From The Twelve Apostles Hotel, it’s a mere 15 km hop over the peninsula to Groot Constantia. One moment you’re gazing at the sparkling Atlantic and the next, it’s the Indian Ocean you’re viewing from the rising vineyards of this historic estate.

Groot Constantia is the birthplace of South Africa’s wine industry. From its founding, Constantia wines made gifts for the Kings and Queens of Europe, as well as historical giants such as Sir Walter Scott and Napoleon Bonaparte. Indeed, Napoleon was supplied with Constantia wines throughout his exile on St Helena. As he lay on his deathbed, so the story goes, his final request was to be served a glass of the ‘liquid gold’ of the Cape.

Today the estate retains the elegance of its heyday. Approaching the original manor house through a valley of antique cultivars, it’s easy to tumble through history, and see the vineyards as they were seen by the estate’s founder, Governor Simon van der Stel.

Van der Stel was born at sea, and his innate sense of adventure led him to a job with the Dutch East India Company, running the Cape settlement as a refreshment station for ships en route to the Spice Islands. Van der Stel saw more in the station than just a ‘tavern of the seas’, and chose the Constantia Valley for his farm in 1663. As an experienced vintner, and stickler for quality, van der Stel’s wines quickly rose to prominence, a position retained to this day.

Groot Constantia offer tours of their vineyard as well as cellar (above)

Groot Constantia now offers wine tastings, and cellar and vineyard tours. The estate has three museums. The Manor House is a 300 year-old Dutch-Renaissance beauty, replete with gables and 18thC furnishings. The Orientation Centre houses artefacts, photographs and paintings depicting the history of the estate and slavery. Lastly, The Cloete Cellar showcases antiquarian drinking vessels and winemaking equipment. Best of all, you know that a chilled Sauvignon Blanc awaits at one of the restaurants.

Groot Constantia has two restaurants with panoramic views of the vineyards and False Bay. Try Jonkershuis for more traditional Cape fare (or a picnic basket to be enjoyed on the lawns), or Simons Restaurant for more avant-garde, fusion cuisine.

For more info about opening times and tours, go to www.grootconstantia.co.za

Glimpses of Hyde Park through intricately paned windows, elegance and the rich aromas of Ceylon in Kensington’s Milestone Hotel create a matchless setting for the High Tea ritual.

Upon arrival, I was immediately offered a glass of champagne, a practise that should be more common as far as I’m concerned. It didn’t hurt that the bubbly itself is from the world’s oldest established champagne house, Ruinart.

Afternoon Tea by the fire at The Milestone Hotel

Beneath an extraordinary portrait of Noel Coward in a yellow matador’s ensemble, an effortless waiter took us through the teas. Though I was tempted to go with a traditional Earl Grey or Darjeeling, I chose Russian Caravan for something exotic. The intoxicating infusion is designed to emulate flavours of 18th century tea brought to Russia on camel caravans, picking up the smoky aromas from travellers’ campfires along the way.  

Luckily I didn’t succumb to some eighteenth century impulse to swoon back against the sofa amidst the comforting clinks of bone china, because soon sandwiches, petit scones with clotted cream and pastries were laid upon our table. From the arrangement on the customary three tiers, I drew a sublime chicken and chopped almond sandwich. It must be said though, that the strawberry éclair took trumps with fantastically light choux pastry, fresh strawberries and white chocolate glaze.

After a magnificent afternoon, I decided sneak a peak of the rest of the property. I discovered the Milestone’s utterly delightful equestrian themed bar, and naturally resolved to return for entirely different kind of ritual in the very near future.

By Lucy Heavens

Dirk Crokaert

Ribs, burgers, wings, anything they can drench in sticky sauce – North Americans like to barbecue big time. It’s so much a part of their culture that they assume the whole deal must have originated on their side of the Atlantic.

The way they tell it the original Spanish adventurers who arrived in the Caribbean noticed that the natives would slowly cook meat over a wooden platform – the Spaniards described the process of smoking and charring as barbacoa. By the 19th century this method of cooking, with various refinements, had spread across the American South.

Because barbecuing doesn’t require expensive cuts of meat (why bother when you’re just going to slather it in sauce and cook it ’til it falls off the bone?) it became a dietary staple for impoverished Southern blacks. The first half of the 20th century saw a mass migration of African Americans from the rural South to Northern cities, and as they moved, they took their recipes with them. By the 1950s black-owned barbecue joints had sprouted in nearly every city in the US.

Barbecue varies by region, with the four main styles named after their place of origin: Memphis, Tennesee; North Carolina; Kansas City; and Texas. Memphis is renowned for pulled pork-shoulder doused in sweet tomato-based sauce (eaten on its own or as a sandwich). North Carolina smokes the whole hog in a vinegar-based sauce. Kansas City natives prefer ribs cooked in a dry rub, and Texans … well, Texans dig beef. Eastern Texas’ relative proximity to Tennessee puts it in the pulled-pork camp, but in the western segment of the Lone Star State, you’re likely to find mesquite-grilled “cowboy-style” brisket.

Locals defend their region’s cooking style with the sort of fierce loyalty usually reserved for die-hard sports fans. Just as you’re better off not mentioning the Yankees to a Red Sox fan, it’s probably best not to proclaim your love for Texas beef to anyone from Tennessee.

However, if the truth be told, the idea of grilling meat in the open was around long before Columbus set foot in the New World – it goes all the way back to the point where our ancestors discovered how to control fire (about 400,000 years ago)

A Shish Kebab over coals

Just type the word Kebab into Google and the idea that cooking over hot coals is somehow unique to North America becomes truly preposterous. It is Persian in origin – invented by medieval soldiers who used their swords to grill meat over open-field fires.

The dish has been native to the Near East and ancient Greece since the 8th century – an early variant is mentioned in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey as well as in the in the works of Aristophanes, Xenophon and Aristotle.

Turkey has its Döner and Shish kebabs, while India and Iran have a wealth of regional variations, including the tandoor. Satay is popular in the south east while in Korea they have Bulgogi (literally meaning “fire meat”). Yakitori is the Japanese version of shish kebab. Nomadic Mongolians also like to barbecue meat using hot stones. In Hong Kong, pork barbecue, or char siu is made with a marinade of honey and soy sauce, and cooked in long, narrow strips.

Grilling meat over charcoal is equally popular in Southern Africa, where it is referred to as a “braai”. Then there’s the “barbie” downunder. Asado, or grilling, is considered the traditional dish of Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile and southern Brazil.

Around the Mediterranean meats are usually marinated in lemon juice and olive oil before grilling. In Alpine countries they have raclette where cheese is melted on a hot surface. Shashlik is the Russian version of shish kebab, while in Germany they enjoy “grillen”.

Spit-roast

So, finally, to London. Grilled food outdoors is incredibly popular here , so much so that as soon as the sun is out every busy pavement from Covent Garden to Chelsea and Camden to Clapham is packed with people desperate for a bit of al fresco – even if the setting is far from idyllic.

That’s when the terrace and wood deck at the Montague on the Gardens comes into its own. As the name suggests, it overlooks the gorgeous private gardens of the Bedford Estate. Green and peaceful, secluded and sunny, totally removed from the crowds of people and the noise of traffic, it’s a little corner of tranquil heaven right at the heart of the city. There’s nowhere better for enjoying spectacularly sophisticated barbecues and refreshing cocktails – eat your heart out Texas!

Every Sunday until 18th September, between 12:30pm and 14:30 why not join us on the Wood Deck for our very special Sunday Spit Roast lunch, with live music it is the perfect place to enjoy the sunshine.

Charles Lotter

Tea found its way into Europe, via Venice, in the 1560’s, but it was the Portuguese who first began shipping it in commercial quantities. Charles II, while in exile in Holland after the beheading of his father, became a confirmed tea drinker and brought the habit with him when restored to the throne in 1660. A few months after his coronation the famous English diarist Samuel Pepys first mentioned drinking tea in his entry for 25 September 1660. He wrote that he had been discussing foreign affairs with some friends, ‘And afterwards did send for a Cupp of Tee (a China drink) of which I never drank before’.

When Charles married Catherine de Braganza of Portugal two years later tea mania began gripping the country, taking its cue from the royal court – it became the beverage of choice in English high society, replacing ale as the national drink. What’s more, British merchants gained access to the tea trade through the Portuguese colonies. Part of Catherine’s dowry included the city of Bombay (now Mumbai), which he rented to the East India Company. They rapidly exploited his patronage and their monopoly to create a huge volume of trade from Asia that included everything from tea to spices.

The exorbitant level of import duty levied by the government, and the fact the East India Company, with a monopoly, kept prices artificially high, soon created a huge trade in smuggled tea. Highly-organised smuggling networks were developed and the popularity of tea-drinking meant that many people were prepared to turn a blind eye to their ruthless brutality. By the later eighteenth century it is estimated that more tea was smuggled into Britain than was brought in legally!

While tea was part of the staple diet of the poor, among the rich tea-drinking was evolving into an elaborate social occasion. Afternoon teas probably had their roots in the ladies tea-parties of the seventeenth centuries, but evolved during the eighteenth century into something of a national institution.

Enjoy Afternoon Tea in the Garden

Tradition has it that afternoon tea was ‘invented’ by Anna Maria, the wife of the seventh Duke of Bedford, who in 1841 started drinking tea and having a bite to eat in the mid-afternoon, to tide her over during the long gap between lunch (eaten at about 1 o’clock) and dinner (eaten at around 7 o’clock). This swiftly developed into a social occasion, and soon the Duchess was inviting guests to join her for afternoon tea at 5 o’clock.

By the 1860s the fashion for afternoon tea had become widespread. Such teas were elegant affairs, with the best china and small amounts of food presented perfectly on dainty little plates.

Cakes

As with any fashion, the hostesses did their best to outdo each other. Bread and butter were soon replaced by sandwiches filled with exotic ingredients such as lobster, smoked salmon and roast beef, served alongside scones, crumpets, teacakes, and English muffins. By the late 1800’s no well brought up young English woman could consider herself socially acceptable unless she knew how to make and present Afternoon Tea.

Summer Lodge transports you back to this golden era – the house is much as it was at the turn of the 19th century, and the Drawing Room, in which it is generally served, was designed at that time by Thomas Hardy himself (his first profession was that of an architect). As Henry James remarked “There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea” – and few settings as perfect for indulging in that unique pleasure as the beautifully peaceful surroundings of this genteel Victorian Dower House. Whether you take Traditional Afternoon Tea, Cream Tea or Champagne Tea, the experience is one you are sure to treasure for many a year to come.

Steven Titman

Eating food that’s in season makes a lot of sense – not only is it fresher and tastier, it saves transporting produce half way around the world. For all those reasons we take great care to make best use of the ingredients that are readily available in the locality at any given time of the year.

Radishes and spring onions, as the name suggests, burst onto the scene around now and I love their strong flavours and crunchy texture. But I especially look forward to the first crop of Rhubarb that emerges from the greenhouses in the springtime. Grown indoors it is sweeter, redder and more tender than the outdoor variety that ripens in the summer.

Rhubarb is terrifically versatile, and the distinctive flavour goes so well with so many other ingredients. I especially like to poach it with ginger, in light stock to make a syrup. This makes a spectacular foil for a foie gras terrine – the sweetness of the rhubarb goes particularly well with the rich fatty taste of the goose liver.

Rhubarb and custard tart is a firm favourite with our guests at this time of year for Sunday Lunch, while rhubarb soufflé with custard ice cream makes a very popular combination.

Spring Vegetables

Another feature of springtime is the arrival of wild garlic. With four acres of landscaped gardens we find it sprouting all around the hotel right now, especially in the hedgerows. We’re very fond of foraging for our food at Summer Lodge, and are offering two Adventures in Food weekends where guests can go on guided expeditions along the seashore and into the woods to see what delicacies they can find for free – so we make extensive use of the garlic that pops up on the doorstep.

Wild garlic is easy to find – the smell gives you a strong clue! We just pick the leaves, then blanch and blend into sauces. Wild garlic soup is wonderful as well, so we generally make room for that on the menu at this time of year. I also like to use it raw, blending it with olive oil to make pesto. This then becomes one of the main ingredients in a delicious wild garlic risotto, which I generally serve as an accompaniment to fish dishes.

Purple sprouting broccoli is also a firm favourite of mine in the springtime. The appearance is spectacular, it’s packed with vitamins and minerals and tastes wonderful if you quickly blanch it then sauté in hot butter with garlic and almonds.

Last, and certainly not least, is the arrival of the fresh spring lamb. You can get lamb the whole year rond , but spring lamb is best because it’s milk fed and has not been running around building up muscle…so it is more tender. The older it gets, the tougher it becomes, so now is the time to enjoy lamb at its absolute best.

I use two different cuts in my signature dish, Roast Loin of Dorset Lamb and Braised Shoulder ‘Shepherds Pie’ with Savoy Cabbage and Rosemary Jus. I call it ‘Shepherd’s Pie’ but it’s a little more sophisticated than the dish you normally associate with that name – as you’ll see from the recipe.

Equipment
1 x Isi Cream Whipper (with 2 x Gas cartridges)
Metal Rings
Butchers String
Mandolin

Braised Shoulder of Lamb
1 lamb shoulder (de-boned and trimmed)
2 onions, 1 chopped and 1 finely diced
2 carrots, 1 chopped and 1 finely diced
3 garlic cloves
1 tbsp tomato purée
100ml tomato juice
200ml red wine
500ml lamb or chicken stock
½ celeriac, finely diced
1 swede, finely diced

Potato Ring
2 large Maris Piper potatoes

Potato Foam
300g potato purée
75g milk
100g cream
50g butter
Salt and freshly milled black pepper

Roast Loin of Lamb
2 x 200g lamb loins

Rosemary Jus
2 x sprigs rosemary finely chopped

Savoy Cabbage
6 rashers streaky bacon, cut into lardons
½onion, finely chopped
½ Savoy cabbage, shredded

Method for Braised Shoulder Shepherd’s Pie

Season the lamb shoulder and sear in a hot frying pan. Place the lamb in a deep casserole dish. In the same frying pan add the chopped onions, carrots and garlic and cook for 3 minutes. Add the tomato puree and cook for a further 2 minutes then adding the tomato juice, red wine and stock. Bring to the boil and pour over the shoulder. Cover the dish and place in a slow oven (140°C) and braise for 5 to 6 hours until the shoulder is falling apart. Remove the shoulder, allow to cool a little and flake the meat or roughly chop. Meanwhile, strain the cooking juice and reduce in a saucepan until well flavoured and sauce consistency. In a clean saucepan cook the diced carrot, onion, celeriac and swede until soft (but not pureed). Add the diced shoulder and continue to cook on a low heat. Add a little of the sauce to bind the lamb and vegetables together. Save the rest of the sauce to one side.

Method for the potato ring

Thinly slice the potato lengthways with a mandolin. Wrap a length of greaseproof paper around a metal ring and then carefully arrange the potato slices onto it, securing with a piece of string. Deep fry until golden brown. As the potato cooks the ring and paper should fall away allowing the potato to cook evenly on both sides whilst maintaining its shape.  Drain on a piece of kitchen towel.

Method for the Potato Foam

Gently heat up the potato purée with the milk, cream and butter. Season to taste. When the potato has the consistency of whipping cream place in a cream whipper and charge with the gas.

To serve

Season and sear the loins in a hot pan and roast for approx 7 minutes, turning half way through the cooking. Remove from the oven and allow to rest. In a hot pan add the bacon and chopped onion and cook until the onions are soft. Add the shredded cabbage and cook for a further 2 minutes. Place the potato ring onto the plate and half fill with the shepherd’s pie (a ramekin can be used if the potato rings are not made.) Arrange the cabbage in front of the shepherd’s pie and place 3 slices of lamb on top. Finally place the potato foam on top of the shoulder mix. Add the chopped rosemary to the sauce and spoon a little of the jus around the lamb.

To complement this dish Eric Zweibel, our Cellar Master recommends a bottle of Galpin Peak Pinot Noir 2007 from the world renowned Bouchard Finlayson winery in Walker Bay, South Africa.

Hopefully the promise of tender spring lamb twinned with a lusciously dark fruity wine will be sufficient to tempt you to dine with us soon – especially as we are also offering these specials:

Luncheon Specials, Monday to Saturday
2-courses – £22.00 • 3-courses – £25.00
3-courses including a half bottle of wine and coffee – £36.00

Traditional Sunday lunch at just £28

Table d’Hôte Dinner
A superb value 3-course menu – £40.00

Spa Cupcake package

A fascinating lesson in the art of making the perfect cupcake followed by one of our special Spa treatments – all for just £98 per person.
For reservations, please call 01935 48 2000 or email summerlodge@rchmail.com.

Finally, if you’d like to try preparing some of Mrs Tollman’s signature dishes at home we still have some copies of her “A Life in Food” cookbook available.

Bea Tollman originally made this dish years ago for Raymond Oliver when he visited them, and it was a big hit. (one of the great chefs of the postwar France, for 35 years he ran the famous Le Grand Vefour restaurant on the Rue de Beaujolais in the Palais-Royal district of Paris.) She was always intrigued by this combination, especially as individual servings. Since then, it has been very popular at the hotels.

1.5kg lean lamb from the leg cut into 3cm
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 carrots, minced or finely chopped
3 celery sticks, minced or finely chopped
1 sprig each fresh rosemary and thyme
1 cup seasoned flour
(salt, pepper, ground ginger. paprika)
1 litre lamb (or vegetable or chicken) stock
vegetable oil
1 egg yolk

In a large roasting pan (with cover) heat 100ml of oil, then brown the celery, carrots and onion over medium heat. Remove the vegetables from the pan and set aside. Dust the lamb cubes lightly in the seasoned flour then brown on all sides turning frequently, in the same oil.

Add a little of the stock to start creating the sauce, then add the reserved vegetables and the thyme and rosemary. Scrape the bottom of the pan to release any browned particles of meat into the liquid. Reduce the heat to simmer and cover. Cook for an hour or so until the lamb in very tender and the sauce has reduced to a thickened consistency. Adjust the seasoning, then cool to room temperature and refrigerate overnight.

Form the lamb into a loaf, wrap in puff pastry, and brush the pastry with egg yolk. Put the loaf on a baking sheet with the seam underneath. Cook at 200°C for about 20-30 minutes depending on your oven until nicely browned. Allow to cool for a minute, then slice at the table about 3-4cm thick.

On Sunday 13th March 2011 Bea Tollman – A life in Food will be featured on www.cookstr.com. To purchase “A Life in Food”, with all proceeds going to Bea Tollman’s favourite charities click here.

Steven Titman

Christmas Pudding is an essential part of the festivities in Britain. Its origins can be traced back to the 1420s, when it was not a dessert at all, but a way of preserving meat at the end of the season. Because of shortages of fodder, all surplus livestock were slaughtered in the autumn. The meat was then kept in a pastry case along with dried fruits acting as a preservative. The resultant large “mince pies” could then be used to feed groups of people, particularly at the festive season.

The chief ancestor of the modern pudding, however, was the pottage, a meat and vegetable concoction originating in Roman times. This was prepared in a large cauldron, the ingredients being slow cooked, with dried fruits, sugar and spices added.

The earliest reference to the “standing pottage” dates to 1420s, a dish of preserved veal, mutton or chicken, thickened with bread, reddened with sandalwood and full of currants. By the time of Elizabeth I, prunes were added to this basic concoction. This became so popular that the dish was known from this point forward as Plum Pottage.

At the end of the English Civil War the victorious Puritans under Oliver Cromwell banned the celebration of Christmas and the eating of plum pudding, mainly because of the richness of the ingredients. The Puritans described it as “unfit for God-fearing people”, while the Quakers, not to be outdone in the killjoy stakes, referred to it as “the invention of the scarlet whore of Babylon “! Despite the fact that this age of misery was septet aside with the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Christmas Pudding never quite reached its former popularity again until King George I overturned the ban and ordered it to be served on Christmas Day in 1714.

By the eighteenth century, as techniques for meat preserving improved, the savoury element of both the mince pie and the plum pottage diminished as the sweet content increased. By the 1830s the cannon-ball of flour, fruits, suet, sugar and spices, all topped with holly, makes a definite appearance, with the help of Prince Albert, who was a big fan.

Having said that, everyone has their own favourite recipe. Here’s the one I use:

Summer Lodge Christmas Pudding

Makes 8 ¼ pound Puddings

110g Shredded Suet
50g S R Flour
110g White Breadcrumbs
1tsp Mixed Spice
¼ tsp Fresh grated Nutmeg
½ tsp Ground Cinnamon
225g Soft Dark Brown Sugar
110g Sultanas
110g Raisins
275g Currants
25g Mixed Peel
1 Apple (Peeled and Diced)
½ Orange Zested
½ Lemon Zested
11 tbsp Black Treacle
3 tbsp Brandy
3 tbsp Rum
150ml Stout
2 Eggs

Mix together the Sultanas, Raisin, Currants, Mixed Peel, Apple, and Zests with the Brandy, Rum, Treacle and Stout. Leave to macerate in the fridge for 2 days.

Mix together all the dry ingredients with the eggs and then mix into the fruit.

Cover and leave in the fridge for a further day, then spoon into the moulds. To serve, cover and steam for approx 2 hours.

Tips

You can vary the ingredients to suit your personal taste – if you like cherries and walnuts, or whatever, add them in!

If the ingredients look a little dry once you’ve mixed everything together don’t be shy about adding more alcohol – the more the merrier….

To serve, warm a spoon brandy or rum, pour over the pudding at, then set alight at the table. At Summer Lodge our pudding is accompanied by brandy sauce (a brandy custard) and brandy butter (whipped butter, icing sugar and brandy). Personally, however, I like my pudding with plain cream.

Christmas at Summer Lodge promises to be an extra special one this year – we’ve already had our first taste of the snow! For further details of all that we’ve got planned for guests contact the hotel on 01935 48 2000.

Lia Poveda

“In France it is very hard to become a female sommelier. The customers in France, and other wine growing countries like Italy and Spain, are very difficult if you are a woman. In these countries learning about wine is very much a part of your education, so if you have someone older than you recommending a wine, that is acceptable. But if you have a little French girl saying I am going to show you… you are challenging their knowledge, and questioning their education!

So, in France a sommelier is expected to be a minimum of fifty years old, and a man. I am neither! In France, you don’t see a lot of sommeliers who are women for the simple reason that people are not given the chance to do it.

So why did I choose this career? I grew up in Metz, in north eastern France. My family are in the wine and hospitality business… my uncle was voted the best sommelier in France, my mum had a wine shop, my grandparents had a hotel, my brother had a restaurant, so every weekend I was working in a different family restaurant. And then I went to veterinary school!

I missed working in the restaurants at the weekend and thought “maybe it is for me”. Through my family, and the people they knew in the wine business, I was discovering more and more, then I went to hospitality school and got a degree. Next I managed to get on a sommelier course in Dijon. It was very tough to get accepted, there were only 8 places and 200 candidates.

I studied for two years with Catherine Dore, she is the secretary of the organisation of wine for France, and she is organising the competitions worldwide, so she is very well respected throughout the wine industry.

But the study of wine is a lifelong journey, so this was just the beginning for me… every day you need to read about it, and then of course meet the right people, who actually show you different things. Then I worked in a couple of well respected restaurants in France before moving to the Hotel du Vin in England, followed by the Vineyard at Stockcross, and then I joined the team at Summer Lodge, working with Eric Zwiebel.

Chenestons Restaurant at The Milestone

Then I moved to the Rubens, which was a big learning experience for me. It is a big operation, because I was also overseeing 41 and Bbar, which meant I had to do a lot of training for their staff. When the opportunity came up at the Milestone Hotel I was very happy to take that, because it meant I would be working with Executive Head Chef Ryan O’Flynn, who is also my fiancée.

The world of wine is still male dominated. My teacher, Catherine Dore, she struggled all her life to get the respect she deserved in France. And when I go into a competition people think I am just there to welcome them, the receptionist! But women are now breaking through, especially in Britain. Here everybody understands that if you are in a position you must have the knowledge that goes with it. They won’t really test you in the same way, they are much more easy going, they say “she is there, and there must be a good reason she is there, and let’s listen to what she has to say”…that’s why I am in England, for me it is easier. Also, British people in general have more knowledge about the rest of the world… it makes it more fun from a professional point of view because you are not just talking about French wines, but about wines from all around the world.

I am putting some women wine makers on my wine list. Christie Brown from New Zealand, Elena Walch from Italy, Lyne Marchive at Domaine Des Malandes in Chablis, and Heidi Barrett who has recently become the winemaker at Screaming Eagle.

Also, I think wine and food, you can’t separate them… it is important for the sommelier to work closely with the chef, both must believe in what the other is doing to complement each other… and being in a personal relationship with the chef that means your understanding is that much closer!

Food and wine, they are both things you should share with people, they are things that bring you closer, so it is always about being all together, and sharing a good moment, and having fun.

What do I love about being a sommelier? It is a science without ending, constantly it is exciting because you never know how it is going to be from a year to another year. All the time it is a bit of a gamble. Wine has always been surrounding us, there is great history behind each bottle, and then there is the challenge of transmitting what you know about that wine, and its history, to people, and to capture their interest. I love meeting new people and what better to speak about than your passion?”

Ryan o'Flynn

The scariest thing about Halloween?  How much it costs!

Halloween is big where I come from – North America.  South of the border (I was born and raised in Canada) it’s frighteningly big.  The US National Retail Federation expects 68.5 million citizens will spend about $1.63 billion on Halloween decorations alone!  That’s roughly a billion pounds sterling (the amount the UK government spent on drugs to combat a swine flu epidemic that never happened!).

Total US spending on Halloween?  $5.8 billion, or 3.6 billion in sterling.   About 40% of citizens will buy a costume, and over 11% will even dress up their pets!

Scary, eh?  But the whole thing started on this side of the pond.  Probably with the Irish.  And I should know…with a name like O’Flynn.

It can be traced back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, whose original spelling was Samuin (pronounced sow-an or sow-in)”. The name is derived from Old Irish and roughly means “summer’s end”.   Samhain celebrates the end of the “lighter half” of the year and beginning of the “darker half”, and is sometimes regarded as the “Celtic New Year”.

So where did all this stuff about ghosts and evil spirits come from?
 
The ancient Celts believed that the border between this world and the Otherworld became thin on Samhain, allowing spirits (both harmless and harmful) to pass through. The family’s ancestors were honoured and invited home while harmful spirits were warded off by the wearing of costumes and masks.

Bonfires

Samhain was also a time to take stock of food supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. Bonfires played a large part in the festivities. All other fires were doused and each home lit their hearth from the bonfire. The bones of slaughtered livestock were cast into its flames.  Sometimes two bonfires would be built side-by-side, and people and their livestock would walk between them as a cleansing ritual.

When did it become known as Halloween?

The word Halloween first appears in the 16th century and represents a Scottish variant of the fuller All-Hallows-Even (”evening”), that is, the night before All Hallows Day. Up through the early 20th century, the spelling “Hallowe’en” was frequently used, eliding the “v” and shortening the word.

Halloween Costumes

“Trick or treat”.  Where did that come from? 

The practice of dressing up in costumes and begging door to door for treats on holidays dates back to the Middle Ages and includes Christmas wassailing. Trick-or-treating resembles the late medieval practice of souling, when poor folk would go door to door on Hallowmas (November 1), receiving food in return for prayers for the dead on All Souls Day (November 2). It originated in Ireland and Britain, although similar practices for the souls of the dead were found as far south as Italy.

Can you read the future on Halloween?

Some games traditionally played at Halloween are forms of divination.  A traditional Scottish form of divining one’s future spouse is to carve an apple in one long strip, then toss the peel over one’s shoulder. The peel is believed to land in the shape of the first letter of the future spouse’s name.  Unmarried women were told that if they sat in a darkened room and gazed into a mirror on Halloween night, the face of their future husband would appear in the mirror. However, if they were destined to die before marriage, a skull would appear.

What am I going to be doing on Halloween?

I’ll be preparing my special Halloween Menu at Chenestons, featuring such delights as Dracula’s pan-fried fillet of brill with Cornish crab crust and lobster sauce, and traditional Pumpkin pie with ginger ice cream.  For the special Halloween menus being served at our sister hotels, The Montague on the Gardens, The Chesterfield Mayfair and The Rubens at the Palace, just click on their names.  Finally, if you want to experience Halloween West Palm Beach style why not pop over to Red Carnation’s other Chesterfield Hotel?

Kevin Joseph

Fresh oysters must be alive just before consumption.   To test, tap any open oyster on the shell – if it closes up it’s safe to eat. Oysters which are open and unresponsive are dead, and must be discarded. Some dead oysters, or oyster shells which are full of sand, may also be closed, but they will make a distinctive noise when tapped: they are known as clackers for this reason.

Opening (or “shucking”) oysters requires skill, for live oysters, outside of the water, tend to shut themselves tightly. The most common method for opening oysters is to use a special knife (called an oyster knife, a variant of a shucking knife), with a short and thick blade about 2 inches long.  The blade needs to be inserted at the hinge in the rear of the shell, then twisted. 

Oysters are protandric; during their first year they spawn as males by releasing sperm into the water. As they grow over the next two or three years and develop greater energy reserves, they spawn as females by releasing eggs.  

"Shucking" Oysters

Jonathan Swift famously remarked “He was a bold man that first ate an oyster”but evidence of oyster consumption goes back into prehistory.  Oyster middens, which are piles of discarded shells, are found worldwide.  The midden in Namu, British Columbia, is over 9 meters deep and testifies to over 10,000 years of continuous human oyster consumption.

If you see “Prairie Oysters” on the menu, be warned – these are a North American culinary name for buffalo or bull testicles. They are usually peeled, coated in flour, pepper and salt, sometimes pounded flat, then deep-fried. This delicacy is most often served as an appetizer. A few other descriptive terms, such as “cowboy caviar,” “Montana tendergroins,” or “swinging beef,” may be used.

Oysters are sometimes cited as an aphrodisiac, but this is debatable.  A team of American and Italian researchers who analyzed bivalves did find they were rich in rare amino acids that trigger increased levels of sex hormones.  Also oysters have a high zinc content, a mineral that aids in the production of testosterone.  Alternatively, the oyster’s erotic reputation may only be due to its soft, moist texture and appearance.  It is said Casanova liked start a meal with a dozen oysters.

An oyster produces a pearl when foreign material becomes trapped inside the shell. The oyster responds to the irritation by producing nacre, a combination of calcium and protein. The nacre coats the foreign material and over time produces a pearl.

Folklore says that oysters should be eaten only in months with “r’s” in them—September, October, etc. The notion that oysters should not be eaten in “r”-less months—that is, months that occur during warm weather—may have started in the days when oysters where shipped without adequate refrigeration and could spoil. But today all that has changed and we can enjoy oysters twelve months a year – especially at the Oyster Box, because the hotel has its own beds, so you can be totally sure they’ll be absolutely fresh.