Food is great. That we know.

But (and here’s where I get all Jamie Oliver 2005 so frigging brace yourselves) food that shared in a place that gives much needed skills to really improve lives is where the magic happens. I’ve been watching the Community Kitchen, a social enterprise model, morph into a space that has so much potential for good, where people can “experience the benefits of cooking and eating together, regardless of finance, confidence or ability.” In the daytime they run community cookery programmes for people with mental health issues, dementia, learning disabilities and anyone that can benefit from cooking, learning life skills for well-being and sharing food together.

Behind this is Brighton and Hove Food Partnership a non-profit organisation that have worked on community food projects in the area for over a decade from community gardens, food wastage campaigns and neighbourhood meal sharing clubs.



It’s also a beautiful space available for hire and they also run cookery courses and classes, the profit from which goes straight back into the work the partnership do with masterclasses from the city’s best chefs, on-trend skills such as fermented foods and make your own charcuterie, seasonal workshops and well-being focused classes.



My cooking weak spot is baking though so a cake decorating masterclass with Kane McDowell from one of my favourite local Bakeries, Sugardough, was the one for me.



We were led through how to make a Genoise sponge and strawberry syrup, before being shown how to create a perfect semi naked cake (where the cake peaks out from the frosting). And never will I cut a tiered cake unevenly again which was worth turning up for alone.

Then the fun bit with pretty piped Italian meringue frosting and tricky chocolate writing (no evidence I’d studied typography and been a graphic designer for over 15 years AT ALL).



Dodgy type aside, I was very pleased with the cake, the kids thought I was pretty heroic when I brought it home for demolishing. It definitely has given me some confidence and skills to push decorating a bit further. Aside from learning, it was a really fun way to spend an evening and really relaxing too.

The Community Kitchen is a brilliant place for so many people in Brighton. I liked how they started the event by sitting everyone around the huge communal table for some lovely breads, dips and nibbles to break the ice and get the evening started. There were so many different people there, couples, singles, friends and a mum and her Bake-Off obsessed young son (who was having the time of his life!).

Visit events for upcoming events and to find out more about The Community Kitchen see bhfood.org.uk.



Community Kitchen113 Queen’s Road

I'm no stranger to the dinner party (still sounds so very 1970s doesn't it?). As soon as I bought my first tiny shoebox flat in Brighton, the kitchen, with about 2 inches of work surface, was thrown open to guests. Heavily laden with ingredients, I'd come home from work on Fridays and start preparing that whole evening and following day. Friends would be shoe horned in, Lord knows how, and cheek to jowl I'd feed them up, course after course after course. I think a few of these spanned until the morning hours where we'd start breakfast service, before I collapsed in a heap. Chefs, I salute you. 

So yeah, I blooming love a dinner party. Then life happens and the luxury of 48 hours food prep is frankly laughable, but my table is still host to friends and family; the love for convivial suppers still running deep, with me generally sweating it out in the kitchen.

La Belle Assiette contacted me to see if I'd try a private chef service with restaurant quality food. I love to cook so it's something I'd never thought of, but the lure of not doing any shopping, prep, graft, or cleaning up was an incredible pull. Imagine, I could just swan in like Margo Leadbetter with just table decorations and guest invitations to busy myself with.

After an additional amuse with homemade spiced flatbread, we started with a bejewel salad of sumac roast squash, mung beans and pomegranate; the feta crumb being replaced with a vegan alternative for a seamless swap.

Star of the show, and I rarely say this, was dessert. A pistachio and rosewater vegan baked cheesecake with fresh figs. Utterly sublime and such a good vegan dessert that everyone was calling to the chef for the recipe.

Brighton seems to be a hub of cooking talent at the moment, with the top restaurants bidding for diners attention with increasing creativity. One of the hottest food events in town has been the Brighton Food & Drink Festival's FoodLab event; where top local chefs worked with some of the area's best producers to create spectacular one off dishes. Understandably, it's always sold out.

This year, for the new Brighton Wine Week, it was the turn of the young chefs (under 26) to showcase their talent in the FoodLab. Hosted at Etch, which was perfect, it made for one of the best lunches I've had in a while.

Seeing as it's a one-off, this isn't a review; just a showcase of the event and the excellent dishes we were treated to. But if you can, definitely look this event up in the next festival in Autumn (6th-16th September) which seems to be growing year on year, with a number of additional side events like this. Book early!

Before that though is Brighton Cocktail Week - grab a £10 wristband then go on a crawl of over 30 bars and restaurants in the city who'll be offering a BCW cocktail for £5 to wristband holders. There are also plenty of food matching and masterclasses on that week too - see the Brighton & Hove Food and Drink Festival site for more details. The cocktail fusion collaboration at La Choza, Boho Gelato frozen dinner and historical feast and cocktails inspired by female food writers of the 20s and 30s all look particularly awesome.


Isobel Humbey | The Salt Room X Red Roaster
Isobel set the bar high with pork belly, octopus and blood orange with Red Roaster coffee and black pudding crumb served with a shot of coffee bean butter washed vodka.


Sam Watson | Ginger Fox X Ridgeview
Probably dish of the day for me was this crab tortellini, braised fennel and mussel and Ridgeview Chardonnay broth, perfect with the gentle acidity of the accompanying glass of Ridgeview Bloomsbury.


Eliott Buchet | Jeremy’s Restaurant X Bedlam Brewery
This was very clever, using all the elements of beer production from Bedlam Brewery. Braised pig cheek, salt baked yellow beetroot with malt, red beetroot fermented with yeast, spherical beer pearls and a malt tuille.


Jackson Heron | 64 Degrees X Trenchmore Farm
It was very ballsy to serve something that looks so low-key and based on a kebab shop sarnie in this setting, but using sublime Sussex-wagyu cross beef from Trenchmore Farm, it hit the taste mark square on.


George Thomas | Issac At X La Cave A Fromage
Sour apple gel, candied walnuts and poached apple with a goat's cheese ice-cream proves that classic flavours are hard to beat.


Michael Notman-Watt | 64 Degrees X Blackdown Spirits
Not much to look at, but I loved the boozy ice-cream sandwich served with a gently spiced rhubarb lassi in this gin & juice concept dish.

George Boarer | Etch X Wobblegate
An ideal end to the meal was this fresh jelly and panna cotta using Wobblegate's Bramley juice and a brilliant Cox and Bramley sorbet.


Shout out to Seb Cole from Boho Gelato who made the most delicious apple and liquorice sorbet cocktail to kick the dinner off - you know when a drink ends and you're sad (in a good way, not a wino way)...yeah, that.

We're not quite over summer yet, although tell that to the erratic weather. BUT you probably want to get booking for upcoming events in the Autumn Brighton Food and Drink Festival, believe me. The big name chef events get snapped up very quickly, and there are some absolute corkers listed.

One of the city's most exciting chefs, Matt Gillan, plus one of the best of our Sussex wine makers are teaming up to create a seven course menu, celebrating what makes English sparkling wine amazing. Starting from the roots where the vines begin to the fruit they produce, this sounds like a fascinating dinner. I hope my favourite of the Ridgeview wines, their Blanc de Blancs, gets a deserving edible makeover. Unmissable.

The Coal Shed is a solid fixture in Brighton's dining scene - consistent, great quality and decent value for money. The main pull is their charcoal Josper Grill, so naturally a BBQ event would be perfect here particularly as it was National BBQ week too. But The Coal Shed wasn't exactly going to throw a couple of snags on the fire, each dish was worked into their elegantly crafted style.

I really like the feel of this place. It's casual but also incredibly smart, managing to feel special with elegant touches, but there is nothing stuffy about it at all.



Anyway, as is de rigeur at the moment, we started with a platter of "chef snacks" to kick off the meal. Sweet, savoury and nicely spicy was the miniature jerk ham hock taco that despite its size had a lot going on. Pork loves sweet partners so the pineapple chunks and sweetcorn kernels were ideal, the heat of jalapeno and pickled red onions contrasting nicely. Crisp jackets of baked Jersey Royals were filled with a delicately smoked creme cheese and topped with, I'll assume tobiko, caviar. Finally, tender, charred asparagus tips were drizzled with hollandaise and teeny cubes of cured sausage.



Wine pairing was available on the night with come absolute corkers included or a fresh alternative were the matched beers from Lost + Found Brewery based near Arundel. Naturally I chose the wines but I had my craft beer nut husband with me who, I'm sure, squeaked a bit at being served beer for a change. (I think this will become more common place, I have recently met a beer sommelier who is trying to switch the focus on wines in a mid to fine dining setting and apparently beers are easier to food match.)



The strong start to the food continued with this incredible brisket dish. The braised, rolled then fried meat had been perfectly spiced, delicate but very much present. So tender, it just fragmented at the touch of a fork. Topping this was a charred Roscoff onion, kimchi, crispy fried onions and a thick, decadent BBQ sauce. The whole table fell silent with this dish - it was a charred, smokey, sweet and sticky triumph.



I've always though The Coal Shed handled fish just as well as meat (and of course they have their fish-focused sister restaurant The Salt Room). Monkfish is sturdy to handle the grills as well as coping with some punchy flavours too. Classic pit beans were given a twist with chorizo and I adored the rich, smokey BBQ relish.



A fire roasted spiced rack of lamb finished the main courses with a Middle Eastern vibe. Perfect with lamb is aubergine, roasted and scooped from the skin. Baby gem lettuce gave the dish some much needed crispness and the meat was as succulent and sweet as you would have hoped for.



Dessert was a British homage, it felt a bit Wimbledon which was nice. A clotted cream parfait was adorned with strawberry meringue, fresh and jammy strawberries and a lip-smackingly zingy lime Italian meringue. Beautifully balanced and made extra special with the paired Goring Rose Sussex sparkling wine.

Wines throughout were delicious and for £25, well priced. Maybe I'm lazy but I really appreciate wine flights, it takes the effort out of choosing! But another bonus is that there is always a variety or estate that is new to discover - I'll be looking up the Goring Estate for more and the reds were particularly gorgeous so I noted them down. Nice to see Greek wine too - we some recently at a visit to The Salt Room so something they are pushing.

The Lost + Found beers worked well too. Priced individually at £5, I think it would have been a struggle to fit in all five (although Mr GF pretty much managed - what a er, hero). I'm trying harder with beer but for me, I still want wine with food. The only beer that didn't work was the DIPA with dessert which was far too punchy at 8.8% for such a delicate dessert.



So yes, perfect evening. Seeing the interaction over a communal table that is typical with a supperclub setting is really nice. It didn't take long for couples and groups to start infiltrating each others conversations and the atmosphere was lovely.

The Coal Shed will continue to run specially crafted events and supperclubs like this, so even if you are familiar with their regular dishes, it would be well worth booking in to experience one of these. Amazingly this 50 cover event sold out in 30 minutes, so get in quick!

The BBQ dinner was £50 per person and optional wine pairing £25 (great value for both I thought). Beers were £5 each.

Details of upcoming events can be found on https://www.coalshed-restaurant.co.uk/

The Coal Shed
8 Boyce's Street
Brighton BN1 1AN

I dined as a guest of The Coal Shed. Words and thoughts, as always, my own.

A little while back Dan from The Set Restaurant asked me if I'd cook for a charity event at the restaurant. My inability to say no (to anything - seriously, I have issues) had me agreeing before I could process what exactly I was getting myself into. Turns out it was for the Too Many Critics dinner which is an annual event in aid of Action Against Hunger - the charity who save the lives of malnourished children. Since having kids of my own, it pangs me even harder to see any child suffering, particularly for a basic need most of us have the luxury of taking for granted on a daily basis. So it's an absolute pleasure to be involved in raising money for such a worthy cause.

The dinner involves six food critics, writers and bloggers to each cook a course for a room full of acclaimed chefs who will be judging us for a change. Feeling the heat in the kitchen with me is Andy Lynes, Tom Flint (Food Booze Reviews), Euan MacDonald, Rosie Swaffer (Rosie Posie Puddings and Pies) and Eshe Brown (Foodie Eshe). Having successfully been hosted in London and Manchester, this is the first in Brighton and we'll be cooking for the local chef and food industry elite; the calibre of which makes me quite uneasy!

Now I'm quite happy in my kitchen cooking for friends and family and I don't think I'm too shabby at it, but this is something else. And in a professional kitchen. And for 34 covers. I don't think my spaghetti cacio pepe is going to cut the mustard here.

What has been nice is focusing on a dish and working at it - I have the vegetable starter so have dug into my Italian heritage and crafted a dish which celebrates Radhiccio, a really underused vegetable here. Italians love bitter flavours more so this could be a room splitter but I'm hoping to make it work!

100% of proceeds, including ticket and bar sales, will be going to AAH and there will be an auction to top up the money raised. The restaurant suppliers and The Set are kindly providing the venue, sponsoring ingredients and Ridgeview, Black Down Spirits and Sheridan Cooper will be sponsoring the alcohol.


Anyway, I'll try and Instagram or Tweet from the event, if I'm not crying in the cupboard that is. You can follow updates via #TooManyCritics #charitycriticsbrighton

Brighton Tap Takeover is back on 31 March to 2 April 2017 in pubs across Brighton which sees craft beer breweries taking over the taps at 14 of our best Brighton pubs. Each of the brewers takes over the taps of their partnered pubs to create the world’s greatest pub crawl, with each of the city centre pubs within a 10 minute walk. As well as great beer, the pubs are gearing up for a weekend of fun, food, beer education and great music. Wristbands for the event - which come pre-loaded with four beers, swag bag and priority entry are available now for £15 from www.taptakeover.co.uk. I'll be running a competition for wristbands over on my Instagram page shortly!

Also on the booze are the fabulous team over at Brighton Food Tours who are offering a monthly drinks special, starting Sat 8th April 3-6pm - featuring mostly alcoholic drinks, some not… but all designed to surprise and delight. Their tours are really fun and informative with plenty of hidden gems which showcase our city's best food and drink spots and producers.
There have been a few really good new Brighton boutique food producers cropping up this year. One is AM.LOU, a Moroccan inspired breakfast spread made from 3 organic ingredients; almonds, culinary argan oil and honey. It's flipping delicious! I polished off the whole jar bar what my kids could tear away from me. It's like a rich, decadent and grown up version of peanut butter, toasted, sweet almonds with a real savoury kick from the argan oil. It's made by hand in small batches here in Brighton and available in Flour Pot Bakery, Hisbe or via their website. A must try. amloutree.com

Hygge was a MASSIVE trend for this year and nothing says it more than big blankets and comfort eating. But slaving away in the kitchen for hours on hend is not hygge - no, no. Enter SØDT (pronounced soot, which means sweet in Danish) who hand make frozen, ready to bake Danish pastries. Take them out of your freezer, heat the oven and 20 minutes later you have delicious freshly baked treats. Order from www.sodt.co.uk

Fancy doing something different for a lazy Saturday lunch? How about a cocktail masterclass where you can learn to make (and drink!) three of Polpo’s classic spritz cocktails. You will also enjoy three of their chicchetti dishes, typical of their Venetian bàcaro style. It's an absolute bargain at £14.50 per person and on every Saturday lunchtime, fabulous for a daytime date.

The annual eating season is upon us. Christmas is just a few weeks away (!) and time to get that Christmas dinner party booked. Here are some ideas for where to book your Christmas party in Brighton from traditional Christmas dinners with a twist to some alternative dining options. There are also a couple of ideas if you don't fancy sitting around a table at all but still want something delicious to do.

Busby and Wilds
The East Brighton super restaurant/pub that is consistently good. Think all the trimmings in a smart but relaxed environment and you have the perfect Christmas venue. On the menu are two bird roasts, slow braised beef shin and some enticing fish and vegetarian options too. B&W are also knocking everyone else out of the Christmas pudding game too. They are making Christmas puddings that Boho Gelato will make into ice-cream to serve with their steamed ginger puddings **DOUBLE PUDDING KLAXON**. There's also a chocolate mousse with pistachio genoise sponge and clementine jelly with my name on it too.

2 courses £24/3 courses £32
busbyandwilds.co.uk

The Ginger Pig

The Gingerman Restaurants
Of course you'd have to include the Ginger group. All of the four sites will have their own menu with slightly different styles. The Gingerman is more formal, the Ginger Dog and Pig are relaxed with a refined edge and the Ginger Fox is an upmarket country pub. I'd eat happily in all of them. Also James Villiers, Head Chef from the Dog is currently is on Masterchef Professionals, raising their profile and cooking refined, quality food that you really want to eat. Which is what the Gingerman Group is all about.

Prices vary gingermanrestaurants.com

Something a little different

Banquet at The Chilli Pickle

Chilli Pickle
For those really not interested in a Traditional Christmas dinner, then this is it. All the spice, all the warmth, all the vibrancy. The menu has some old festive favourites like the Goose Momos to some new dishes like the smoked salmon marinated in honey kasundi, coriander and spice, parsnip and curry leaf pakora. For mains the mutton curry with ginger, cardamom and cashew or pannier shaslick with glazed pumpkin sound a treat. Finish with a vanilla and buffalo milk kulfi or pineapple gingercake and coconut ice.

thechillipickle.com

Giggling Squid
Giggling Squid have a couple 3 course evening menus on offer with plenty of the fresh, vibrant Thai food we know and love them for. There is also a lunch option with a selection of Thai tapas sets too. Read my full review here where I try the Christmas evening options out. 

3 course menus £24.95 or £29.95. Lunchmenu £18.95.
gigglingsquid.com

Silo
I would love to try Silo's take on Christmas. As usual there is a herbivore and omnivore menu with dishes like Venison Tartar & Sprouts, Shitake Mushroom, Worksop Blue & Dumplings and Salted Pear, St James & Elderflower. Amazingly they do have Turkey on the menu, but it will be unlike anything you've had before with with January King (I had to Google that too) & Sourdough sauce.

£36/38 per menu
silobrighton.com

Senor Buddha

Senor Buddha
I really loved my visit to Senor Buddah despite my huge reservations and preconceptions of Asian Spanish fusion food - I was sold!! For Christmas they are offering 3 tapas dishes with half a bottle of wine and complimentary pintxos.

£25 set menu
senorbuddha.co.uk

The Manor
The cafe in the North Laine? Yes, that's the one. But set aside the scrambled eggs on toast as their evening Christmas menu is stunning. 5 courses, with meat or vegetarian options, that reads so well and has zero turkey content.  Instead expect smoked duck breast w/ spiced plum chutney & celeriac remoulade, Slow braised pigs cheeks, Guinness & Clementine mushrooms finishing with spiced poached pears.

At £35 pp, this is a steal.
themanorbrighton.co.uk

Rootcandi
Obviously no turkey on the menu here at this vegetarian restaurant, but I guarantee you won't miss it judging by my last visit. Instead, expect globe artichoke ravioli and braised fennel shank with parsnip purée, black truffle and a mushroom and thyme jus. I love the sound of their parsnip doughnuts with apple parsnip cider for dessert too! All mains are served with a ‘christmas tree’ of accompaniments on their bespoke stands.

5 courses £32.50
rootcandi.co.uk

Cheap and cheerful

Christmas at Coggings & Co

Coggings & CoThis is a great for groups. In fact, I pointed Mr GF and his team there last year who had a great time. Start with sharing platters of dips, breads and nibbles then choose from a selection of their festive burgers. The pork & sage burger with wholegrain mustard mayo, pork & chestnut stuffing, apple sauce and salad would be for me. Desserts here have always been good and the choice doesn't disappoint from the Chocolate & cognac parfait to the crowd pleasing sticky toffee pudding.

£21.95 per person for 3 courses
coggingsandco.com

Fatto a Mano
thelittlefishmarket.co.uk