An italian supperclub for a good cause

 
For the moment has been just one off dinner at @federilli's place, but we all hope there will be some events following it.

Italian and passionate about food, Federica was the creator and the great chef of this dinner, made to raise some money for the Abbruzzo cause, horribly devastated by the earthquake some years ago.

She offered us some of the best dishes from the region, and the chance to know more about this territory, its history and culinary side.

I was amazed by the dishes, recipes that I have never tried before, also being Italian, but I was even more surprised by how much calm and confident she was also having 12 guests at her table.

All the night went smoothly, thanks also to a sous chef and another friend helping her with the service, and the dinner was really great.
 
It's just weird that this event has been organized just in the day that another big earthquake has destroyed another city in Italy, but I can imagine there will be another dinner soon for that cause too.

The found from this dinner will be entirely donated to the FAI, Fondo per l’ambiente Italiano, that has started different projects to recover some of the oldest pieces of art of the region like the Fontana delle 99 Cannelle.
 
But let's see some of the fantastic dishes we had:

Cazzarielli e Fagioli - homemade pasta with beans, a comforting dish

Meat Cac'e Ova - a traditional, rustic lamb meat (from Ginger Pig) cooked with egg and cheese

Parrozzo - traditional chocolate cake with some Torrone Nunzia icecream gently made by La Gelatiera in London, like the sorbet served with some Centerbe chocolates from Abbruzzo.

I loved the idea to help an Italian region and its art, letting people discover some of the truly Italian culinary traditions and tastes. I think the dinner was really a great and clever event, and still, all my congratulations to the excellent host.

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For a luxurious 2012

New year and a new place to try. Finally, after a long time I was listening people speaking about it, I went to “pay my visit” to the famous Bob Bob Ricard  a restaurant near Carnaby Street.

The place is stunning and it is worth to go even only to admire the design and the details of the restaurant. The designer David Collins, took inspiration by the “train travel in Edwardian times: emerald green leather banquettes topped by little curtains of brass mesh, marble tables, constructivist chandeliers” as said by  the Evening Standard,  and the logo everywhere, from the pavement to the box of chips, without speaking about the bell on the wall to ask for more Champagne. Everything is extremely curated and luxurious. Incredible!

Head Chef James Walker has created a menu of great English and Russian classics with ingredients “sourced from small, traditionally run farms, dairies, fisheries and family-owned producers mainly in the British Isles” as written on the website. BBR is also famous for its selection of rare Vintage Vodkas and Caviar, so i decided to start exactly form here: Iranian Cure Caviar with Blinis and sour cream.

Then I tried another signature dish, for how much weird it can seems: the lobster burger and the Cornish crab cake. If I didn’t like so much this last one, that was a bit too heavy and greasy, the Lobster burger was fantastic. This was serves with French fries and for dessert I tried this stunning Grand Marnier soufflé you can see below. It was incredible…but of course the prize of the place it’s a bit too high.

If you want to live a 360 new dinner experience, the place it’s the right one, but be careful with your choices.

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The people and places to keep an eye on

Today have finally been announced the winners of the Observer Food Monthly Awards. Some of these were chosen by readers and some by an expert panel that saw between the others Nigel Slater, Angela Hartnett (Murano),  Jason Atherton (Pollen Street Social) and Thomasina Miers (Masterchef 2005 & Wahaca).

This award as the same magazine says, "celebrates the best in British food and produce, from independent producers to the UK’s most revered chefs."

And the winner, awarded yesterday in a great ceremony in London are…

Readers’ awards

Best restaurant: Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, London. 

The opening of this restaurant it was the news of the year…and in fact there are months of waiting list to enjoy a meal there.

Best cookbook: Plenty by Ottolenghi

Ottolenghi always seems to conquer all harts from the chef to the people who never entered in a kitchen before and it’s true than is more about the ingredients and their union than cooking process.

Best place to drink Mark’s Bar, Hix, London

Best independent retailer The Cheese Shed, Devon

Best Sunday lunch Bull & Last, London

Best food personality Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall especially busy this year with his fish fight campaign particularly famous.

Best food blog  Eat Like a Girl. 

I don’t spend too many words here. If you read my blog you could have seen different references to her , who on top to be a Pastificio dei Campi fan, is a great foodlover and blogger of course.

Best cheap eat : Koya, London

Best ethical restaurant: The Ethicurean, Somerset

Judges’ awards

Best newcomer Maltby Street, London.

The first time I listen this name was last winter by Katie Parla. She was absolutely amazed by the magic of this street, by the vibe that place has and she told me lots of time to go there. I’m really happy they won this price because this is some innovative idea to push forward in future.

Best producer Johnny Pustzai at JT Beedham & Sons, Nottingham

Reader’s Cocktail Recipe Simon Amster

Reader’s Recipe Maria Kuehn

Outstanding Contribution Tristram Stuart

Lifetime Achievement Michel Roux Senior

Young Chef of the Year Paul Foster, head chef
Tuddenham Mill

CONGRATULATIONS to everyone! And keeping an eye especially on this young chef, as also Eatlikeagirl suggested, I think I will start to plan my next "Dinner "and a Saturday at Maltby Street.

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The recipe chosen after the british cheese week

 
It's definitely autumn and almost Halloween and so have to be the season also for... pumpkins! I love them but I admit I cook them really rarely. Pumpkins are so sweet and tasty and they go so well with certain herbs that every recipe is a new discovery.
This time I decided to use the butternut squash and a special cheese I bought from the british cheese week!

I went in fact to Neal's Yard Dairy last week, the amazing cheese shop that you can see in these pictures. I was looking for the Kilree Goat's Cheese that won lots of prices this year, but I couldn’t find it so they gave me a  very interesting cheese to cook with: Berkeswell an unpasteurized sheep's milk cheese , creamy, with nutty flavor and a bit different from the average english cheeses as also Chrispople says on his blog.

  I then thought about pumpkins and  I found an interesting recipe with cream of pumpkins and salted pumpkins, rosemary, pumpkins seeds and pancetta... but then I also saw some streaky bacon and it was a deal.
 
This is the recipe for 3 people:
 
- 300 gr Pennoni Pastificio dei Campi

- a little butternut squash,

- 150gr of Berkswell cheese,

- onion

- rosemary

- some pumpkins seeds,

- olive oil,

- butter salt

- and streaky bacon .

Let’s start by the cream: in a sauce pan put some finely chopped onions and olive oil. Let the onions get goldish and then add the pumpkin pealed and cut in little cubes. Add some white wine and when evaporated, some salt and just water. At this point I also added some rosemary.
When the pumpkin was almost melted I added the cheese in little cubes too (leaving some of it a part) and I stirred until all became a cream. You can use even the blender if you want.

While the water for the pasta was boiling, in another pan I put the rest (1/3) of the pumpkin cut in julienne (little sticks) with a bit of butter, rosemary and pumpkin seeds.
I added some salt to the pumpkin and the streaky bacon… just amazing colors all together and the smell was great.
When the pasta was al dente I added the pasta to the pan with the cream of pumpkin and the rest. I toss it all on a low fire and then I served it with some more grated cheese on top, fresh rosemary and pumpkin seeds.
A nice way to welcome the autumn! I hope you will enjoy like we did!

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A 3 Michelin stars restaurant coming head to head with a supperclub

This week is definitely full of events: festivals, awards, restaurant guides coming out, foodie events, restaurant opening but the thing that I liked the most is certainly the idea of the  French Laundrette Supper Club happening only on the 2^nd of October.

Why all this interest in a one-night supper club? Not only because who organized and will cook that night is the fantastic, funny, and absolutely nice foodie SabrinaGhayour, but for the special idea behind this project.

In fact there have been a big Buzz in London about the opening of The French Laundry pop up restaurant in Harrods from the 1^st to the 15^th of October. The 3 Michelin stars restaurant will recreate his original Californian 9 course menu for his English guests who will be keen to pay 250£ each just for the dinner. What it all this craziness? Ok it’s Harrods. Ok it’s an only chance for who is in London to try this cuisine without moving from the city, but …come on, maybe is a bit too exaggerate.

So the great Sabrina thought to create a spuff of it, following the fantastic PR behind the story and launch her own supperclub night “The French Laundrette” for all the people who can nor afford that expensive dinner. The cost will be only 1% of the original "Harrod's " price, so 2.50£ per person … and all will be given in charity! Fantastic idea! Of course the event is totally fully booked.

What else? Yesterday Harrods pared with a charity cause and offered the possibility to reach a table for 2 in one of these nights to the ones offering the biggest amount. Today the same happened with Sabrina: some of her tickets went for auction at the best offerer. Well done girl, this is the way to beat the Michelin stars chef.

I really hope to have a fully review of the night with pictures and final amount of money reached for the good cause. Unfortunately I arrived too late for a ticket, but I’m sure lots of people will tweet about it!

I wish to the French Laundrette and to Sabrina the best of the luck and fun on Sunday. I will get ready for the next one that will be organized soon.

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I tried to be really english this sunday and I went for a sunday roast.

 
I wanted to have the best sunday roast that the city could offer and thanks at the many tweets I saw in the past (Ms_ML, federilli, Greedydiva etc) I went straight to the Hawksmoor.

The place is near Sevent Dials in Covent Garden and even if a bit too dark, it's really cosy and welcoming with a nice reception at the entrance and a quite big bar downstairs.
 
This is the sign at the entrance... And it says it all!

 
But let's speak about the massive sunday roast they serves: cabbage, carrots, 350gr rump of longhorn beef, some great roasted potatoes, and the Yorkshire pudding of course all accompanied with gravy! It's was really a great meal and a great deal considering the really good prize for the dish.
 
A must to try are then the Beef Drippingchips, cooked in the meat fat and just phenomenal.

Finally the menu offers lots of nice desserts, especially the classic sundaes but revisited with corn flakes, peanuts butter and even popcorns.

So I would say a really right choice to leave pasta in one side for a day and to enjoy a great english tradition! After the best pasta, now I can say I know where to eat the best meat!

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3 days of food, music and fun for a unique festival.

As the majority of you, this year I could not attend this beautiful event, La festa della Pasta, the Pasta Festival that took place in the Campagnia region last weekend. In these days I was craving and just waiting for some pictures from the event. I was curious to see  what happened in Gragnano during the celebration.

If I was thinking that the last Festival could have been hard to overcome, these pictures from this year just told me the contrary: there was food, there was an enormous amount of people, there was music, special shows, magic in the air and of course the best pasta in the world with its never ending tradition.

With the help of the government of the region and with the participation of the Slow Food organization, the party was at its best! It's always nice to see people working in the production of this precious food, sharing and enjoing all this with their family, friends and  with all the people in love with the good food and that  appreciate this fundamental element of our culture.

Here some pictures made by the italian blogger Giovanna Esposito and by Alessandro Savarese for E-comunica. Thanks to both of you for these beautiful images that are able to catch the real vibe of this great party.

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