TALKING ABOUT FOOD

September - the summer wanes, the rain hits the pavement and then just has you’ve accepted the need for jumpers and umbrellas, days of sun. September, decide who you want to be and just go with it, you’re playing with my emotions, my wardrobe choices and my sensibilities. But that’s the beauty of the first days of autumn. Leaves turn orange as late morning sun shines through their delicate foliage - September is the month where anything and everything can happen, in one day. This September has been no different. It’s been a year since Dan and I sat down and devised the Chefs of Tomorrow plan, and now we have a new, bigger, more adventurous idea for the CoT (details soon, as soon as we know…!). It’s exciting to see how one thing, one idea, on one Sunday in September has grown into this new vision of a project (now I’m just being mean cos I can’t tell you the plan). Which reminded me how wonderful it is to work with people who are big thinkers, supportive and enthusiasti...

  I have a couple of points of contention that I need to air. Better late than never. This year’s Great British Menu was celebrating the WI (Women’s Institute) and yet only 4 of the 24 chefs competing where women. Seems a weird way to celebrate women’s contribution to the British heritage and indeed it’s culinary history; unless of course the attitude is women cook, and men are chefs (aka the professionals)’ which is exactly the message this gives. This undermines the work that women are doing in the industry; it undermines the industry as a whole. There are more than 4 women in the UK at that standard. The National Restaurant awards named Barafina as no.1 restaurant this year, a restaurant run by a woman. If the producers had asked more women and they had turned them down, then they need to re-think the structure of the show. Great British Menu no longer shows off the industry as a whole and feels disingenuous. There is some amazing food this year, and we're only i...