Thinking of doing home renovations this summer?
We’re excited to tell you about our Half Off sale at Everest. We’re offering 50% off selected products across our range, including windows, doors and kitchens, until August 28th. Read more about the offer here.
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Read more »Welcome to the first in a series of ‘What makes a great kitchen?’ posts, where we speak to some of the movers and shakers in the culinary world. This week, we spoke with private chef and food stylist Sam Jones. Sam trained at the internationally-acclaimed Leiths School of Food and Wine in London before continuing his education at Terroirs in central London and The Ledbury, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Notting Hill. He has worked on the BBC’s Nigel Slater’s Simple Cooking and ITV’s Britain’s Best Dish.
Sam is passionate about bespoke menus for different occasions, while his role as food stylist – which involves culinary presentation and photography – enables him to approach food from a particularly creative angle.
“Old farmhouse-style kitchens are my personal favourite,” Sam explained. “Though they usually need to be fitted with some modern kit – as much as I like the idea of an AGA, a lot of contemporary recipes require precision temperature control, so a good-spec, reliable oven is the only real solution.
“My style of cooking definitely affects my kitchen’s contents. I need lots of gadgets! Tied in with this is the need for storage – which is absolutely crucial in anyone’s kitchen.
“Lots of overhead cupboards and ideally a larder are highly recommended. For my professional work everything needs to be as fresh as possible; a huge fridge with loads of space is essential. I keep all types of fresh things in there, including fruit.
“The perfect kitchen is about ambience, too – and having lots of natural light is really important. For my styling and photography work it’s impossible to get really nice results with artificial lighting, and things like long-drawn out shadows created by a setting sun really help add atmosphere to shots. It also creates a nicer environment than harsh, artificial lighting, and when you spend as much time in kitchens as I do, that can actually be worth quite a lot.
“What really makes a great kitchen though is organisation. Know where everything is, and keep everything in a logical place. Have easy access to the things you use the most, and if you can find storage units that make this even easier then that’s ideal.
“If you’re the main cook in a household, the kitchen is your space to get creative and really let your imagination run riot. Put some of your personality into the vibe of the room, and make it somewhere you really enjoy spending time.
“Almost as important as organisation is keeping your kitchen clean and tidy, so always wipe up immediately after spilling anything. It takes two seconds if you do things this way, and you avoid letting stuff set on surfaces, which leaves you with the unenviable task of scrubbing till your arms ache.
“One of my favourite kitchen items is a splatter screen – a lightweight mesh you can place over frying pans to stop the contents leaping out all over the hob.”
Read more »With an influx of tourists visiting London in 2012 due to the Olympics, top sightseeing destinations are expected to have long queues this summer.
Whilst everyone is familiar with the Big Ben and Buckingham Palace, there are several less known, but equally interesting and enjoyable places worth visiting in the capital city.
Here are some of the best hidden and underrated London spots for visitors in 2012.
London boasts any number of culinary options, from world class Michelin star dining to a huge range of cheap eats for on the run. Why not try something completely new in 2012, by heading to Dans Le Noir?
This truly unique dining experience involves eating in the pitch-black darkness. It might sound a little obscure, but by heightening your other senses, you soon come to appreciate the restaurant’s superb quality ingredients across 4 surprise menus.
Find out more here http://london.danslenoir.com/
Steer clear of the crowds at the British Museum and instead opt for an education from the father of modern psychology at the Freud Museum London.
This was the home of Sigmund Freud and his family when they escaped Nazi occupied Austria and it remained in the family until his daughter, Anna, died in 1982.
Here you can explore Freud’s personal study, preserved in its original form, complete with writing desk and enviable library.
Find out more here http://www.freud.org.uk/
Suggesting one good pub in London is akin to finding needles in a haystack, if not a little trickier. However this pub is not only off the beaten track, it is one of the oldest surviving pubs in the capital.
Ye Old Mitre Tavern, on Ely Court in Farringdon, was built by Bishop Goodrich in 1546. It also boasts all the stuff a great pub is made of.
This includes a quaint, three-room bar space and a courtyard. What it lacks in size it makes up for in history, character and ales. Sip from George Gale Seafarers and Fuller’s Honeydew under King Henry VIII portraits. Beer and history: London in a nutshell.
Find out more here http://fancyapint.com/Pub/london/ye-olde-mitre-tavern/92
We might associate the UK’s Roman baths with, well, Bath, but there’s some a little closer to the London than you might think.
Head down to Strand Lane in the City of Westminster and there’s the surviving evidence of what we assume to be early Roman beauty routines, in the form of a cold spring-fed plunge bath.
Find out more here http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/roman-bath/
Experience something really unique in the style of New York and Berlin 1930s swing dancing. The blog Big Smoke Boredom describes the venue as “a tiny, bizarre modern bar with a big personality.”
This small bar is located beneath the Aldwych and can fit just enough people to ensure a great time. It’s the first bar to feature a DJ jukebox SMS request system and it’s free entry; an almost unheard of quality for a London night out.
Find out more here http://www.cellardoor.biz/cellardoor.htm
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