Articles

The barbecue season is well and truly here and many of us will be heading off to buy sausages, burgers and steaks. When it comes to locally-sourced produce, a good butchers shop is a terrific find – not just for meat, but for cheeses, eggs, milk, chutneys and pies.

The little green and black stickers of the national Food Hygiene Rating Scheme are appearing on the doors of catering establishments up and down the UK. Gradually, people are beginning to become aware of what they mean and using them to help them make their purchasing decisions. All existing food premises in Surrey should have now received their rating certificate and sticker. Whether you are a consumer curious to know the story behind the sticker, or run a business and want to know how to improve your food hygiene rating, this piece is for you!

The woods around our part of Surrey are somewhat whiffy at the moment. This is due to the vast carpets of wild garlic that thickly cover the woodland floor, relieved here and there by bluebells gently shaking their delicate heads as if tutting at the pungent aroma all around. Well, the bluebells may not be so approving, but wild garlic is a terrific ingredient for those of us who like to cook fresh, seasonal food.

Food Float, recent winner of the Mole Valley Chairman's Culinary Award, is a pioneering project that helps local food producers sell their products at a fair price. TRACY CARROLL chats to one of the projects leaders, Phil McEntire

With his Four Gables Food Academy stirring up a storm and a successful catering company to boot, Surrey’s David Gillott, 24, is fast becoming the county’s most talked about young chef. Now he’s giving us the chance to chat about food with a new online community which he hopes will buzz as loudly as the beehives on his smallholding.

Lucinda Perks' family began farming in 1993 so they could serve locally and ethically reared meat at their dining pubs. Today, they own The Butchers Hall farm shop and The Parrot Inn at Forest Green, Dorking, and farm 500 acres of the Surrey Hills. Here, Lucinda gets on her hobby horse about the latest scandal to hit the food industry.

While Christmas is a time for traditions, it is also a time for treats. If you’re tired of turkey and all the “usual suspects” as alternatives (beef, lamb, pork, goose…), why not recreate a decadent festive feast of old by putting game back on the menu?

When chef Al Crisci opened a new fine dining restaurant in 2009, there were many who said it wouldn’t work. But it wasn’t the food they had problems with, it was the location – behind bars at the High Down prison in Sutton with Category B inmates as waiters and chefs. Here Alice Whitehead talks to Crisci about how ‘The Clink’ has confounded expectations, slashing re-offending rates in half, and gathering support from high profile chefs.

Chicken tonight? Fancy giving a portion of your dinner to a neighbour? Friendly foodies in the Reigate and Banstead community have discovered a new spin on the meals-on-wheels concept, offering to dish up a home-cooked meal to elderly residents in their area – and its proving to be a delicious recipe for success.

Take a talented young chef, bucket loads of ambition and bags of energy. Mix with a flock of ducks, several million bees, an orchard and a vegetable garden. In the centre, place a professional kitchen and add a sprinkling of people keen to improve their culinary skills.