Then a coincidence came my way. I love coincidences; they make the world seem more interesting. For my wine (and spirits) diploma that I am studying, I was sent the subject for a coursework assignment: “The Premiumisation of White Spirits”. So I had to start studying the stuff. As part of it, I had to choose a particular brand on which to do a case study. I chose Grey Goose, a super-premium (i.e. even more expensive than premium) vodka produced in France* which is a huge seller in the US and is starting to conquer the rest of the world too. A few weeks later, completely out of the blue, arrived an invitation to a Grey Goose “Toast to Taste” event which sounded somewhat mysterious. So I had to say yes. For research purposes you understand, not because I would condone any of that sort of silliness. After all, they offered to send a car to pick me up so it seemed rude to turn it down.

So having arrived at work at an unreasonably small hour that morning to allow me to disappear early and get to the event on time, I was a little bleary eyed when I arrived and wasn’t really in the mood. That soon changed though. The car dropped me off in a lovely Georgian square and I started hunting for the correct door number. When faced with a rather anonymous-looking door, I wasn’t sure that I was in the right place until I spotted a brass plaque embossed with the Grey Goose logo. Nice touch.

I knocked and it was answered by a man wearing grey. I stepped inside and into a large but gloomy hallway that seemed reminiscent of the entrance of a hotel in a murder mystery novel. Along the right hand wall was an enormous floor to ceiling key rack hung with what must have been hundreds of keys. Some small, some big, some rusty, but all looking like they had a story to tell. I was handed a key with a red ribbon, told to stand near other people with red ribbons and led through to a tea room.

The tea room was light, airy, tastefully decorated and full of beautiful, impeccably dressed people sipping drinks and chatting amongst themselves. I felt like I’d stumbled onto the set of a stylishly Anglo-French film. Several people wearing grey flitted amongst the everyone else offering drinks, snacks and generally making sure that everyone had a good time. When offered a drink, I chose coffee and it arrived soon after in a perfect cup on a perfect saucer. So far so surreal.

After a few minutes of looking around and drinking my coffee, a lady appeared and summoned me to follow her. Then I realised why I was supposed to have been standing with other red-ribbon people (which I hadn’t): we were being led off to discover the “secrets of the house” together as a group with other similarly-ribboned guests. Down stairs into the basement, where we met the Keymaster. Behind him were three doors and he chose certain of us to go into each door after studying the keys that we had been given. I ended up in a French cafe with a woman sitting at a table reading a magazine. Interactive of course… I ended up in the role of someone she had met years ago and how she remembered the bread we had eaten and the water we had drunk on that day as if it was only yesterday. Having done my homework, I realised this was all about evoking the essence of Grey Goose’s ingredients: French wheat and limestone-filtered water. Very clever. Very memorable too.

Then back upstairs to the tea room, where cocktails had appeared. The cocktail du jour was Grey Goose Le Fizz which had been created by one of the Grey Goose “Brand Ambassadors”. Made with Grey Goose vodka (of course), elderflower cordial, lime juice and soda then served elegantly (naturally) in a Champagne flute, it was refreshing and very drinkable. Bit more chit-chat, bit more looking at the French pictures on the wall and the bottles of Grey Goose arranged here and there like object d’art. I tried an extremely delicious macaron and a couple of carefully prepared and expertly cut small sandwiches.

Soon the lady appeared and gathered us red-ribboned people together again and this time we were led upstairs where she handed one of the group a letter and motioned to us to enter a door. Enter we did, and we were in a large room where a woman was reclining on a chaise longue, reading a book. Soft music started to play, along with recital of a poem / narrative of how she loved to wander into the wheat fields and dance.

So she did. When we turned around, the other half of the room was full of wheat. Half of my brain was thinking “ah, very clever, more wheat worked into the story” and the other half was thinking “Wow, a wheat field inside a house! Inside a house!!!”. She danced around in the wheat field for a while and then the girl who had the letter handed it to her and she read it out. Poem about wheat. Then we filed back down to the tea room which I had started to think of as the “nexus” in a strange time-travelling world.

Another Le Fizz and some chit-chat later (during which I observed that the Grey Goose logo was frosted onto the windows as well as being on the brass plaque outside) we were ushered in an elevator and up to the top floor. Here a “laboratory” had been set up and we were asked to smell things in jars, and write down thoughts and feelings while attached to a “monitor”. More about taste and smell and how it makes us feel. Which in retrospect is very interesting – part of what I wrote about in my assignment was the fostering of emotional attachments to brands.

Back down to the nexus and probably another Le Fizz I think and then listened to a talk by the Grey Goose maître de chai Francois Thibault. He’s the man who is in charge of Grey Goose production. Other vodkas, gins, etc, would have a master distiller but Grey Goose, being very French, has a maître de chai. All about taste and extracting the essence of the finest French wheat when making Grey Goose. And about Cognac. Grey Goose is bottled in Cognac and blended with limestone-filtered spring water from the area, so the Cognac association is heavily played. French. Luxury. Long history of premium spirits production. etc.

A somewhat surreal and all-round brilliant afternoon. I came away thinking that should I find myself buying vodka in the near future that it would definitely be Grey Goose. Then chastised myself for having been led astray from my previous standpoint.

A few days later not just a bottle of Grey Goose arrived by post but also little tasting bottles of their flavoured versions – Lemon, Orange and Pear. I mixed Kerri a Le Fizz which she really enjoyed (and ordered another of) and then played around with the others, making a delicious cocktail with the pear vodka. I gave myself the credit for inventing it but it turned out similar to one in the accompanying little recipe book and the ingredients weren’t dissimilar to the Le Fizz although the resulting taste was quite different: Grey Goose Le Poire vodka, elderflower cordial, small squeeze of lime, shake with plenty of ice then add a splash of soda. We didn’t have vermouth, so didn’t venture into martinis, but will certainly do so soon.

Grey Goose is available in Waitrose for £32 a bottle and in bars for probably considerably more. You may notice its blue-and-grey adverts around London as this event is part of its first big UK marketing campaign. I saw a lot of them on Westfield’s electronic advertising boards recently when walking through.

* Though some people think that vodka comes from Russia or Poland and is made from potatoes, it doesn’t actually have to come from anywhere in particular, nor be made from anything in particular. And although a lot of it does come from Eastern Europe, Absolut is of course Swedish and Finlandia… well… Finnish. Various others are made all over the world. It is often made from grain (wheat, barley or rye) and cheaper stuff from sugar beet.

I first heard about Hotel TerraVina online some time last year. It’s a boutique hotel situated in the New Forest and was devised by the people who put together the Hotel du Vin chain. The emphasis is on good food and wine (two of our favourite things) and while staying there, you can also learn the art of sabrage.

When we were in Champagne a few years ago, we saw lots of people taking the tops off Champagne bottles with swords but never got the chance to try it ourselves. It seemed like the perfect birthday present for Stephen so I booked it and tried to keep it a secret until the day arrived.

I’m not very good at keeping secrets but I managed this one and on Wednesday afternoon, we drove down to the hotel where we were greeted warmly by the staff before checking into a beautifully decorated bedroom with a view over the nearby forest. The rooms are all named after different types of wine and are all individually decorated, many with roll-top baths in the rooms. The emphasis is definitely on quality with handmade toiletries from nearby Wiltshire in the bathroom and bespoke furniture in the bedroom made by local craftsmen.

As lovely as the room was, we were keen to investigate the well-appointed bar that we had spotted on our arrival. After perusing the open-faced wine cellar, we chose a glass from the extensive and well-researched wine list that specialised in Californian wine. Not the nasty, over-oaked type that was once associated with California but the perfectly balanced, full-bodied examples that we both love. After finishing our wine, we were led outside where Stephen was shown how to use the sabre to remove the Champagne cork by one of the hotel’s expert sommeliers. After the short lesson, it was Stephen’s turn and he did a great job of taking the cork off while making the whole thing look very easy.

Back in the warmth of the bar and while enjoying our Champagne, we were presented with the evening’s menu which had a good selection of both meat and fish dishes (there were probably some vegetarian dishes too but we didn’t register those) with a heavy bias on seasonal and local produce. We struggled to choose as everything sounded wonderful and it was obvious that a lot of time and thought had been put into creating a compact menu with quality ingredients.

I opted for the lasagne of crab and langoustine to start and Stephen chose the loin of rabbit. The presentation of both dishes was beautiful and the flavours certainly didn’t disappoint. Crab and langoustine lasagne is one of my favourite starters and the execution of this dish was stunning. The basil added a slightly unusual note that I hadn’t come across in this dish before but, coupled with the lemongrass, was a fragrant compliment to the sweet and perfectly cooked fish.

Stephen’s rabbit dish was heartier than my fish but was well balanced and just the right size to not be too heavy. Even though I’m not a big fan of beetroot, I could tell that this worked well with the earthy rabbit and was a great nod towards the change in season.

Neither of us could decide between the pork and the venison main courses so we had both with the intention of sharing. I preferred the venison and Stephen the pork so the decision was made for us quite quickly. The standout for me was the slow roast venison which just melted in the mouth. We fought over that as we did the black pudding that accompanied Stephen’s pork: a great combination and one I’ll definitely try again at home.

By the end of the two courses we were both reaching capacity but were so enjoying our time in the restaurant that we ordered a plate of cheese to share which we polished off with some dessert wine. I can’t remember what all the cheeses were but they were the perfect way to finish off a brilliant meal.

Things got a little hazy after that, for which I’ll blame the absinthe fountain. It was great fun and made even more enjoyable by the knowledgeable and charming barman who was happy to answer our questions. The full English breakfast we ate the next morning was definitely required to heal our heads and was prepared with just the same level of care and attention as the food had been the night before.

It was a brilliant trip and I can’t fault the food, the wine or the service. Since it was a gift, I can’t reveal the price here but it was great value and if you’re looking for a slightly unusual way to celebrate then I would definitely recommend the sabrage break. The hotel also offers a number of other wine breaks often with visiting winemakers which we hope to return for next year.

I have been planning this one for a while, probably ever since last weekend when I decided that we needed to cook another African dish. As it turns out, Ghana have made it through to the next round, but we have already cooked a Ghanaian dish so thought we would try Cameroon now and maybe Ghana again later.

Ndole is the national dish of Cameroon. There are many recipes for it, but the things that they all contain are – it is a soup made from bitterleaf (or other green leaves if you can’t find those, e.g. kale, collard or spinach), peanuts and shrimps with additions of salted or smoked fish and/or almost any sort of meat. Some contain chilli, garlic and/or ginger and some contain tomatoes. We ended up mostly following this recipe.

I wondered where to find bitterleaf and tried Shepherd’s Bush market, but failed to find it there. While there I did manage to get yam and plantain though. The food sold in the market is aimed more towards Carribean cooking rather than West and Central African, which explains the lack of bitter leaf. I did learn about yams though – the white yam (which I bought) is popular in West Africa whereas the yellow yam is popular in the Carribean. A lot of the yams were from Brazil too, which was interesting but not what I was after. I bought one that claimed to be from Ghana. Which is kinda close to Cameroon if you look at a very small map of Africa while squinting. In North America, sweet potatoes are often called yams but they are actually quite different.

So the Ndole recipe itself involved sauteeing onion, garlic and ginger for a while before adding tomatoes. Then adding peanuts, cooking for a bit longer before adding greens (spinach in our case, which doesn’t take long to cook) and then smoked fish and chopped prawns. I figured that we are probably going to eat a fair amount of red meat this weekend, so even though various Ndole recipes included meat, we stuck to the fishy version. I ended up putting in smoked haddock as the smoked fish.

Fufu is interesting. It is a staple of many West African meals and includes a starch of some sort pounded and mixed to a texture similar to thick mashed potato. Often yam is used, but sometimes millet or other starch is used too. We had a yam and boiled it until it was soft, then peeled it and mashed it. Kerri was out last night, so I was doing the mashing on my own and I didn’t quite get it to the texture that it should have been because I didn’t have anyone to hold the pot while I did the heavy-duty mixing, mashing and pounding that was required. It was the first time I had tried it and the smell reminded me a lot of chestnuts and the taste was similar to mild chestnuts too. It went well with the Ndole, the taste and texture blending seeming to complement it well.

I also quickly chopped up a plaintain and fried it to serve as a side dish. It was interesting, sort of like a more savoury, firmer version of a banana, but didn’t seem to complement the rest of it as well as the yam did. Boiled plantains are often served with Ndole, but as we had the yam I decided to go for frying instead, but maybe boiling would have made it go better with the rest of it.

All in all, a very interesting dish and well worth the investigation. We will almost certainly try this again at some point and I am keen to try it with proper bitterleaf instead of spinach, potentially with some meat and chilli in it too. Kerri mentioned that it was the most interesting venture that we had tried into the various world cup cuisines and I think I would agree with her there. Pity Cameroon have been knocked out, but we can try another dish from Ghana when they next play in order to investigate West and Central African food further.

This week is British Pie Week and with not a lot planned for dinner this weekend, we were grateful for the suggestion. This was actually supposed to be tomorrow’s lunch but we ended up swapping things around since tonight’s planned dish needed to spend some time in the freezer to tenderise, more on that tomorrow.

We considered various different fillings for our pie but eventually settled on beef and oyster since it’s been on our “to cook” list for some time. In the 1800s oysters were traditionally used in pies since they were cheap, plentiful and were a good way to add flavour and it’s something that’s always intrigued us. We had originally planned to use red wine but since we were making something typically British, changed our mind at the last minutes and opted for stout instead.

The stout added a distinctive bitter note to the pie that was slightly tempered by the sweetness of the carrots, we both agreed that we would have preferred the flavour of red wine though. The oysters had a pleasant, silky texture but didn’t add much in the way of flavour. Having not cooked with oysters before, we left out the juice, fearing it would make everything too salty but, in hindsight, this would have added an extra dimension.

Beef and Oyster Pie
Serves Two

Vegetable oil, for frying
Flour, for frying
500g braising steak
1 large onion, sliced
1 leek, sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 carrot, diced
1 stick celery, diced
250g button mushrooms
Bay leaf
4 stalks thyme
Tablespoon tomato puree
Salt and pepper
150ml stout
150ml beef stock
Tablespoon worcester sauce
8 oysters
Puff pastry

Start by tossing the beef in seasoned flour. Shake off the excess and brown the meat in batches. Remove to a plate and reserve.

In the same pan, soften the onion, leek, garlic, carrot and celery in some oil. Remove to a plate and reserve.

In the same pan, soften the mushrooms.

Return the meat and the vegetables to the pan and add the thyme and bay leaf. Add the tomato puree and season, cook for two minutes.

Add the stout and allow the alcohol to cook out. Next, add the stock and the worcester sauce and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and allow to simmer for 1.5 hours.

If the liquid hasn’t reduced, remove the meat and vegetables and boil hard until there is just enough liquid to coat the meat.

Transfer the contents to a pie dish, (leaving to cool first will prevent the pastry from becoming soggy), add the oysters and top with the pastry. Cook until browned, about 25 minutes.

Allens of Mayfair is the oldest butcher’s shop in London having proudly occupied the same site for the last 120 years. The history of the building is evident as soon as you approach the shop but once inside, it’s immediately obvious that this is no backwards-looking kind of establishment.

What’s most striking are the carcasses proudly hanging up in the middle of the shop, ready for butchering. It’s nothing like the sterile atmosphere of the local supermarket, not only can you see the meat but you can smell it too. And it smells good. A little challenging on a Saturday morning, particularly if you’ve over-indulged the night before but a good indication of what was to follow.

I was lucky enough to be there for one of their butchery classes, held in the middle of the shop around the impressive butcher’s block. While I knew I would be getting my hands dirty, I wasn’t sure exactly what I would be butchering since this is dependant on what’s in season and what’s available. David, the co-owner, explained that today’s selection was chicken, lamb and beef.

We started with the chicken, probably because it was the easiest. Except it wasn’t and I soon realised that there’s a reason Stephen deals with the butchery in our kitchen. David and his colleagues were on hand to help though and I eventually managed to do a reasonable job, although there was definitely more meat left on my carcass than there should have been.

Luckily for me, David and his colleagues were more than happy to continue helping me as I attempted to portion a whole oxtail, French trim a rack of lamb (which involves both a saw and a cleaver) and de-bone a beef sirloin. It wasn’t easy but it was most definitely rewarding and by the end of the class I felt reasonably confident in my ability.

Aside from the butchery, it quickly became apparent just how much skill is involved in the production of something like a rack of lamb. Sure, I’ve trimmed a half-rack and cleaned bones at home before but have never given much thought to what’s involved in the steps before (the sawing and the cleavering is what I’m talking about here!). Allens supply many of London’s finest restaurants and part of the aim behind the course is to leave people with an understanding of what’s involved in getting their restaurant steak to the table.

At £100, it’s not cheap but it’s a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon and you get to take all that meat home with you too. Yep, I struggled to the tube with a whole chicken, an oxtail, a rack of lamb and that impressive beef sirloin compete with bones to turn into stock. It’s going to be a meaty week!

I spent Friday at the Masterchef Live (previously the BBC Good Food Show) event at Olympia, courtesy of the blogpaper. Arriving early gave us a good opportunity to wander around while it was quiet and check out what was on offer. With a full timetable of Invention Tests and Masterclasses throughout the day, it was necessary to plan our visit with military precision.

We started in the Cookery Experience area watching a ‘Cook-Off’ which was introduced by Olly Smith and hosted by Top-Chef-and-Restaurateur-John-Torode and Ingredients-Expert-Greg-Wallace. Previous winners, James Nathan (who now works for Rick Stein) and Thomasina Miers (owner of Wahaca) were given 20 minutes to create a dish from mystery bags which included prawns, pork chops and chocolate. James was crowned the eventual winner for his chilli prawns as John and Greggy (as he’s affectionately called by John) bemoaned the lack of heat in most dishes they were expected to judge.

I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this as much as I did; having watched a lot of Masterchef lately, I was beginning to tire of the hackneyed phrases and cliches but John and Gregg were much more natural than they come across on camera. Olly Smith was of course as brilliantly extravagant and boisterous as he always is.

After this, we did a little wandering around the 200 producer stands on the top floor before dropping into one of the Masterchef Theatres for a cookery demonstration. I’ve not been to a food event like this for a while and I’ve previously been a little disappointed with some of the exhibitors as the same ones seem to turn up all the time but this seemed to draw a much more diverse crowd showing plenty of things I’d not seen before.

I picked up some Palestinian olive oil, having read about it earlier in the year. It had a distinctive grassy and slightly bitter taste to it and was much more developed in flavour than the Mediterranean oil I’m used to. I also tasted some really good Croatian oil that isn’t yet available in the UK but I’ll be looking out for it when it does arrive.

Rice bran oil was another thing that found it’s way into my shopping bag. Billed as a healthier alternative to vegetable oil, at £1 for 250ml it seemed worth a shot. I’m yet to try it yet and am already beginning to suspect that it’s going to be another one of those ingredients that looks interesting but languishes at the back of the cupboard until the use by date has expired. Which is why I left behind the black garlic.

Alongside oil, cheese was probably the most represented food at the event. I could have spent a fortune but limited myself to some Laverstoke Park Farm mozarella. Stephen and I have had it before and loved it and it was perfect on our Friday night pizza.

Although we had already sampled a fair amount of food, we ate lunch in the Restaurant Experience area which, much like at Taste of London, features several pop-up versions of well-known restaurants. Having seen Theo Randall cook a leg of lamb earlier in the day, I headed towards his Intercontinental stand and opted for the Cape Sante: scallop, pancetta and lentils with capers, parsley and chilli. It wasn’t a huge portion but it was very good, the classic combination of fish and pork was given an earthy, wintery feel with the addition of the puy lentils and the chilli.

The afternoon was spent tasting yet more food and I also spent some time wine tasting. There wasn’t anything particularly remarkable in this area but the Crabbies Ginger Beer was very good though and would be lovely on a hot day.

Seven hours after I’d arrived, my sore feet and arms told me it was time to take my oil and cheese home. I can’t say that this event Changed My Life but it was good to see lots of interesting, new producers in one place and be able to taste their products before buying them. I’d have a cupboard full of black garlic otherwise.

Full set of pictures can be seen here.