for a deliciously savoury flavour.

ING R E DIE NTS

• 50ml house blend of agave spirits and Muyu Chinotto • 30ml lacto-fermented citrus and honey • Homemade tajín-style seasoning Shake over ice and serve in a rocks glass with tajín rim, and a large ice cube.

HERE ARE A few bar openings that make you sit up and pay attention. Erik Lorincz’s first solo venture after leaving the Savoy’s American Bar, Kwãnt, for example; or Adam Handling’s bar Iron Stag in Hoxton, which has a drinks programme co-created by expert bartending duo Matt Whiley and Richard Woods. If it doesn’t seem so at first, the Mezzanine bar at the brand-new and ultra-ambitious Stratford Hotel should do just that. With industry luminaries Elias Yiallouris and Enrico Gonzato at the helm, this is an East London bar that comes by way of decades of Mayfair hotel bar pedigree. There are new-school attitudes on display here, though. For a start, there’s an attitude to waste that matches those bars who put sustainability front and centre: at the Mezzanine, there are almost no fresh garnishes, and a programme of house-made ingredients taken from the bar and the hotel’s daily operations all but eliminates waste, while offering its bar team innovative ingredients to use in drinks. Like its champagne bitters – redistilled from leftover champagne and infused with chardonnay or pinot noir grapes (which are then themselves reused) via a rotovap, to flavour its delicious martini (of which the vodka variant is creamier and richer than most I’ve tried before). Or the vibrant Jazzy 7, made with Banks 7 blended rum and yellow chartreuse, with a malty, cereal quality from dehydrated pistachio garnish and freshness from a syrup made from leftover apple and the stems of mint leaves. Drinks here are tasty, and not overtly gimmicky, either. They’re made with an East London ethos, but served with Mayfair panache. And there’s enough evidence here to suggest that one of the capital’s most ambitious new hotels has a bar programme to match – no mean feat, if you ask me. f

20 International Way, E20 1FD

Stratford

Photography Photograph by Sam AbyHarris ###

RO’BUST’A MOVE This simple-looking drink hides a diversity of ingredients and flavours that pack a serious punch. It’s built with coffeeinfused rum, one of Danish producer Empirical Spirits’ creations, as well as another house-made syrup – this time from toasted waste pineapple skins.

ING R E DIE NTS

• 35ml Bacardi Ocho infused with toasted waste coffee grounds • 10ml Empirical Charlene McGee • 25ml smoked pineapple syrup • 20ml egg white • 15ml lemon juice • Lemon leaf essence Shake all ingredients over ice and strain into a poco grande glass. Spray with lemon leaf essence and garnish with coffee beans.

Photograph by SAM A HARRIS

The st~germain spritz

40ML

ST~GERMAIN Elderflower Liqueur

60 ML 60 ML

Dry Sparkling Wine

Sparkling Water

Stir ingredients in a tall ice-filled collins glass, mixing completely. Garnish with a lemon twist.

#stgermain

@stgermainuk

ENJOY RESPONSIBLY. SOYEZ RESPONSABLE.

Sustainably and ethically produced, here at the multi-award winning Brighton Gin we believe great gin shouldn’t cost the earth. With a focus on absolute quality and minimising our environmental impact since day one, we use only 100% organic wheat spirit, responsiblysourced botanicals, and a bottle that’s made in the UK using recycled glass from the Brighton area. Named Handmade Gin of the Year 2019, we are the UK’s only contemporary certified Vegan gin, so you can enjoy the Spirit of Brighton with a clear conscience!

www.brightongin.com

facebook.com/brightongin

@brightongin

brightonginstergram

BOULEVARDIER Taking a similar formula to the negroni, but replacing the gin with whiskey, the boulevardier is rich, smooth, aromatic and slightly sweet.

I N G REDI E NTS

• 40ml Saffron Whiskey blend • 20ml Turmeric Ambrato • 20ml Vanilla Bitter Campari • Red spruce, to garnish Stir over ice and strain into a poco grande glass.

Photograph by SAM A HARRIS

WE ARE THE BEER THAT TASTES LIKE BEER. THE INDEPENDENT BREWER THAT REFUSES TO PUT MANGO MILK IN THEIR BREW. THE BEER THAT IS BRILLIANTLY BALANCED, FREE FROM ANIMAL PRODUCTS, AND BREWED WITH A CONSCIENCE. WE’RE NOT INTERESTED IN GIMMICKS. WE DON’T DO COMPROMISE. BECAUSE NO ONE TELLS US HOW TO BREW.

#TASTE FREEDOM

H O P C ULTUR E BY

foodism B E E R

C L UB

Whether you’re a complete beer geek or an enthusiastic amateur, the foodism BEER CLUB is a community we want you to be a part of. It’s free to join, and consists of a monthly newsletter full of recommendations, exclusive offers and competitions, plus invitations to London-based tasting events, parties and more. Like beer? Join the club at foodismbeerclub.co.uk

The brewery Hate to break it to you, but you’ve probably been drinking lager wrong your entire life. Luckily, a trip to Bohem Brewery’s taproom in Bowes Park will sort you out: this is a brewery set up in Tottenham by a pair of Czechs that specialises in Czech lager brewed and tapped in the traditional Czech way. Expect naturally carbonated lager in keg and can served with a nice, foamy head to maximise its flavour. Reader: it tastes good.

The beer

BOHEM 120A, Myddleton Rd, N22 8NQ Bowes Park

THE LONDON BEER MAP Your guide to London’s best breweries and taprooms. This month, it’s Bohem, a Tottenham-based brewery making Czech lagers

Lager, lager, lager, lager. Bohem’s range of beers makes full use of a traditional Czech double decoction mash to get the absolute most nuance and mouthfeel out of the raw ingredients that go into each brew. Its best seller is the full-bodied, 4.9% Amos pilsner, but the best example of the brewery’s craftsmanship is Victoria, a 4.2% session pils with a little butterscotch sweetness up front, plenty of building bitterness and a dry, spicy finish. Other regulars include oatmeal-laden black lager Druid and Otakar – a heavily hopped, super-dry brut lager made in collaboration with St Austell Brewery.

What else? Bohem’s tapster Marek Prusa was trained in the art of the Czech beer pour at legendary brewery Pilsner Urquell, and now brings his expertise to the taproom in Bowes Park. Most of Bohem’s beers are served with a bigger head than your average lager because it contains much of the flavour, so expect a beer with a head of 20-25% foam poured from a classic Czech side-pull tap. If you’re feeling brave (or thirsty), ask for a 100% foam mliko pour in a half-pint glass and drink the sweet jar of frothy head in a couple of swigs. f bohembrewery.com

STYLE IT OUT 1

Your guide to the world of beer styles both old and modern. This month: West Coast IPA

RU SS I AN RI VER P L IN Y T H E ELDE R

DURAT ION DR IPPING PITC H

Santa Rosa, California, USA

West Acre, Norfolk, UK

You’re unlikely to find it on UK shores, but this perfectly balanced West Coast DIPA is often called the world’s best beer. 8%; russianriverbrewing.com

A bold flavour trip through citrus zest and pine resin culminating in a lovely, crisp and bitter finish. 6.7%; durationbeer.com

West Coast IPA /wɛst kəʊst ipa/

ST AUST ELL B REWE RY B I G JOB St Austell, Cornwall, UK Bone dry and packed with citra and centennial hops, this is a great British example of the West Coast style. 7.2%; staustellbrewery.co.uk

PLAY IN FIELDS

Introducing the Skyline Project: a collaborative beer box bringing together 12 breweries from two of the world’s greatest beer cities – London and New York. Due for release later this year, the six-beer box will include collabs from Barrier and Pressure Drop; Evil Twin and Hackney Brewery; Finback and BBNo; KCBC and Brick; Interboro and Gipsy Hill; and Fifth Hammer and Wild Card.

Ladies and gentlemen, London Fields Brewery is back. Yep, after a huge renovation and expansion, the much-loved East London brewery has relaunched its taproom, now complete with brewery-fresh tank beer, a food residency and vast, psychedelic wall murals from artist Luke McLean. The brewery has had a huge overhaul, so expect plenty of small-batch specials, too. londonfieldsbrewery.co.uk

4 PR E SSUR E DR OP R OC KS, R IVE RS, T R EES Tottenham, London, UK This azacca and citra-hopped bomb of bitterness is so west coast the brewery put a picture of Yosemite on the can. 6.8%; pressuredropbrewing.co.uk

ABSOLUTELY BUZZING N EWS

SKY’S THE LIMIT

skyline.beer

At some point in the late 1970s, the India Pale Ale caught a flight to the US, ditched its origins as a heavily hopped beer that would last long sea journeys from England to India and became a monster. Thanks to a hotbed of homebrewers and access to a wide array of pungent hops from the Pacific Northwest, breweries from the states of California, Washington and Oregon started producing a beer that balanced resinous bitterness with big, bold, tropical hops. That beer is the West Coast IPA – potentially the most important style of beer in the spread of craft brewing.

Bermondsey-based brewery Hiver and Nando’s have collaborated to create a sweet little concoction using honey harvested from beehives on top of the restaurant chain’s Putney store. The 4.5% Nando’s Honey Beer is available now at all of the chains London restaurant for £3.95, and is perfect with peri-peri chicken, natch. hiverbeers.com

THE ARTIST Earlier this summer, Siren put its beers in cans for the very first time, which gave the brewery the opportunity to expand its canvases and further explore the mythical creatures that inspire each of the beers. Cropped from a large canvas designed by Studio Parr, each of the brewery’s core beers has a different siren, colour scheme and story to tell. Soundwave’s label celebrates the beauty of song and captures the energy of sea and sky through the wings and waves emanating from the siren’s hair. Elements of the beer’s wider canvas will be rehashed for future seasonal and one-off brews, too. studioparr.co.uk

QUENCH

Photograph by David Harrison

LABEL MATES

A quickfire look at the artists and designers behind some of London’s most iconic beer labels. This month: Siren Craft Brew

THE BREWER Based just outside of London, Siren is one of the country’s most respected breweries, pulling together a vast range of classic craft touchstones and experimental brews across its vast repertoire of core and seasonal beers. The brewery’s name is inspired by the sirens of Greek mythology, whose voices entwine to create a complex, layered harmony just like the ingredients do in great beer. From big, barrel-aged stouts to loose-leaf-teainfused pale ales, and IPAs like Soundwave, Siren continues to innovate and experiment to create complex yet quaffable beers. Its stout Broken Dream was even named Champion Beer of Britain by CAMRA in 2018. sirencraftbrew.com

IT TAKES TWO Want to learn how to pair your pint with the food on your plate? Here are some easy tips to help get you started, plus a few simple flavour combinations to try out

OU MIGHT NOT think it, but those cold cans of craft beer you’ve been drinking could give you just as a good a food pairing as any wine, cocktail or aperitif. In fact, beer has a wider flavour spectrum than almost any other drink, making it the ideal partner for all kinds of food – you just need need to know where to start. That’s why we’ve enlisted the help of beer and food expert Adam Dulye to help you understand exactly what makes the perfect pairing. Dulye is executive chef for the Brewers Association, a not-for-profit that represents small and independent craft brewers in America. With these must-know tips, you’ll be wowing your family and bringing craft cans to dinner with your mates.

How to pair beer with food

1 Match strength with strength. Start by simply pairing delicate dishes with lighter beers and strongly flavoured dishes with intense, more assertive beer styles.

2 Taste, taste, taste: taste is personal, so experiment with flavours and ingredients to find what works for you, and be adventurous. 3 Use the dominant flavour or ingredient as a starting point. Hops are insanely food-

BEER HAS A WIDER FLAVOUR SPECTRUM THAN ALMOST ANY OTHER DRINK, MAKING IT PERFECT FOR FOOD PAIRING

A RIGHT PAIR: [clockwise from main] Hops are very food friendly; delicate dishes work alongside light beers; try a hoppy beer with a spicy dish

are all great with food that needs a bit of competition on the palate – think spicy, fatty or acidic. The bitterness of hops lifts fat from the tongue, leaving you ready for the next bite. They go really well with spicy food, curry, pizza, cheese or even carrot cake. MALTY & SWEET BEERS

Beers like dubbels, dunkels, scotch ales and doppelbocks all carry sweet notes of nuts, toffee, caramel and dried fruit – often coming from the use of roasted malts. That means they’re the perfect complement to foods that are roasted, crispy or browned. You should try pairing these beers with roast chicken, pulled pork, duck, charcuterie or cheese. RICH & ROASTY BEERS

With intensely dark, rich flavours of barrelaged bourbon, vanilla, chocolate, coffee and sometimes a smoky aroma, beers like stouts, brown ales and porters all work with dishes that have roasted fat. Think red meats, nuts or chocolate. They’re also great with anything charred, barbecued, grilled or with a clean, briny finish such as oysters. That means ribs, burgers, meat casseroles, barbecue, spicy food, oysters and chocolate or coffee desserts are all on the menu. f The Brewers Association offers free-to-download booklets on craft beer, food pairings and more at brewerassociation.org. Upgrade your beer knowledge at craftbeer.com

YOU’RE INVITED

Photography by Brewers Association

friendly and will go with just about any food. 4 Think of beer as an ingredient. It might be served in a glass instead of on the plate, but you should still view it as part of the meal. 5 Don’t use the beer in the recipe. As a general rule, you should try to avoid incorporating American craft beer in the recipe you’re making, because the cooking process takes away the beer’s flavour. Depending on the beer you’re working with, it might enhance bitterness, too. 6 Spice, heat and acidity are all great. Hops can calm heat and spices, malt can balance acidity and carbonation does a great job at helping to cleanse the palate. 7 Apply the three Cs: look for beers that complement, contrast or cut the flavours in your dish, and you’ll find a good pairing.

Now you’ve learned the basics, give these common flavour interactions a go. From the best to pour for pairing with pasta to the rich dish you need to serve alongside a stout, this cheat sheet will help empower you to find a pairing for every dish you put on your plate. CRISP & CLEAN BEERS

Refreshing, delicate and slightly dry, beers like pilsners, kölsches, blonde ales or a nice crisp helles all work well with lighter flavours. Carbonation in beer has a scrubbing effect that will cleanse your palate, so give them a go alongside rich pasta dishes, smooth and creamy risotto, salads or vegetables. HOPPY & BITTER BEERS

Pale ales, IPAs, DIPAs and amber ales

Want to learn more about the art of food and beer pairing? Join us for a one-off night at foodism HQ in Clapham Old Town on 19 September. We’ve teamed up with the Brewers Association to give you the chance to try an exclusive menu of seven different American craft beers that you won’t find anywhere else in the UK. Five of the beers will be perfectly paired with a dish by Brewers Association beer sommelier Lotte Peplow, who’ll be on hand all night to talk you through the pairings and the story behind each beer. Tickets are available now for £20 at fdsm.co/beer-pairing

1 QUENCH

WHERE TO DRINK IT

Summer may be drawing to a close, but that doesn’t mean the fun has to stop – here are a few of the finest festivals for your calendar between now and spring

DAR K & W IL D C IT Y 22-23 November 2019; Northern Monk Refectory, Leeds, LS11 9YJ Newsflash: Leeds might seem a long way north, but it’s actually only about two hours on the train from London. For that reason alone, we implore you to head up this November for Dark & Wild City – an annual invitational that showcases some of the world’s best stouts and (as of this year) sour and wild ales under the roof of Northern Monk’s brewery taproom. On the lineup this year are Somerset-based wild brewers Yonder, Pittsburgh’s Dancing Gnome and legendary Belgian breweries Fantôme and Gueuzerie Tilquin. £49; facebook.com/darkwildcity

B R EW L DN 27-29 February 2020, The Old Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, E1 6QR

LON DON C RAFT OKTOBERFEST 4-6 October 2019; Mercato Metropolitano, Newington Causeway, SE1 6DR Set in German Kraft’s sprawling Elephant & Castle beer garden, this weekend-long festival sees some of the best breweries in London and the south of England get together to celebrate German culture, Bavarian-style grub and great lager. With crispy brews from Gipsy Hill, Bohem, Lost & Grounded and more available by the halfpint or one-litre maß, it’s set to be a smasher – and that’s before we start on the bratwurst. Free; facebook.com/germankraftbeer

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For the last seven years, Craft Beer Rising has helped introduce people to some of the best new producers in the UK and beyond, but with the craft sector morphing by the minute it’s time for a bit of a refresh: introducing BrewLDN, a new festival from the team behind CBR that’ll host more than 200 stands showcasing beer, cider, spirits, snacks and street food. It’s set to be this winter’s biggest UK beer festival, so get your glass ready. £TBC; brewldn.com

4 F R IE NDS & FAM ILY & B EER 21-22 February 2020; Manchester Central, Windmill Street, Manchester, M2 3GX For the beer geek, a session at a festival is the perfect way to tick off a few beers you won’t find anywhere else, and this Manchester event from Cloudwater is the perfect place to do just that. There’ll be a roster of European and US breweries rarely seen on these shores (the 2019 event played host to the likes of Hill Farmstead, Jester King, Other Half and Trillium). You’ll be giving something back by going, too – the event donates all of its profits to local charities. £63.90; friendsandfamily.beer

21-23 February 2020; Copeland Park, SE15 3SN If cask beer’s your jam (and come the cold depths of wintertime, we reckon it 100% should be), then you’re going to want to head down to Copeland Park in Peckham for one of the most diverse line-ups of cask beer showcased in the British craft beer world. Put together by Bermondsey’s Affinity Brew Co, this weekender will see classic breweries like Timothy Taylor and Harvey’s on the taps, plus a jam-packed list of craft brewers, too: we’re talking Fyne, Moor, Vibrant Forest, Boxcar and Deya. £25; affinitybrewco.com/cask2020

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Photograph by [family] Michelle Williams

CAS K 2020

TASTE FREEDOM beer, with natural ingredients at the heart of our product. Local spring water, low temperature fermentation, natural carbonation and an extended maturation period of at least 28 days result in our beers offering an unmatched depth of flavour and sessionability. Our choice of process and the use of time allow our beers to be free from animal products and certified as vegan, representing choice without compromising quality.

INDEPENDENT SUSTAINABLE NATURAL REAL BEER freedombrewery.com | @freedombrewery

GOOD SPIRITS From using locally sourced ingredients to incorporating waste products in their production, these spirits help do good for the planet as well as your palate. 1 DINGLE SINGLE MALT WHISKEY: County Kerry, Ireland. This distillery uses an innovative cooling system to recycle water and lower its environmental impact on local resources. 70cl, 46.5%; £81.44, masterofmalt.com 2 CHAPEL DOWN GIN: Tenterden, Kent, UK. A gin distilled with surplus pinot noir grape skins from the Kentish winery. 70cl, 41.2%; £35, chapeldown.com 3 RAMSBURY VODKA: Marlborough, Wiltshire, UK. Every bottle of this single-estate vodka is traceable back to a specific field of origin. 70cl, 43%; £38, ramsburyestates.co.uk 4 NCN’EAN BOTANICAL SPIRIT: Oban, Scotland. A creamy, nutty spirit made with botanicals foraged near the distillery in Scotland. 50cl, 40%; £30, ncncean.com 5 COPALLI WHITE RUM: Punta Gorda, Belize. A single-estate rum that uses organic sugar cane and rainforest canopy water. 70cl, 42%; £33.50, masterofmalt.com 6 HYKE GIN: Bolney, Sussex, UK. A gin made from table grapes deemed surplus by British supermarkets. 50cl, 40%; £24, tesco.com

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MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE Enjoy a guilt-free drink, as we bring you a raft of spirits, beers and coffees made with sustainability and ethics in mind Photograph by ###

PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVID HARRISON

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AUTUMN RACING WEEKEND & ASCOT BEER FESTIVAL Friday 4th & Saturday 5th October

Get your weekend off to a great start with competitive racing and a choice of over 200 real ales, ciders and perries at the Ascot Beer Festival in association with CAMRA. Enjoy a true taste of Bavarian hospitality off the track, with an abundance of bratwurst, lederhosen and traditional German music at the Ascot Bier Haus on the Saturday. Tickets from £19 | Fine Dining from £207 + VAT | Children under 18 go FREE

ascot.co.uk

BETTER BEERS Clever brewing techniques and thoughtful approaches to ingredient gathering mean these beers do more than just taste great. 1 SMALL BEER SESSION PALE: Bermondsey, London, UK. It can take up to ten pints of water to make a single pint of beer, but Small Beer has got the art down to just a pint and a half. 33cl, 2.5%; £15 (for six), theoriginalsmallbeer.com 2 FREEDOM PILS: Abbots Bromley, Staffordshire, UK. Eco heating processes and a reed bed for filtering wastewater helps make Freedom’s pilsner clean in more ways than one. 33cl, 4.4%; £36.99 (for 24), freedombrewery.com 3 BRICK FORAGED SOUR: Deptford, London, UK. This sour uses foraged nettles and gorse flowers from the brewery’s Deptford home, while others have been brewed with surplus waste fruit from charity FareShare. 33cl, 4.9%; £3.50, noblegreenwines.co.uk 4 HIVER HONEY IPA: Southwark, London, UK. Hiver supports beekeepers by using raw honey in its brews, and gives 10% of its profits to pollinator charities that help support our food ecosystem. 33cl, 4.9%; £10 (for three), hiverbeers.com 1 2

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ETHICAL COFFEES Whether it’s an environmentally friendly roast or a fair price for farmers, buying coffee with good ethics is important. Here are four to try: 1 YALLAH HOUSE ESPRESSO: Falmouth, UK. This Cornish roastery is working towards having a carbonpositive HQ, using only sustainably sourced, single-origin beans. 250g; £7.20, yallahcoffee.co.uk 2 PERCOL COLOMBIAN: London, UK. A Fairtradecertified Colombian ground coffee sold in compostable packaging that breaks down in as little as 12 weeks. 200g; £4.25, tesco.com 3 ORIGIN HARTMANN: Helston, UK. This Fairtrade roastery buys its coffee through direct relationships with producers, and has a zero-to-landfill waste policy at its HQ down in Cornwall. 250g; £8.50, origincoffee.co.uk 4 CAFÉ DIRECT DR CONGO: London, UK. Small-batch roasted in London Fields, this coffee is sourced from a once-war-torn region that now has more than 4,300 smallhold farmers. 200g; £5.50, waitrose.com 1 3

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PROMOTION

LOW AND BEHOLD A beer doesn't always have to knock you out with a high ABV. Nirvana's beers are alcohol-free, sustainably minded, and designed to make everyone feel included

EWSFLASH: ALCOHOL-FREE BEER doesn't have to be boring, and drinking alcohol-free beer doesn't mean that you're boring either. Which is why Nirvana brewery's ethos is all about inclusivity. No-one enjoys feeling left

NIRVANA PRODUCES A RANGE OF BEERS DESIGNED TO SUIT EVERY LIFESTYLE

out and that desire to make everyone feel included – whether they drink or not – was one of the core reasons the brand started. When co-founder Becky Kean's dad gave up drinking, she wanted him to still feel included in her family of beer lovers. Today, Nirvana produces a full range of beers designed to suit every taste, proving that people don't need to compromise on their values to enjoy an alcohol-free beer. Whether you're following a vegan or mindful-drinking lifestyle, Nirvana's beers are all about supporting and satisfying whatever sustainable desires you've got. Hell, they're even suitable if you're aiming to stick to organic produce. Nirvana's Organic Pale Ale is certified by the Soil Association. Made from First Gold hops, British malts and blessed with hints of spice and tangerine with a gentle toffee

finish, it's a beer that's a friend to the earth and your palate. What's more, it's a pretty well known that drinking in moderation is more sustainable than drinking to excess. Anyone who's ever gone on a weekend bender and woken up feeling like they've been hit by a tenton truck will be able to tell you that. At the time of writing, Nirvana Brewery is the UK’s only bricks-and-mortar brewery dedicated to alcohol-free beer, making them something of a spearhead in the low- and no-alcohol beer movement. Keep an eye out because Nirvana will soon be adding to its range of ales with an alcohol-free lager set to launch in time for Sober October. ● Taste the full Nirvana range at their Sober October pop up taproom – details to announced on @nirvanabeerco. Find out more at nirvanabrewery.com

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A WEEK TO REMEMBER This year, Kingfisher Beer's National Curry Week takes place 7-13 October, and they've created a special cookbook with 50 of the UK's best Indian restaurants to celebrate

OU'VE HOOVERED UP countless chicken kormas; you've devoured more than a few veg biryanis and you love a good chicken tikka masala. But that was only the beginning: these days, the UK's brilliant Indian restaurants and curry houses are dishing up more authentic and more delicious cooking than ever, and our country's love affair with the vibrant flavours of India has reached an all-time high. Taking place 7-13 October 2019, National Curry Week is an annual celebration of our relationship with the iconic dish, as well as raising money for Curry for Change, a charity that works to fight malnourishment and poverty. This is National Curry Week's 21st year, and the festivities are bigger and better than ever before. To mark the special event, Kingfisher Beer has enlisted the help of 50 of

THE UK'S LOVE OF INDIAN COOKING IS STRONGER THAN EVER, AND THAT'S WHAT NATIONAL CURRY WEEK AIMS TO CELEBRATE 108

the UK's most highly regarded Indian restaurants to produce a special cookbook, From Bombay to Britain. The book showcases brilliant Indian cooking that ranges all the way from the fine-dining cuisine of Vivek Singh's iconic Cinnamon Club in London to the authentic street food of Chai Thali. What's more, all proceeds from the sale of the comprehensive cookbook will be going to Curry for Change, too. Kingfisher Beer's dedication to celebrating Indian cuisine is hardly surprising. The brand is India's number one beer all around the world, and with good reason. The brewery's story began in 1857, when Castle Breweries first started producing beer in the Indian city of Mysore. 150 years later, Kingfisher Beer can be found all around the world, including the UK, where it's brewed to the same traditional recipe â€“ so

PROMOTION

KEEP CALM AND CURRY ON: (clockwise from main) Kingfisher Beer is the perfect foil to a rich, spicy curry; the UK's Indian food offering is better than ever; a beautifully cooked curry

whenever you can get your chops around a curry, you're likely to be able to sip a refreshing Kingfisher Beer, too. The drink itself is crisp and clean, with a balance of gentle bitterness and citrus that means it stands up brilliantly to even the spiciest, richest curry. With that in mind, it's hardly surprising that Kingfisher's beer is described as The Real Taste of India. If all this talk of curry has whet your appetite for more, you only have to wait

until October to celebrate National Curry Week, when you'll be able to get involved by holding your own curry night or dining out in one of the UK's excellent curry houses. And if you really can't wait till then, look to the right to find out how to enter our competition that could see you win a copy of From Bombay to Britain and a case of Kingfisher Beer. Good luck. â—? For more information and to get involved, head to the website at

HOW TO ENTER

WIN

If you love curry, you'll want to get your hands on Kingfisher's new cookbook, which includes recipes from the UK's best-loved Indian restaurants, like Vivek Singh's iconic Cinnamon Club. We've partnered with Kingfisher to offer five lucky winners a copy of the book and a case of Kingfisher Beer. All you need to do is answer one simple question. Head to fdsm.co/nationalcurry-week to enter and for full T&Cs.

nationalcurryweek.co.uk

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WIN

PROMOTION

SECOND TO NAAN National Curry Week is back again from 7 to 13 October. To mark the occasion, Kingfisher have rounded up some of the best places to celebrate in London...

RITAIN LOVES AN Indian curry. In fact, we're so obsessed with it that back in 1998 we set up a whole week dedicated to celebrating this diverse culinary tradition. National Curry Week is now in its 21st year, and to get the party started, Kingfisher – the official partner (and perfect drinks pairing) – has put together a guide to the ultimate dining and drinking spots in the capital to make the most of what is arguably one of the best weeks of the year:

Chai Thali

street food and bright, eye-catching interiors, Chit Chaat Chai is a South London local gem. What's more the restaurant offers an unmissable lunch menu that starts from just £7.

Bombay Brasserie LONDON COURTFIELD ROAD, SW7 4QH

This South Kensington restaurant oozes sophistication and, more importantly, its food – which draws on the globally influenced culinary styles of Bombay – packs a proper flavour punch.

19 MANDELA STREET, NW1 0DU

Cinnamon Club

Drawing inspiration from all over the Indian subcontinent, Chali Thali serves up some of the best Indian street food in Camden. With a menu this good, it's hard to pick favourites, but we're big fans of the clay-baked maharaja prawns washed down with a Chai Thali Mary.

GREAT SMITH SREET, SW1P 3BU

Chit Chaat Chai

Brilliant

356 OLD YORK ROAD, SW18 1SS

72-76 WESTERN ROAD, UB2 5DZ

With affordable prices, delicious Indian

This 220-cover North Indian restuarant

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If Indian fine dining served in the grand setting of a Grade II-listed former Westminster library sounds like your cup of tea, then you're in luck because that's exactly what you'll find at Vivek Singh's lauded restaurant.

in Southhall has a pretty, er, brilliant story: the family's first retaurant was first set up in Kenya in the '50s, before the Anands relocated to London in 1975. A few expansions down and they're still serving up their Brilliant Punjabi food with a Kenyan twist in West London a whopping 43 years on. ●

ENJOYED THIS? DISCOVER MORE... in Kingfisher's cookbook, which includes recipes from the UK's best-loved Indian restaurants. Visit nationalcurryweek. co.uk or follow @KingfisherBeerUk on social for more information, including where to order your copy.

Save delicious meals from an untimely end Every day, perfectly edible food from your favourite stores goes to waste. Now you can save it! P.S. Every meal you rescue helps the planet too

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COMPETITION

WRITTEN IN STEIN At London Oktoberfest, you can experience the vibrant atmosphere of Bavaria in the heart of the city – and we're giving one lucky reader a VIP package to this year's event

HERE ARE FEW parties in the world more famous than Oktoberfest – the folk festival held in the Bavarian city of Munich that lasts longer than a fortnight and celebrates everything from traditional German culture to food, great beer and more. But did you know you can get a stellar slice of Oktoberfest right in the heart of London? Yep, that's right – if you're not one of the autumn festival's six million annual attendees in Munich, you should be going to London Oktoberfest instead. Each year, this cult London event sees Millwall Park, Olympia London and City Central at the HAC transformed into a gigantic German bierhalle for select dates in October and November. This year's event sees two runs at Millwall Park near Canary Wharf from 3-6 and 10-13 October, a special Halloween Oktoberfest at Olympia London in West

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Kensington from 24-26 October and one final run in Central London (next to Moorgate Station) from 15-16 November. At the event, you'll take a seat at a long table, dine on bratwurst and schnitzel and drink extra-large Germanstyle maß glasses full of Bavarian Festbeer lager and shots of Jägermeister to the awesome soundtrack of live oompah music and old-school rock'n'roll. There'll be singing, there'll be dancing, there'll be merriment and there most certainly will be lederhosen under the roof of the festival's magnificent big top tent. Basically, you can sign us up. Interested? We're giving away a pair of VIP tickets to this year's opening night bonanza including food, drinks and access to a special seating area. See right to enter, and see you in Oktober. ● Find out more and book your tickets to this year's event at london-oktoberfest.co.uk

HOW TO ENTER

WIN WIN

Fancy bagging yourself a pair of VIP tickets to the opening night of London Oktoberfest 2019 at Millwall Park (near Canary Wharf) on 3 October? Of course you do. All you need to do to be in with a chance of winning WIN is head to fdsm.co/ldn-oktoberfest and answer a simple question. Each VIP ticket gets you a reserved seat in the event's VIP area, fast-track entrance, a glass of German sparkling wine, two 1.5-pint maß glasses of beer and a Jagermeister shot. You'll also get a Bavarian snack plate on arrival, plus a meal of schnitzel served with Bavarian potato salad. So what are you waiting for? A vibrant German-style night out could be on the cards. Enter now.

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— PART 4 —

EXCESS “OLD PERITHIA IS A MIXTURE OF SPOOKY, TUMBLEDOWN BUILDINGS AND THRIVING TAVERNAS” JON HAWKINS ON THE INTERESTING SIGHTS, SOUNDS AND TASTES OF CORFU, 132

116 NORWEGIAN SEAFOOD | 122 ORIGINS: YEO VALLEY | 128 THE GETAWAY 130 ON THE TRAIL | 132 THE ITINERARY | 139 THE SELECTOR

Photography throughout by Tone Molnes

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FOODâ€‚

OUT OF THE WATER In Norway, a deeply entrenched fishing culture navigates both harvesting the sea and preserving it. Lucy Holden takes to the waves to find out more

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THE PERFECT CATCH: Chef José Pizarro holds up a freshly caught cod; langoustines vie for space; dinner is served at Polarbjørn, a restaurant in Ålesund

EAFOOD WILL NEVER be the same again. That’s the consensus of our motley crew as we sit in the Ålesund deep sea fishing centre, after a morning on the icy waters of Norway’s west coast. We’ve clambered out of two boats and up a seaweedy ladder to enjoy the cod we caught for lunch, courtesy of José Pizarro. Just outside our dining spot, the Spanish chef fillets the fish and it’s brought into the large, shack-like outbuilding to be flashfried in garlic and oil. Pizarro is considered the godfather of Spanish cooking in the UK, but his presence here makes sense: he’s championed Norway’s excellent fish and seafood for years, using the produce in his three much-loved London restaurants. On a long table by the window, on an oval dinner plate, langoustine caught that

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morning by the centre’s fishermen drape their claws over each other, as if lounging in bed. By the time the crustaceans hit our plates, they’re little more than an hour old; a fresher catch simply doesn’t exist. We crack their shells, dip their fat tails in mayonnaise and make white bread langoustine sandwiches, just because we can. In a restaurant in London, this level of shellfish extravagance would cost a couple of hundred quid, but in Norway, where these ingredients are caught daily, it’s just how you eat. On the wall, a taxidermy seal in a party hat watches on with miserable envy beside a disgruntled walrus head. The reason we’re here isn’t langoustine or taxidermy, however. It’s white fish, in particular salt cod, an ancient dish that has been produced in Norway for more than 500 years – testament to the country’s

long-established fishing tradition. Today, the Norwegian Seafood Council manages everything that leaves the country’s seas before finding its way to London’s best restaurants, Pizarro’s among them. Since 2011, when Hugh FearnleyWhittingstall’s Fish Fight brought the

A TAXIDERMY SEAL IN A PARTY HAT WATCHES AS WE EAT

question of fish sustainability into the mainstream, the debate of whether certain species are being overfished has flashed up in the industry, with cod often at the forefront. In June, a report by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea recommended a 63% reduction in the amount of cod fished from the North Sea because it was being “harvested unsustainably”. At present, stocks are certified based on last year’s catch, meaning we might not be doing enough now to ensure the safety of certain species of fish. But the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) closely monitors the seas’ fish levels and applies a sustainability rating to 144 species in a Good Fish guide online (mcsuk.org/goodfishguide), which consumers can use to check the status of seabass, brill or bream. Unlike other produce, sustainability

with fish is judged not on seasonality but on where it’s caught and how. Anyone looking to make their consumption more sustainable can use the guide to work out whether their catch may have come from the North Sea or the Atlantic and caught via a dive, trawl or electrical fishing boat. “It’s really important to know where the fish we’re eating comes from,” says José Pizarro. “That’s why Norway’s produce is so sought after and important in the industry – they have the strictest regulations on quotas in the world. All their white fish is MCS-certified.” In Norway, fishing stocks are checked by researchers yearly, while analysts remain in conversation with the Directory of Fisheries – who run the fishing vessels – and fishermen’s

organisations, who see what’s at sea and set annual quotas for what can be caught. A third of seafood consumed in the UK comes from Norway, where 37 million dinner portions are caught daily, according to the directory. Given there are only five million people in the country, we’re eating more than they are; most of it is traded through Ålesund, Norway’s most important fishing port, fondly described by many as its “capital of fish”. The biggest fleets dock here for 24 hours before chugging out to sea for 30 days, returning to unload catches of white fish, herring and mackerel, before changing crew and floating off once more into the fjords. It might sound like a grind for the fishermen, who work four demanding weeks on and four off, but they’re paid sweetly for it. Don a pair of waders here and you can expect to earn between €80,000 and €120,000. However, if it’s a weekend break rather than a career change you’re after, this pretty town on Norway’s west coast is a short flight from Oslo and has a lot to offer. Described as “fjord city”, the small town stretches like a serpent’s tail into the water and forest-green mountains spotted with frosty-looking cows reach into the sky across the coast. The town itself was rebuilt entirely in 1904 after going up in smoke when a fire started in a bakery, it’s said. Given the inhabitants then lived in wooden houses, it’s surprising only one person died, and Ålesund was rebuilt as a place as dotted as Cornwall with yellow, blue and tangerine houses sporting grey, fish-scale-tiled roofs. Pizarro came here for the first time last year and was blown away by the fishing culture, he says, as we board a small boat and chug out to sea so he can show me how the fishing is done. “When I was a boy I used to fish with my dad in lakes and rivers in Spain. We’d catch carp, eels and black bass, but of course I was worried I wouldn’t catch anything my first time here,” he adds. Luckily, he pulled a 10kg cod out of the water, and now shows me a grinning pic with his prize on his iPhone. “To go fishing and then fillet your catch right in front of the sea with the birds flying overhead is something very special,” he adds. As for salt cod, it’s an ingredient he grew up with, and so to be heralding it now feels special. “Bacalao (as it’s called in Spain) is →

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THIS IS THE FIRST FISH I’VE EVER CAUGHT; A TOTAL FLUKE → something my mum cooked, as did the nuns and monks in Spain; it’s a very traditional ingredient with such history. Salting was a way of preserving the fish, and it was eaten often instead of meat because of its similarity in texture. It has big, solid flakes, and that stops it disintegrating when it cooks. It was especially popular in Spain on Fridays when eating meat was banned by the Catholic church,” he explains. “I like to use it in very simple recipes. To catch something I’ve been eating and fishing all my life is incredible.” The chef’s new cookbook, Andalusia: Recipes from Seville and beyond, includes a dish of salt cod “meatballs” in a chickpea soup that was traditionally eaten during Easter. As our small boat bobs at sea, we’re shown how to twirl a gold reel of line to the seabed by a seasoned angler in a navy blue fishing onesie. The line runs purringly through my fingers to the bottom and then I’m told to keep a finger on the line to feel for a pull. Within half a minute, it tugs, and a dead left arm later (an hour on the boat beats any arm workout you could do in a gym) three skinny mackerel can be seen glittering through the depths towards the boat. This is the first fish I’ve ever caught and a total fluke, I’m sure, but despite a touch of

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FILLET O ‘FISH: A fisherman filleting the catch of the day near Ålesund; one of Norway’s most important ports, it’s seen by many as Norway’s capital of fish

feeling for the fish, which are beautiful and wriggling with life, it’s thrilling. Two hours later, Pizarro and I have (with a little help) filled a bucket with Norway’s best ingredients: ling, cod, mackerel and something with frilly fins that neither of us could have dreamt up. “This one looks too beautiful,” I tell Pizarro. He peers around the side of the boat for the fisherman, who is looking ahead, quietly steering us back to the shore. “Throw it back in,” he whispers, so I do. “What I like about Norway is that I can see how much care they take over everything,” he tells me later. “The fishermen get paid very well; everything is fished for consumption, not for the sake of it, nothing is thrown away, unless you choose to return it to the sea,” he laughs. “We need to look after our seas and it’s important to know where the fish we eat in the UK comes from. A lot of people probably don’t realise that the fish on supermarket counters might have come from Russia or China. I like the idea that the fish I’m serving in the restaurants comes from Norway. It can get very cold on the water if you’re out all day, but it’s day, all night – it doesn’t get dark until 3am. That’s dangerous though,” he laughs. I find this out during the evenings, the light at 1am suggesting it might be 9pm, distilling a false sense of sobriety. After a first dinner of Norwegian seafood cooked by a double-man-bunned viking at

Polarbjørn, a restaurant with the best views of Ålesund’s waters, we end up with a bottle of aquavit that encourages drunken sea shanties. At least one person on the fishing trip the next day feels the need to sway their peaky green face over the water in tribute. The real highlight here though, and a must for anyone wanting to see just how well the Norwegians treat their own produce, is a trip to Kami Skotholmen, the only restaurant located on a tiny islet of Skotholmen, 40 minutes by boat from Ålesund. We pile from the boat to the pier in this aquatic middle of nowhere. Inside the minimalist, panoramic-viewed dining room, we’re served a tasting menu of shark, the most perfectly orange crab broth and yet more cod – this one more delicate than Polarbjørn’s, and the invention of 26-year-old head chef Magnus Bergseth.The best news of the evening is that the aquavit has somehow “run out”, so we board the boat back to Ålesund in brighter spirits. As the boat pulls away, the chefs line up on the dock to wave goodbye, then throw themselves into the water below in starfish shapes, fully clothed. After the heat of service in the kitchen, there can’t be anything nicer, and they clamber up onto the jetty from the water to flip backwards off it again into the bountiful water of Norway’s glittering fjords. f seafoodfromnorway.co.uk

WOr WonRs WIt yUR

COfe MOriNg

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ORIGINSâ€‚

DAIRY TO BE DIFFERENT Down in Somerset, dairy pioneers Yeo Valley balance large-scale production with sustainability, writes Mike Gibson

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Photograph by ###

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LAGDON IS NOT the type of country idyll that’s 50 miles from civilisation. In fact it’s only a 25-minute drive from Bristol Temple Meads station, the grey hustle and bustle of the city giving way to tumbledown West Country hamlets, quaint pubs and, before long, rolling hillsides. But by the time we reach the tiny village of Blagdon, set into an impossibly steep hillside, it certainly feels it. I’m here to visit Yeo Valley, the British dairy brand whose milk, butter, yoghurts and other products are both for sale in pretty much any supermarket in the country and also a bastion of the organic movement. There is, needless to say, much on the agenda, so firstly we walk into its HQ, past a scene of tiny plastic cows on astroturf.

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It’s time for brunch, though, so before we’ve had too much of a chance to settle in it’s off to the Yeo Valley Canteen. “Canteen” probably undersells it: after all, despite its quirky, countrykitchen trappings, this is a 100-plus-cover dining room helmed by a chef, Paul Collins, who’s headed up kitchens of many a Michelin-starred restaurant in London and around the UK. He gives an enlightening (and delicious) cooking demonstration that ranges from shaking Yeo Valley’s cream to make butter to mixing sourdough from the brand’s ten-yearold starter, to preparing poached loin of newseason lamb with broad beans à la française (I told you he was a real chef ).

The canteen is still its primary function – to keep Yeo Valley’s staff fed, and well fed at that – but the public can also make reservations for breakfast, lunch and, occasionally, dinner too. So we tuck in: first to croissants with salted Yeo Valley butter and coffee; then roast ham, coppa- and salami-style cured meats and cheeses, before a tray of exquisite eggs florentine is brought out. A suppliers list is on a clipboard that holds the menu, with Somerset Charcuterie, Homewood Cheeses and Strode Valley Organics, as well as Yeo Valley itself and its own Holt Farms and fishermen, who source fish from the pristine Blagdon Lake. The furthest of them is 4.8 miles away. The

THE BRITISH FRIESIANS’ HEALTH AND HAPPINESS IS EVIDENT FROM A GLANCE canteen butchers whole carcasses in-house, and is close to 100% self-sufficient aside from speciality ingredients such as the charcuterie. With brunch done and dusted and a glorious blue sky outside, it’s hard to resist going out to the balcony beyond the canteen’s enormous panoramic windows. Stretched out beyond it like a painted backdrop in a 1950s film set is the gorgeous lake, and a sweeping vista of the hillside that rises up again beyond it. The brand is, of course, named after a very real valley, and pretty much everything it does is contained within it, in a network of dairy, livestock and GO WEST: Only a 25-minute drive from Bristol Temple Meads station, Blagdon is home to Yeo Valley HQ and, clearly, a wealth of glorious bucolic splendour

vegetable farms and factories. It’s strange to think of such a home-grown ethos from a company that’s, well, huge. Today, as the UK’s largest organic producer, the still-family-owned Yeo Valley turns over £300 million a year and employs more than 1,750 people. In its factory, 6,000,000 500g pots of yoghurt are made every day – mostly for its own range of 100% organic products, but also some contracting for supermarket own-brands. It’s a curious dichotomy, but one that, as I learn, doesn’t necessarily need to be. In fact, spending a day down here suggests industrialised food preparation can go hand-in-hand with a sustainable model of agriculture. But to test that theory requires jumping in a Land Rover and exploring it in person. Down in the valley, we take a trip past Roger and Mary Mead’s original farmhouse, where the Mead family live now. It was bought along with the hectares and hectares of surrounding farmland for £11,500 in 1961. In the time between his purchase of the farm and his tragic and untimely death on the job a few years later, Roger had taken it on as a working dairy farm and become interested in producing quality yoghurt as well as milk – then a still largely misunderstood product. Since then it’s been not only a success story for the Mead family and the tens and now hundreds of its employees, but for the organic category overall: Yeo Valley is an outspoken member of the Soil Association, and one that outwardly engages with rhetoric around soil health, sustainability and ethical treatment of animals. A complicating factor is the 2018 sale of the brand’s license to Arla, which gives the international dairy co-operative the license to use the Yeo Valley brand in its (organic) products abroad. But the company itself is still totally family-owned. It also grows around 90% of the feed for its grass-fed dairy cattle on-site, and houses some 600 sheep across its 1,400 acres of farmland. I’m still curious about the balancing of the scale of Yeo Valley’s output with its approach to agriculture. Talking about yoghurts in the millions but cows in the hundreds seems, well, somewhat at odds. We go with Helen, a trained biologist and now a tour operator for Yeo Valley. Her work encompasses groups like us, but also schools around the area, with a focus on underprivileged children. The idea is to teach them about the roots of their food, introducing ideas about food production, soil health and the environment that can be totally new to them, with the →

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WE SEE CALVES, WIDE-EYED, VELVETSOFT AND, OBVIOUSLY, ADORABLE → hope that this connection at a young age will have an impact in the way they think about food. Today, though, she’s with us, so we have a quick sortie around the immaculate gardens and lie down in a snowdrop meadow so bucolic it’s like something from a fever dream. We walk through fields and forests, a pond full of big, fat trout, and have a look inside a remarkably placid-looking factory from a camera feed relayed to a TV in a shed a few feet away. We didn’t come here just for a wander, though, so before long it’s time to get upclose and personal with those at the heart of the operation. We enter a reasonably small barn to see about 20 British friesians, and

their health and happiness is evident even from a glance. Personally, I don’t believe you have to work in agriculture to know a healthy animal when you see one. I think back to the sheep at Goodwood Estate in Sussex (another entirely organic operation at scale), or further afield to the dehesa in Extremadura in Spain, with its immaculate black Iberico pigs. Their fur is soft and shimmering, they have room to walk around and they don’t mind being stroked. We see the milking, too, looking out on the room from the gallery above. Inside, cows shuffle in obediently, and a machine is attached to their udders. Within a few minutes their bloated udders are down to a more manageable size (which Helen states is a massive relief for the cows themselves) and the milk – a huge amount per cow, per day, and enough to make the sheer scale of the Yeo Valley dairy operation clear. This isn’t a feedlot-style operation, by any means: there are about eight cows at a time being milked before they wander back into the barn; it’s all quite serene. And we see calves, too; five or so days old, wide-eyed, velvet-soft and, obviously, adorable. It’s a reminder that despite the favourable conditions here – especially compared to the standard for non-organic dairy cows in the UK and abroad – that there is a trauma inherent in dairy farming. For calf and mother to be separated after that little time is devastating.

ABOVE: The Canteen can be found at Yeo Valley HQ (like M15, but with organic dairy products); its friesians are grass-fed, creating its organic produce

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On the flipside, though, from a week old they’re moved from pens to the farm, and they stay in the same social group from then until the day they die. That’s the cost of a pint of milk, even of great milk: it’s naive to think even the most ethically sound livestock farming doesn’t come with one. It’s one that we as a population need to square away, and it ought not to be an inconvenient truth brushed under the carpet. For me as a dairy consumer – and someone who tries to make ethical buying choices – it’s a truth that sometimes tugs at me, but one I’m happy to confront, all the more so after travelling to see Yeo Valley’s production first-hand. Yeo Valley is, it’s clear, a brand that owes everything to the land on which it’s built. And it knows as much, too: it’s about careful stewardship of the land, self-sufficiency, a balance of the sun and the soil at one end and producing rich, delicious dairy products at the other. Against a mainstream of ever-moreindustrialised food polarised by a counterculture of stronger and more outspoken personal politics around food production, Yeo Valley is a brand that balances both. Because as much as it’s a supermarket brand that relies, as many do, on factories as much as it does animals; it’s also, in simple terms, just a family farm. f Visit the all-new Yeo Valley Café in Bayswater, London, W2 3RX or find out more about Yeo Valley produce at yeovalley.co.uk

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Another Place is more than just a cool hotel in the Lake District, it’s a waterside destination with a dramatic location – and brilliant local produce, writes Tom Powell What to eat?

What else?

From the team behind Watergate Bay Hotel in North Cornwall, Another Place on Ullswater brings sleek, modern design to the rugged and picturesque North Lakes. It’s the kind of place you’ll find people sipping tea in wetsuits in its lounge, having just taken a dip in the water a minute’s walk from the front door. This is a property that encourages you to enjoy the outdoors for every minute you can, but also knows how to help you relax afterwards – whether you want to refuel with delicious food or kick back in the Swim Club. Like Watergate Bay, everything is built with sustainability in mind: the hotel has a 100% renewable energy supply and a biomass boiler, amongst other eco initiatives.

Another Place isn’t about formal dress and swanky restaurants, but that certainly doesn’t mean it doesn’t know how to get its funk on food-wise. Casual dining for all the family is available in the Living Space, the hotel’s all-day dining area that’ll serve you sarnies, coffee and cake by day, and sharing boards, burgers and cocktails in the evening. Order your drinks to the Library if you’re looking for full-on cosiness. If you’re after something more luxe, the Rampsbeck Restaurant serves three-course dinners at £40 a head, taking in the best of the region’s produce, from locally reared pork with black garlic, salt-baked turnip and alliums to a generous list of local beers.

Most of what you’re going to want to do is right outside the door, but Another Place will help you make the most of it, offering easy access to almost every kind of activity imaginable. Its outhouse (Sheep Shed) has wetsuits and water boots, while classes, courses and single sessions in kayaking, wild swimming, trail running and more are all available, too. Nearby, you can bag a number of Wainwrights, from the short, sharp Hallin Fell to the more sustained Bonscale Pike. If that all sounds a bit too active, you could trade all that activity for a little bit of relaxation and just look at them from the comfort of the bathtub. Yeah, that’d be nice. f

If you’re feeling inspired to plan your own adventure, go to foodism.co.uk where you’ll find tons more food and drink destination guides, reviews and ideas…

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Traditional restaurants in Japan have been zero waste since long before it was cool and it’s an ethos we should all learn from, writes chef and restaurateur James Lowe

KNOW FOODIES LOVE to bang on about Japan, but it’s hard not to sometimes. The food there is generally brilliant but it’s also frequently misunderstood – there is so much more to Japanese food than just sushi. I also feel it’s apt for this issue because Japan is a culture that places a great deal of importance on dedication to craft and detail. In food, this comes in the form of eateries that are generally focused on just one

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discipline of Japanese cooking; you don’t just get noodle restaurants, they focus on specific types – ramen, udon or soba for example. There is a natural leaning towards hyper seasonality and working in harmony with the surrounding environment. I’m not saying they have the flawless model; they are, of course, not without their own contradictions, but I want to focus on the positives. In more working-class areas, Seki and the

Kansai region, meat finds its way onto menus more than, say, Kyoto. But because meat is expensive, they work harder to make sure nothing goes to waste. This pre-industrial view of meat being more of a luxury and not therefore a dominant part of your diet (as is more common now) is common in foreign cuisines in what are labelled ‘economically less developed countries’. Tripe and offal are recognised as delicacies due to their flavours

PLACES DON’T SET OUT WITH A ZERO-WASTE ETHOS. IT’S JUST HOW THEY WORK

Photograph by [main] TommL/Getty; [grill] Ivan/Getty; [Iazakaya]

mori hiroshi/Getty; [takoyaki] Calvin Chan Wai Meng/Getty

and textures which are far more interesting than those of what a European butcher might refer to as a ‘prime cut’. Aji Fukushima, in Kyoto, is a ‘Kansai-style’ grill restaurant. The menu is divided into ‘red’ and ‘white’ meats. Red being cuts like rib, tongue, liver and spleen. White being various parts of the digestive system from throat down to ‘fatty intestine’, small intestine, ‘second stomach’ and sphincter. There is a choice of cuts being served raw – for example, an amazing dish of raw spleen, egg yolk, soy and onions or something like thinly sliced throat, marinated in mirin and chilli, to be grilled at the table. It’s inspiring stuff and makes you realise how little we understand about butchery in the UK, where people don’t really eat tripe, few butchers and even fewer chefs know how to process it and no one knows how to clean and separate the parts in the way they do in Japan. Also in Kyoto, I travelled to a restaurant called Seto. Located in the chef and owner’s back garden, its menu is dedicated to chicken. The proprietress, Seto-san, kills the poultry (reared on site) upon your arrival, breaks it down, and cooks the various parts over a fire. The night I go, there are just three of us, with nothing wasted. After having grilled skins, liver, ‘soft bone’, ‘back bone’ and ‘fatty back bone’, we finish with a hotpot made from the chicken bones with onions and leeks also grown in the garden outside, finished with egg and rice. It’s a remarkable, self-contained operation which works due to its small scale, forcing you to reappraise the notion of luxury because the experience is certainly so rare. In Tokyo, an izakaya (a kind of bar/pub/ restaurant) called Iwashiya specialises in sardines. The whole menu contains things like raw sardine and onions, sardine meatball

and broth and deep-fried head and bones. It’s worth noting that these places don’t set out with a specific ‘zero-waste’ ethos, it is simply the way they work. All parts of the sardine are tasty if treated in the right way at the right time. It’s the way we think at Lyle’s, I call it a common sense mentality – a lot less catchy than farm to table or zero waste, but more encompassing of a way of thinking for things across the whole restaurant business. In the countryside, food is very different. Tokuyamazushi is a small restaurant and guest house on Lake Togo, about an hour and a half from Kyoto. The chef here is working with the local university, trying to rediscover historic Japanese foods and old methods of preserving. In particular, they work with longterm fermentation and storage of rice and fish. While people used to eat rice and fish combinations, they wouldn’t take the form of the nigiri more commonly seen now. One dish was ayu (a freshwater fish), from the lake next to the restaurant. It had been preserved whole, guts and roe intact, and pressed and wrapped in rice for 10 months. The flavour was incredible, with notes of cheese, aged meat, garum, sake and yeast. This is how people would have eaten fish and

rice if not located next to the coast, rather than the nigiri that are most common today. The chef here also hunts a bear per season which he breaks down into various sections and freezes to get him through the winter – it was served in paper-thin slices and dropped in to a hot pot served with local vegetables. Another remarkable part of the meal here is the breakfast, which consists of a variety of salted, pickled and preserved vegetables and fish. As the availability of so many ingredients is limited, he works tirelessly during times of plenty to make sure he has enough to last through the winter when everything is scarce. The scale of restaurants in Japan in general is interesting, and not just to a self-confessed food nerd like myself. They tend to be small, with smaller teams, smaller menus and focus more on craft than how much money they can make – an approach that lends itself to more sustainable economic and environmental practices. It’s when these models start to scale up, when people eat or produce excessive amounts of food or a specific type, that difficulties start to emerge. We’re already looking to Japanese flavours here in London; we would do well to try to take inspiration from their ethos, too. f

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FOOD

THE ITINERARY Corfu has been passed between occupiers for centuries, and it has the scars and cuisine to prove it. Jon Hawkins finds rich pickings in the Greek island’s north east

BAY AREA: [clockwise from main] The White House in Kalami; pastitsada; watermelons in Kassiopi; the tavernas found in Old Perithia

F YOU WANT to understand food in Corfu, pastitsada – arguably the island’s iconic dish – is a good place to start. In essence it is meat (often rooster), in a tomato sauce made with red wine and a heavyweight spice mix called spetsieriko, and tubes of pasta like bucatini or macaroni, though every Corfiot household will have its own magic formula for this Sunday staple. It’s as delicious as it sounds, and in this one dish and its variations, you’ll find a sort of road map of Corfu’s history and geography – the pasta; the complex blend of up to 15 spices; the curry powder some like to add; the indigenous herbs; the red wine; the signatures of an island thrown from occupier to invader for a couple of millennia. The Greeks, Romans and Byzantines all saw its importance as a naval base, the

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Venetians ruled (not for the first time either) from the late 14th century to the close of the 18th, before France, the British and finally Greece all staked claims. You’ll find all these influences – particularly those of the Venetians – etched into the island’s architecture and culture, but particularly in its food. Pastitsada, along with its co-stars of Corfu cuisine sofrito (beef or veal in a garlic, parsley and white wine sauce) and bourdeto (fish in a sweet and spicy tomato and red pepper sauce), can trace its origins back to Venice, but with tweaks and twists that make each of them uniquely Corfiot. The island itself is about 65km long and shaped something like a stretched-out capital E, with the west coast facing Italy and the middle and bottom of the E facing east towards the Greek mainland. The northeast of the

island is barely 2km from Albania at its closest point, and this part of the island, reached on a winding coastal road from the capital, Corfu Town (Kerkyra), has both outrageous good looks and a reputation as the island’s most sophisticated outpost. It’s also a great place to discover Corfiot cuisine, from rustic mountain food to fish eaten just metres from the sea it was plucked from. Here’s where to eat, drink and stay on Corfu’s northeast coast.

EAT

Foros, Old Perithia

Though it was abandoned by its inhabitants decades ago, largely as a result of the coastal tourism goldrush, today the village of Old Perithia is a mixture of spooky, tumbledown buildings and thriving tavernas. From a dusty car park so steep and rutted it must be a graveyard for hire cars, we edge

WE ORDER CORFIOT SAUSAGES AND FRIED BALLS OF COURGETTE AND FETA down vertiginous cobbled streets that wind their way through untamed vegetation only to reveal yet another packed taverna. You’ll find Foros in a tiny square, with tables squashed together under a gazebo dripping with grape-laden vines, attached to a creaky, crumbling building. We order grilled Corfiot sausages, delicious little fried balls of courgette and feta, and a local dish called tsigari – tomatoes, garlic and onions sautéed with wild herbs and tongue-tingling paprika. The various taverns of Old Perithia, by the way, are a great place to try pastitsada – if you’re lucky, they might be making it with rooster.

Pyramid, Agios Spiridon (Perithia)

flavours, is probably the best on the island.

Agios Spiridon is a gently curving sandy bay that’s protected from wind and the afternoon sun by a row of tall trees. The sea is clean, it’s easy to park and there are a couple of tiny shops and tavernas a few steps from the beach, but despite this it’s rarely very busy. All of which makes it a pretty perfect place to hang out, especially if you pull up a seat at Pyramid and get stuck into Mediterranean cuisine made with homegrown ingredients, and excellent cocktails, too. If you’re looking for a rustic Corfiot experience at knockdown prices this isn’t it – the presentation’s sometimes at the fiddly end of the spectrum and the dishes aren’t exactly authentic – but you won’t mind a bit as the sun sets and you’re tucking into grilled octopus and slurping a glass of excellent local white wine. Bonus recommendation: as you drive away from Agios Spiridon, head east on the main road for 300 metres and pull into Ice Dream. The astroturf terrace and plastic seating don’t exactly scream ‘gastronomic experience’ but the homemade ice cream, in a whole world of

Agios Spiridon Beach; corfupyramid.com

DRINK

Café Bristol, Corfu Town

It’s not strictly on the northeast coast, but since you’ll almost certainly pass through the island’s capital at some point – and because it’s such a great little historypacked city – you might need somewhere to get a decent drink. For that, we give you Café Bristol, a fixture in the heart of the Old Town since 1910, where beautiful people laze around drinking coffee and bartender-made cocktails in a small and pleasingly boho setting. The tiny interior is chic and refreshingly dingy, though the crowds at Bristol spill out onto the streets, especially at night, when they somehow find room to squeeze in decks and a DJ. Evgeniou Voulgareos 49, Corfu Town; +30 6936 660 101

The White House, Kalami Bay Naturalist Gerald Durrell blamed himself for the influx of tourists that transformed the island in the ‘70s and ‘80s. His trilogy of →

Old Perithia; +30 6946 546 139

Imerolia Fish Taverna, Kassiopi

Photograph by [dish] Alexander Mychko / Alamy; [truck] Ray-

mond Dyke / Alamy; [main] Constantinos Iliopoulos / Alamy

The coastal town of Kassiopi is, as one local puts it to us, where regular visitors to Corfu go to see and be seen. Which isn’t to say it’s like a Corfiot St Tropez – more that its quaint cobbled streets, picturesque harbour, beautiful beaches and many, many (so many) tavernas are a big draw. That’s a doubleedged sword – lots of restaurants means choice but also crowds – though arguably Kassiopi’s best taverna is far enough from the centre that you’ll largely avoid the latter. Imerolia Fish Taverna is – you guessed it – a seafood restaurant in Imerolia, a tiny harbour and beach about 1km from the centre of Kassiopi, with great views of the town and surrounding coast. Once you’ve arrived at the unflashy little taverna, grab a seat on the terrace, glance at the menu, then put it down and ask the waiter to show you what’s fresh. You’ll be walked into the kitchen to a metal cabinet, where they’ll ceremoniously open draw after draw lined with the freshest fish you’ve ever seen. Order whatever looks good, frankly, then order some more. Imerolia, Kassiopi; +30 2663 081 127

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books about the pre-war years his family spent in Corfu (the subject of ITV series The Durrells) presented a chaotic but magical blend of natural beauty and colourful characters. Though Durrell and his family had several homes on the island, one of the best known is the White House in Kalami, a sleepy little resort town about 9km south of Kassiopi. Today the verdant and steeply banked hills that shelve into beach are dotted with villas, though you can still visit the White House (it’s now an upscale restaurant and bar) on its seafront perch looking out over the bay. Yes, it’s touristy, but it’s also a surprisingly tranquil place to sip local Corfu Beer and dip flatbreads into delicious, lemony tarama as you watch small boats come and go from the nearby jetty and cats pad across hot rocks.

TO INFINITY & BEYOND: Agalia in Perithia is a great base for exploring the northeast coast of Corfu. The infinity pool has spectacular views of Albania

Kalami Bay; thewhitehouse.gr

Piedra Del Mar, Barbati You weren’t planning on coming to Corfu without getting stuck into the nightlife, were you? Corfu Town and the surrounding beaches have some of the biggest and best beach bars, but the resort towns that dot the coast north of the capital are a good bet, too, particularly Barbati. The main draw here is the mile-long beach, lined with restaurants and bars like the chic Piedra Del Mar – an Ibiza-style beach bar and restaurant where you can kick back in your sunlounger on the sand or party into the night, both with one of the bar’s excellent cocktails in your hand. Barbati Beach; piedradelmar.gr

Nicoluzo winery

Corfiot wine isn’t on many people’s radars, but it was on James Bond’s back in 1981 when, in For Your Eyes Only, Roger Moore’s 007 clunkily orders a bottle of white from Theotoky Estate, probably the

LEARN ABOUT THE HISTORY OF CORFIOT WINEMAKING AT THE NICOLUZO WINERY 134

island’s best-known winery. Nicoluzo is likely the smallest, but this boutique winery in the central north of the island makes interesting and excellent wines using grapes native to Corfu and beyond. Founder Anastasio Arist has even set up an experimental organic vineyard, specialising in reviving lost and neglected local wine varieties. Call ahead to get a look at the winery, where they still bottle and label by hand, plus an insight into the history of Corfiot winemaking – and, yes, a taste of Nicoluzo’s limited-supply wines. Nicoluzo Winery, Ano Korakiana; +30 6943 777 728; nicoluzo.com

Mavromatis Kumquat Distillery Be honest. As soon as you saw the words Kumquat Distillery you were sold, weren’t you? And rightly so – this dinky citrus fruit was brought to Corfu from East Asia in the mid-19th century, but has found its fame as the basis for a sweet, bright orange liqueur. You’ll see countless bottles – in tall thin bottles; in bottles shaped like the island; in phallus-shaped bottles, if you like – filling the shelves of touristy shops, but the brand to look out for is Mavromatis. With more than half a century of distilling experience, the distillery in Skripero is the perfect place (possibly the only place) to find out everything you’ve ever wanted to know about processing the little orange fruit. Paleokastritsas Road, Skripero; kumquat.gr

STAY

Agalia, Perithia

Our base for the week is Agalia – a gleaming-white, architect-designed villa in the foothills below Mount Pantokrator that’s available from luxury villa specialists The Thinking Traveller. Inside, rooms are minimalist but sophisticated, with swathes of wood, marble and polished concrete throughout the bedrooms and open-plan living area. There’s also a basement bar right next to a gym, put there by someone with either an epic sense of humour or a unique approach to drinking and exercising. Outside is an infinity pool with views over hills that are at once dusty and lush green, stretching out to the artificially blue-looking sea and the rugged mountains of Albania in the distance. It’s a view best appreciated from the terrace, with the sun setting behind you as you mop up the spicy-sweet remains of prawn saganaki with freshly baked flatbreads – ideally knocked up in the villa by a brilliant local cook arranged by The Thinking Traveller. f Agalia is only available through The Thinking Traveller and is priced according to occupancy: from per week based on four sharing two rooms; from €4,250 per week based on six sharing three rooms; from €4,720 per week based on eight sharing four rooms. The Thinking Traveller Experience Specialists can organise services ranging from wine delivery and in-villa cooks to boat trips and horse riding. thethinkingtraveller.com

Photography by David Harrison

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THE SELECTOR Living more sustainably is easier when you know how. That’s why this month we’re showcasing the best restaurants, cafes and bars in London working hard to bring together good ethics and great food

NJOYING SERIOUSLY TASTY grub doesn’t mean compromising on your ethical morals. After all, you should be able to sit down for a good bite to eat or much-deserved thirst quencher without worrying about the carbon footprint of your main course, environmental impact of your dessert or toxin levels in your vinho verde. Here at foodism, we firmly believe you should enjoy food while being mindful of the means by which it reaches your plate. With

our roundup of the best environmentally and ethically innovative spots in the city, you can do just that. Feast with your eco foot forward at the most sustainable restaurants in Soho; eat ethically from the comfort of your sofa with London’s most moral fast food; and dine organically at Soil Assosciation-certified spots. Plus, we’re saying cheers to all-natural wines at the London bars which are serving non-processed, (and all-delicious) parabenfree bottles. Don’t say we’re not good to you.

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River Test trout with grilled cucumbers and béarnaise? Carabineros shrimp with fino butter? A plate of mortadella? Yes, yes, and oh God, yes. Headed up by Australian chef Skye Gyngell (previously of Petersham Nurseries) Spring has become one of London’s most remarkable restaurants. But beyond the incredible seasonal food, Gyngell has also set her restaurant the aim of having one of London’s first plastic-free kitchens. 020 3011 0115; springrestaurant.co.uk

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10 Orsman Road, N1 5QJ

Haggerston

Native is one of the city’s wildest restaurants. No, we don’t mean that punters are downing six Pornstar Martinis and dancing on tabletops. They’re definitely not. Native simply highlights the country’s best wildforaged food and game in a laid back, userfriendly environment. Ivan Tisdall-Downes’ tasting menu is designed to shine a spotlight on whatever’s currently flourishing in the fields, forests and coastlines of the UK.

Part of the Shoreditch Trust group and a firm favourite within the many sustainable restaurants in London, Waterhouse hosts the Shoreditch Trust’s Blue Marble Training, providing chef training and support for young people who have faced challenging life circumstances. You should be sold anyway, but it’s not exactly hard to champion a restaurant that does a banging buttermilk, paprika-fried chicken burger now, is it?

07507 861 570; eatnative.co.uk

020 7033 0123; waterhouserestaurant.co.uk

3 Cub

5 The Spread Eagle

153 Hoxton St, Hoxton, N1 6PJ

Hoxton

224 Homerton High St, E9 6AS

4 Homerton

Cub is an innovative bar and restaurant from World’s 50 Best-winning bartender Ryan Chetiyawardana (aka Mr Lyan) and chef Douglas McMaster, which serves cocktails and sharing plates with an emphasis on cutting out food waste at every turn. Carefully considered ingredients, expertly created drinks and sustainable methods in the kitchen mean this Hoxton Street haunt is a location that will soothe your palate and your simmering anxieties about the planet’s impending doom at the same time.

The Spread Eagle is London’s first vegan pub. Being a vegan pub, however, is far from simply saying “you’re trying out veganism now” – here, all the food, drinks, fixtures and fittings are plant-based and sourced sustainably where possible. That’s dedication. Thankfully, The Spread Eagle doesn’t sacrifice any flavour for its ethics. Mainly because Club Mexicana is in the pub’s kitchen banging out 100% vegan and 100% delicious Mexicaninspired street food. Pulled jackfruit carnitas have never looked – or tasted – so good.

020 3946 7060; lyancub.com

020 8985 0400; thespreadeaglelondon.co.uk

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BEST OF THE REST 2 28 Well Hung 60 Nunhead Ln, SE15 3QE

4 CHIK’N Nunhead

Various locations

Provenance is key to 28 Well Hung’s ethos: the team’s passion lies in having a close connection to the farmer, the land and respect for animals – an ethical, sustainable supply chain that isn’t just nodded to for marketing purposes. This is a message we can totally get on board with – especially now we’ve tried the coal-grilled bavette steak with chimichurri and the marinated lamb, both served with crispy, skin-on chips.

This ethical fried chicken shop extols the virtues of free-range, high-welfare chickens from Somerset, and has won a place in our hearts (and stomachs), scooping the Best Casual Restaurant award at this year’s foodism 100. But there’s more: CHIK’N’s staff are paid more than the London Living Wage, there’s an on-site biodigester, and the buttermilk-brined chicken is crisp, crunchy and served with next-level samurai sauce.

@28wellhung; 28wellhung.com

@lovechikn; chikn.com

3 The Vurger Co.

5 CookDaily

6 Richmix Square, E1 6LD

Shoreditch High St

Arch 358, Westgate Street, E8 3RN

London Fields

One of the OG vegan burger joints to really rock the London bun scene, The Vurger Co has always served its vegan food in 100% compostable packaging, preferring to dish out plants and not plastic. This means your meal is served in renewable natural materials and has a far lower carbon footprint than your average burger. Plus, The Vurger Co.’s ‘Eco Audits’ make the stats of its carbon savings and recycled materials visible to all.

Found just opposite Netil Market near London Fields, CookDaily is loved by the likes of JME, Childish Gambino and Skepta thanks to founder King Cook. The chef, who earned his stripes in Michelin-starred kitchens before going vegan in 2014, began serving ethical grub in London long before it was cool. Fun fact: his tasty low-waste vegan food has also always been served in recyclable bowls, with recyclable cutlery to boot.

020 3222 0049; thevurgerco.com

@cookdailylondon; cookdaily.co.uk

Photograph by [spring] Amber Rowlands; [cookdaily] @thegoodbowl

THE SELECTOR

IN THE FAST LANE In a hurry? These fast food joints churn out speedy, delicious dishes without compromising on ethics

1 SpiceBox 58 Hoe St, E17 4PG

Walthamstow Central

SpiceBox is a community-driven curry house serving vegan and zero-waste tiffins that are seriously good. The smart-dining concept allows you to take away a full curry and your sides of choice in a reusable tiffin container, banishing leaky dinners and unwanted plastic waste. Without compromising on flavour or ethical standards, SpiceBox serves delicious, sustainable food with a conscience, recycling almost all their waste and using seasonal produce as much as possible. 020 8521 0906; eatspicebox.co.uk

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THE SELECTOR

IT’S ONLY NATURAL

Organic produce makes a better dish. Fact. Head to these spots for food that’s great for you and the planet 1 Petersham Nurseries Church Lane, Richmond, TW10 7AB

2 Radio Alice Richmond

Various locations

Petersham Nurseries doesn’t actually label its food as organic because the team believes that “being certified as an 100% organic restaurant can be misleading. Some companies tick boxes rather than demonstrating responsibility.” Instead, the team uses sustainably minded suppliers that are authentic in what they do, because they know it can be hard for small businesses to fund the organic certification process.

Proving that organic restaurants don’t necessarily have to serve a menu consisting mainly of smoothie bowls and seed-sprinkled salads, Radio Alice is one of London’s favourite pizza joints and its only certified organic pizzeria too. The restaurant’s mouthwatering sourdough bases are piled high with a variety of seasonal and organically sourced ingredients from smallscale suppliers in Italy. In a word: yum.

020 8940 5230; petershamnurseries.com

@radioalicepizzeria; radioalicepizzeria.co.uk

SINGLE ESTATE RUM VENEZUEL AN DOC

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BEST OF THE REST

A DRY, SMOOTH AND BAL ANCED TASTE THAT EVOLVES IN EVERY SIP

3 Daylesford Café Various locations

Daylesford was one of the first organic restaurants putting non-pesticide-harvested food on the map and educating the masses on what organic means. The restaurants, cafés and stores all aim for zero waste, organic food production and a reduce, reuse, recycle and compost approach for all scraps and waste. Why? Because the Daylesford team’s main focus is to help feed the future. Carrot cake with a side of save the world, anyone?

@daylesfordfarm; daylesford.com

4 ROVI 59 Wells St, W1A 3AE

Oxford Circus

Londoners and, well, humans generally have had a bit of a crush on Ottolenghi for a while now – chef, author and all-round godfather of making vegetables sexy. At ROVI, feast on said sexy veggies at the large Scandistyle central bar and sip cocktails based on seasonal spices and house shrubs, content in the knowledge that you’re dining at an organic restaurant eating food that’s 100% sustainably and locally sourced.

020 3963 8270; ottolenghi.co.uk

5 The Duke of Cambridge 30 St Peter’s St, N1 8JT

1 L ARGE CUBE OF ICE

Angel

As Britain’s first and only certified organic pub, The Duke of Cambridge’s reputation precedes it. It was one of our foodism 100 winners last year for that very reason. Head here for hearty, warming dishes with meat from Rhug Estate, seasonal options with fresh fish from Kernowsashimi in Cornwall or organic vegetables from their own farm in Devon. Oh, and it’s got a vast selection of organic and natural wines and beers. We’re in.

2. POUR T WO PARTS SANTA TERESA 1976 OVER THE ICE

020 7359 3066; dukeorganic.co.uk

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ENJOY RESPONSIBLY. SANTA TERESA AND ITS TRADE DRESS ARE TRADEMARKS

1 Bright 1 West Gate Street, E8 3R

London Fields

Pared-back industrial vibe? Superlative small plates? A wine list with more skin contact than a nudist colony? Yeah, Bright is one of those cool restaurants, alright. Created by the team behind P. Franco, Bright has become a media darling in record time. Even the most curmudgeonly diner will find it hard not to be won over by a punchy glass of whatever Bright’s attentive staff recommends. If the way the London dining scene is shifting is any indication, the future is Bright indeed. 020 3095 9407; brightrestaurant.co.uk

THE SELECTOR

BETTER BOOZE These up-and-coming bars specialise in low-intervention, natural wines – which means tasty tipples without the chemicals. We’ll make ours a bottle, then 2

BEST OF THE REST 2 Antidote 12A Newburgh St, W1F 7RR

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16 Maiden Ln, WC2E 7NJ

Charing Cross

Hidden just off of Carnaby Street is Antidote, formerly La Trouvaille, with more than 300 organic, biodynamic and natural wines just waiting to be tried. As with any good wine bar, there’s a delicious selection of food – a shortbut-sweet menu showcasing charcuterie, artisan cheeses and veg-centric small plates. If you don’t have time to drink in, you can also grab a bottle (or more) to go from the first floor wine shop. Don’t miss the weekly expert picks; catch a sneak preview by checking out the bar’s Instagram page.

You’re big on shopping local, buying natural and yet have you ever thought about how you could show your support for feminism with your choice of wine? Likely not. At Lady of the Grapes, not only will you be enjoying allnatural wines, you’ll also get to try wines from the best European female winemakers. Why? Well, owner Carole Bryon says, “We see more and more women taking the lead and being in charge of vineyards, so let’s shine a light on them within an industry that’s so traditionally male-dominated.” Hear, hear.

020 7287 8488; antidotewinebar.com

020 7836 4152; ladyofthegrapes.com

3 The Laughing Heart

5 Newcomer Wines

277 Hackney Rd, E2 8NA

5 Dalston Ln, E8 3DF

Hoxton

Dalston Junction

This is the place to find many of East London’s chefs, bartenders and restaurateurs eating and drinking after hours, so you know it’s going to be good. As well as the bottle shop and bar, there’s a dining room catering for a decent number of diners, with the food taking its cues from East Asia as well as the British coastline courtesy of highly rated Durham chef Tom Anglesea.

Just over the road from Dalston Junction, Newcomer Wines is sourcing, serving and selling the very best of natural Austrian wines from a wholly new generation of grape growers. Again, there’s a wide range to choose from – over 250 – all of which Newcomer promises are “honest, distinctive and delicious.” Fun fact: Austria produces 470 times more wine than the UK every year.

020 7686 9535; thelaughingheartlondon.com

020 7249 2177; newcomerwines.com

Photograph by [Antidote] Francis Peyrat; [Newcomer] Anton Rodriguez

4 Lady of the Grapes Oxford Circus

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3 1 2 SAGE ADVICE: Thanks to its high levels of antioxidants and anti-inﬂammatory properties, sage has been used for home remedies ever since its discovery. In fact, one of its most common uses today is relieving the hot ﬂushes of menopause.

A SIMPLE SONG: Sage, parsley rosemary and thyme all make appearances in the traditional ballad ‘Scarborough Fair’. Why? No-one’s 100% sure but it might have something to do with the herbs’ pagan assocations with magic and witchcraft.

WE’VE GOT HISTORY: Humans have used sage as a ﬂavouring agent for more than 2,000 years. It was added to cheeses and meats back in Medieval England not only for its pleasant herbal profile but also for practical purposes relating to its handy antibacterial properties.

by ### Photograph by Shutterstock /Photograph Edalin Photography

Aromatic with an ever-soslightly peppery flavour, sage is an essential item in any cook’s pantry. Use it in a sausage or a portion of stuffing to harness the herb’s full potential

WASABI PASTE, YUZU PASTE AND NANAMI PASTE

Perfect for sushi Available in Waitrose & Ocado S&B Foods Inc. www.sbfoods-worldwide.com

Proudly made in Japan

Perfect for Chicken Katsu Curry Available in Waitrose & Ocado S&B Foods Inc. www.sbfoods-worldwide.com

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Published on Sep 6, 2019

Foodism – 37 – The Sustainability Issue

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Foodism – 37 – The Sustainability Issue

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