“Air, water and road traffic flies, floats and rolls beside the strategically located Runnymede-on-Thames hotel. Although its face is arguably blighted – the blank facade from 1974 oddly leaves the impression of a slap head forehead…”
“A school drop-out from Kosovo who washed pots at an Angus Steak House on landing in London in the mid-90s, Shabani went on to produce ‘Konik’s Tail’, regularly voted a leading brand by both press and his peers.”
Douglas Blyde meets Valeria Napoleone; cook, collector, curator and food lover, and is led through her home for a tour of her collection and a saunter through her new book…
“Two men carry a bathtub into Bath. Not a joke, but my first sight on entering the city famous for its sulphurous waters…” Douglas Blyde revisits a haunting childhood haunt…
“Fillet is the French caviar,” crisply alliterates Thierry Thomasin, the author of Angelus restaurant. Sitting in the cosy, couth dining room, I struggle to recall a lovelier mouthful.
Many miles from the antique charms of a traditional English country house hotel, Douglas Blyde checks-in at two couth city house hotels – in the mighty Zhongguo…
“If the unwritten sign was wrought reality, it would state: ‘Overweight passengers may cause delays’…” Douglas Blyde takes off to a restorative clinic in Switzerland for a health check…
‘Please don’t say I work hard. Nobody is forced to do this job and if they don’t like it, they should do another one.’ These words are not the bossy but ultimately modest utterance of your correspondent, but those of Karl Lagerfeld…
“Pleasure knows many boundaries. Dubai, a food desert, where water, ingredients and workforce are shipped in, and septic tanks pumped far out, has something of the pyramids about it.”
“Langkawi is prone to sudden and arresting tantrums; riveting downpours and urgent winds alarm palms, ripple private plunge pools and foam the Andaman’s emerald waves on the cusp of the rainy season.”
Camélia, the restaurant at France’s first Mandarin Oriental in Paris, is a cocoon from the commerce and costly shine alongside the hotel’s Saint-Honoré entrance. Douglas enjoys a memorable birthday lunch.
The Edinburgh Fringe offers rich pickings for printers. One chap, clad beak to braces in gaudy plumes, touted ‘underground rebel bingo’ complete with giveaways of glitter balls, tents and sleeping bag suits. Douglas Blyde investigates…