Normally the Conti Contini Bonacossi family get through about 70 litres of their own organic extra virgin olive oil a year, but this year is different. Beatrice Contini Bonacossi says it’ll be nearer 100 litres because they’ve all been lunching at home. Lucky them: the oil in question is Capezzana, an estate north-west of Florence that, in addition to producing beautiful Carmignano wine, has been making olive oil since Etruscan and Roman times. No wonder they know a thing or

Pork dishes in four Michelin starred restaurants (clockwise from top left): Duke of Berkshire barbecued pork ribeye, baked potato, sorrel at Northcote; Iberico pork, ajo blanco, boquerón anchovies, eggshell and cinders at The Man Behind the Curtain; Iberico pork at Ametsa with Arzak Instruction; Smoked Linderöds pork, pine-tree shoots, asparagus, homemade cream cheese, ransom, apple purée, smoked black pudding at Ekstedt. (See links to the reviews in the paragraph below for f

As I sat on the train reading up about the dinner I was heading for at Northcote in Lancashire, a Michelin-starred restaurant and AA Hotel of the Year 2017, I started to get indigestion. And feelings of inadequacy. It wasn’t the menu: octopus followed by cod, foie gras, barbecued pork ribeye, peppermint crisp… see the full menu below. I can handle that with pleasure. It wasn’t the Roederer champagne and the wines: again, sheer pleasure. It was the CVs of the four chefs who we

Above: Iberico pork, ajo blanco, boquerón anchovies, eggshell and cinders by Michael O'Hare. The edible eggshell was made from egg white, lactose, oyster juice and garlic powder painted over balloons and hung on a washing line for two days to dry. Easy when you know how. I once flew to Australia for three days. The round-trip took six days and everyone said it was madness. Maybe it was, but, boy, it was worth it. I flew in – guest taster from Europe – to taste every vintage o

Cooking over fire at Ekstedt (clockwise from top left): wood-fired oven with loaves of bread waiting at the side to go in, smoke box and grill at the pass, cooking oysters using a flambadou in the fire pit, wood-fired stove It’s always easier to write a critical review, or one where there are a few oddities you can highlight to entertain your readers. A review where there’s nothing wrong, where there are no quirks and the author just loves the whole damn thing can threaten to

For some reason 2016 is turning out to be a great year for eating. I seem to have had more, more than usually exciting restaurant meals already and we’re only just over half way through the year. The three most thrilling to date, in chronological order, have been Ametsa with Arzak Instruction in London, Ekstedt in Stockholm and The Man Behind the Curtain in Leeds. I’ll be reviewing them in that order, so today it’s, yes, Ametsa with Arzak Instruction. Much as I’d like to glos