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Archive for the ‘Local Food’ Category
Saturday, February 6th, 2010 by urban foodie
 Last night I died and went to chocolate heaven. No, not another night of vivid dreams but a real live shop, Artisan du Chocolat in Notting Hill.
This is newest chocolate boutique from local artisanal chocolate makers Gerard Coleman (chocolatier) and Anne Weyns (General Manager). They have been making chocolates together since 2000, first on a stall in Borough Market and now expanded into Selfridges and two shops of their own.
They are truly local producers, the cocoa and many flavourings come, of course, from around the world but they are all mixed, refined and conched (aerated and smoothed out) in their Kent atelier, where the chocolates themselves are also produced by a small team of 10. They are already making waves, Heston commissioned his tobacco chocolates from them, Gordon has them at Claridges and Time Out listed their hot chocolate as ‘the best in London’, I tasted it and have to agree, chocolate ambrosia.
The shop casts a magical glow onto the street, its full height windows showing off the carefully balanced light/dark, curve/line play within. Inside most of the walls and cabinets are white, with the occasional contrasting rich brown, vivid orange or jungle green. The effect is lightly hushed and terribly chic, like a designer boutique crossed with an art gallery.
 The chocolate is clearly the star here, and what a star it is, chocolate in all its forms. Truffles, fusion bars, dipped fruit peels, covered nuts, hot chocolate, lolly pops, pantry slabs, wafer thin Os, spherical pearls and screen printed squares – there is plain chocolate, fruit chocolate, spiced chocolate, herbed chocolate, tea and flower infused chocolate and, for the adventurous, tobacco infused chocolate*. I am giddy with choice!
A charming and passionate Zoe shows me around, guiding me through all the flavours, offering me tastes of everything. I can hardly resist any of it, each chocolate tastes better than the last and everything is beautiful.
The attention to detail is astounding, feasting the eyes as well as the tongue. The wafer thin mints are decorated like painted Moroccan tiles and melt rich yet fresh mint on the tongue, the house truffles look unassuming but are the best I’ve ever tasted, the Valentine hearts are vivid scarlet and darkly spiced and the salted caramels – well… forget your river of chocolate Mr Wonka, I’d like to swim in a river of the salted caramel (or at least sit with a pot of it and a spoon – entirely possible, and, apparently, not unknown for customers to do).
 The salted caramels are becoming legendary and have been given suitably legendary packaging, channelling the Channel Numbers range exquisitely (see picture), I know what all my girlfriends are getting as presents from now on.
And, on the subject of girlfriends (and boyfriends) of another sort, their new Valentine range has charming ‘wood effect’ hearts, a love potion hot chocolate and heart medallions you can scratch your own message into, so if you want to win hearts this Valentine’s day make sure it is these ones you offer to your lover and watch them melt into your arms.
www.artisanduchocolat.com
Chelsea - 89 Lower Sloane street London SW1W 8DA
Notting Hill - 81 Westbourne grove W2 4UL
Also, Selfridges and Borough Market
* I tasted some of this, it was subtle and sweet, definitely tobacco-ish with that unmistakable tingle at the back of the throat. A very unusual but civilised smoke!
Tags: boutique chocolates, local chocolatier, London chocolates, valentines chocolates
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Saturday, January 2nd, 2010 by urban foodie
 And so we start 2010, hopefully with a spring in our step and a heart full of good resolution. I have my plans for the coming year and I’m sure you do too. Doubtless some of them will include eating well and maybe doing an extra bit for the planet… If so, you’re in luck!
In one easy, inexpensive and tasty swoop you can get yourself well underway.
If you live in N/E London (Hackney/Tower Hamlets) you can sign up to this rather unique local box scheme - Growing Communities. I did 2 years ago and haven’t looked back. They do all the legwork for you, growing some produce themselves (Hackney salad anyone?) and sourcing the rest from local organic producers, a few select French and Italian co-operatives (for oranges, lemons and the like) and fair-trade organic bananas from further affield. This means that you get excellent local produce (81% from the UK last year) but you also maintain a good variety in your box.
 All you have to do is pop by on one weekday night to your local pick-up point to get your seasonal fruit and veg - a real bonus if you live in a flat, as I do, and don’t have anywhere for deliveries to be left. You can check what you’re getting online before you pick-up - handy as it gives you time to work out what’s for dinner. They are a charming and welcoming bunch, plus there are often extras like fresh farm eggs to buy, free leftovers to top up with and a swap box if there is anything this week that you don’t like.
The scheme is surprisingly inexpensive, just £44 a month for a week’s worth of veg for two - they also do a smaller bag for one.
I say surprising because you couldn’t buy bog standard veg in the supermarket for that much, but here you’re getting really high quality, fresh organic produce. It hasn’t flown around the world accumulating thousands of air miles, or been picked green so that it lasts the weeks before it reaches your plate. And you’re supporting local communities and small producers to boot.
 The boxes are always good and varied, you get a rich diet of fruit and veg balanced by the seasons - at first I wasn’t sure if I would like not being able to choose what I was eating, but actually it is rather liberating to get what nature gives you, it makes you a bit more creative in your cooking and you know you’re always eating a healthy amount of veg (if not the over-full veg drawers soon let you know it).
I have discovered the wonders of many new vegetables, like squash, so infinite in its varieties and rich in its colours. I have also learnt to appreciate the waiting for a fruit to come back in season, eating it only at its peak and enjoying it so much more. Of course if you do have a craving for passion fruit in January, so be it, you can happily buy the odd bit of tropical fruit or un-seasonal tomato as an occasional treat, but honestly, I very rarely feel the need.
There are 7 pick-up points around Hackney and Tower Hamlets - with a new Green Lanes pick-up opening in Feb (View Pick-ups on a Map). They also run the Farmer’s Market in Stoke Newington (10-2 every Saturday, William Patten School, Church St, N16) where you can shop for local fruit and veg and also meats, cheeses and more.
So as far as New Year’s resolutions go, this one is a really easy one to keep!
Find out more on the Growing Communities site
PS Growing Communities is the only one of its kind, so far. If you don’t live in Hackney but would like to get involved they are always looking for other groups around London to mentor to get their very own growing community up and running.
Tags: local produce, local veg, seasonal fruit and vegetables, veg box scheme
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Sunday, December 6th, 2009 by urban foodie
 Somewhere high on a hill is a man who makes gin, Sacred Gin. That man is Ian Hart, that hill is Highgate, and the gin is a real London gin and utterly delectable to boot.
From the outside it looks like any other family home in this North London suburb of large square houses. But inside this house holds a special secret, there are glass flasks and coils, rubber tubes, liquid nitrogen streams and many unusual liquids bubbling about - from darkest amber to purest crystal clear - because, in this house, a master distiller is at work.
Before I got there I was a little unsure of quite what I’d find – a small factory distillery perhaps? – and was quite delighted to discover this sort of overgrown chemistry lab in a back kitchen, with the pump housed in the garden shed (all properly authorised and certified of course). Although it may look like a mad scientist kind of set up, Ian is more like a flavour alchemist, and the spirit he produces is about as far from home brew as a vintage champagne is from Strongbow.
Ian has always loved wine and spirits, he’s been collecting wine since he was 18, and has a fine, fine palate, coupled with a passion and curiosity that has urged him into setting up this boutique micro distillery.
 And when I say passion I really do mean passion, he has created this very unique gin using an ancient gin recipe and a lot of trial and error. Nothing is automated, it is all done by hand, with a care and attention to detail that shines through in the final product.
And I’m not the only one who thinks so, Ian has been nominated for spirit producer of the year, and Sacred Gin is for sale in Fortnum’s and on the bar of the Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, amongst many others.
Each of the 12 different botanicals are distilled separately to maintain their individual flavours, first in a hand warm distil (no overheating here to burn the flavours), then a cold one and finally a nitrogen super cooled one. This means that every subtlety in the flavour is extracted, and because they are mixed post distillation you really can taste the individual flavours as they bloom in the mouth.
I came to find out about the gin, but soon we were onto vodka (Sacred Vodka coming soon, he’s just perfecting the recipe, lucky me I got to do some tasting and even take a bottle of version 2 home!) and distilled wine, pear eau de vie, sloe and damson gin and discussing the possibilities of Christmas pudding vodka – and that’s not just Christmas pudding steeped in a bottle of vodka as most of us would make it, oh no, he would distil the very essence of Christmas pudding to blend with his vodka. Honestly the man is a distilling wizard, constantly experimenting and expanding his repertoire, all for the love of distilling. If you took teens into his kitchen I bet they’d be taking up their chemistry classes like a shot.
 Of course you understand all of these glasses were only teeny, actually very lovely antique gin glasses, and sipped at delicately. Which is how come I am still able to type…
Oh, and all done in the name of research.
It’s a hard life sometimes spending my Saturday afternoon sitting with delightful people (his partner Hilary joined us), trying an array of marvellous spirits and chatting about tastes and flavours, but I’ve been out there battling on to bring you news of a wonderful local product, a genuine local producer and what I think is a perfect Christmas present for foodies and spirit lovers alike.
Right, that’s me off to mix what just might be the perfect martini…
Sacred Gin ~ £26 a bottle from Fortnums or online at www.sacredspiritscompany.com
Tags: foodie christmas present, London microdistillery, sacred gin
Posted in Local Food | 3 Comments »
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