Saturday, November 16, 2024 |
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Wetherspoon punters, brace yourselves: San Miguel is out. The UK's favourite lager is being axed from the chain's pubs, a decision tied to the breakup of a 15-year partnership between Mahou San Miguel and Carlsberg Marston's Brewing Company. Instead, you'll find Poretti, a continental lager brewed under licence in the UK. But let's not pretend this is about choice or taste – Wetherspoon clearly believes lager is lager, and punters will drink whatever's on tap. Meanwhile, a new alcohol taxation system is rewriting the drinks aisle, forcing brands like Blossom Hill and Hardys to water down their wine to dodge tax hikes. Cheaper, weaker wines are becoming the norm, with flavour a secondary consideration. With cost inflation and taxes spiralling, even Tim Martin is predicting price hikes, though whether Poretti will still be £4 a pint by Christmas is anyone's guess. In a world where taste should matter most, it's depressing how little it does.
While you're at the supermarket, don't bother looking for taramasalata either – it's gone. A strike at Bakkavor, the company that makes half the country's dips, has left shelves bare. Middle-class catastrophists may bemoan the loss of cod roe, but taramasalata is just the start. Olive oil prices have surged thanks to Mediterranean droughts; cocoa and coffee crops are under siege from climate change. Artichokes remain a rare luxury, and even avocados are on shaky ground. Dinner parties, once a parade of middle-class plenty, are becoming a fraught exercise in substitution. Fancy a taramasalata DIY project? Good luck sourcing cod roe. But don't panic – there's always hummus.
When the wind bites and frost creeps in, few things feel as comforting – or ambitious – as hosting a winter dinner party. But Roberta Hall-McCarron, chef and author of The Changing Tides, makes it all seem delightfully doable. With a Michelin-starred pedigree and a knack for celebrating Scotland's finest seasonal produce, she turns venison, forced rhubarb and even whole roasted partridge into cold-weather stars. Her recipes are elegant yet approachable: think venison tartare with smoked celeriac, baked John Dory with seaweed-spiked Jersey Royals, or a decadent chocolate bundt cake with malt chocolate sauce. For nervous hosts, Hall-McCarron keeps it simple: let the produce shine, prep ahead, and serve dishes that warm guests from the inside out. It's hospitality without the stress, and with recipes like these, it's a season worth savoring.
Think honey is the last honest product in your cupboard? Think again. DNA tests reveal over 90 per cent of supermarket honey is a sham, bulked out with cheap syrups masquerading as nature's nectar. Local UK beekeepers are being squeezed by these fraudulent imports, threatening livelihoods and biodiversity alike. Fake honey might be sweet, but the cost is bitter – less pollination, fewer bees and entire ecosystems at risk. The solution? Buy from local beekeepers, look for single-origin certifications, and ditch those suspicious blends. As the saying goes, not all that glitters is gold – and not all that glistens is honey.
Then there's Hugh Corcoran, co-owner of The Yellow Bittern, who thinks your presence in his 18-seater restaurant must be earned through extravagant spending. His recent Instagram rant condemns diners who don't splash out on mains, multiple drinks and dessert. Cash only, no wine list and a bare-bones menu – it's as if he's doing everything possible to alienate his diners. Yes, the restaurant business is tough, but this level of disdain for paying customers takes tone-deafness to new heights. Corcoran's belief that restaurants should be exclusive clubs for big spenders is exactly what the industry doesn't need in an era of rising costs and changing diner habits.
Finally, OPSO, the Greek restaurant that's been rewriting the rulebook on Mediterranean cuisine for a decade, is marking its anniversary with a celebratory menu and a cookbook, OPSO: A Modern Greek Cookbook. The Marylebone institution has introduced Londoners to bold dishes like smoked eel carbonara and octopus hot dogs, redefining what Greek food can be while championing sustainability. Recipes like lamb shank with mushroom trahanas and village eggs with smoked yoghurt reveal a culinary depth that goes far beyond sun-drenched clichés. The anniversary menu includes their greatest hits – pastitsio, anyone? – while the cookbook promises to bring OPSO's audacious Greek flavours into your kitchen. A decade on, OPSO is proof that the best food doesn't just travel – it evolves. |
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Hugh Corcoran doesn't get it – diners want to share their experience not steal money from him |
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The co-owner of a new London bistro has issued an ultimatum: spend big or don't come at all. But in a world where restaurants should be about enjoyment, not judgement, his call to 'justify your presence' at the table shows why The Yellow Bittern's approach to diners could be its downfall, says Hannah Twiggs |
If you're planning a meal at The Yellow Bittern, be warned: you'd better come with deep pockets. Hugh Corcoran, the chef and co-owner of a new 18-seater bistro in the heart of London, recently took to Instagram to declare that anyone daring to dine without ordering "correctly" – that is, splashing out on at least one main course, a couple of drinks, maybe a dessert – is "not worth serving".
In his post, he said that "sharing plates have ruined dining", that if you don't drink "because you have done so to such excess that it cannot be permitted any longer" that you should order more food to make up for it, that if you'd rather share "a plate of radishes" between three, an allotment would be a better investment. He said any member of the "organised working class" should be able to afford a £40-£100 bill at least once a month and compared dining out in London to the Soviet Union, where "restaurants were not a right".
In Corcoran's eyes, sharing a couple of dishes, sipping on tap water or, god forbid, opting out of booze altogether is dining sin. It's not that he's worried about "lining his pockets", or so he claims. It's about creating "an atmosphere of conviviality" and bringing a sense of "abandon" to the table – a concept he believes budget-conscious diners and their "meagre approach" can't seem to grasp.
His remarks reveal a troubling trend: the notion that restaurants should be exclusive sanctuaries for big spenders, where the ordinary diner has no right to linger.
The idea that eating out should be a "luxury" reserved for the few is wildly out of touch with the spirit of modern dining. Let's be clear: there was a time when dining out was about "seeing and being seen", but that era is gone. Today, restaurants are many things to many people. For some, they're rare indulgences; for others, they're simply a place to unwind with friends, to gossip over a shared dish or two and a glass of wine. And for countless diners, they're a quick escape from the everyday grind, where the last thing they want is a chef demanding proof of their "right" to be there. Not everyone has time – or, frankly, the cash – to indulge in a blowout lunch on a weekday. To scorn diners for adapting to economic realities is not only tone-deaf, it's entirely contrary to the spirit of hospitality...
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