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BErNArd HiNE siXTH GENErATiON

AlMOsT A cENTury AGO, GEOrGEs THOMAs HiNE

crEATEd ANTiquE, TOdAy XO PrEMiEr cru reen

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FOr AlMOsT 250 yEArs, THE HOusE OF HiNE HAVE PrOducEd FiNE cOGNAcs: THEir MAXiM BEiNG ‘PrOducE liTTlE BuT MAKE iT PErFEcT’.

THOMAs HiNE & c° JArNAc – FrANcE

DRINK RESPONSIBLY 7

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hese days, Scotland, Wales and Ireland are often considered the superior foodie destinations in the British Isles, with the richness and distinctness of their rural traditions. But England, although the home of plenty of offerings of questionable excitement (boiled carrots anyone, or jam roly poly?), has much to offer too beyond its warm beer and invincible green suburbs.

of a food ramble around Cornwall by Imogen Lycett Green who also features on these pages as the host of a new series of lunches with well-known actors, writers and other figures, using the memories of their favourite foods, wines and spirits as a means of exploring their rich lives and careers. We taste all manner of ice-creams in order to recommend the best buys for you from the supermarket to specialist

One website we found prefers to summarise it as ‘fish and chips, rolling hills and sarcasm’, but we’ve unearthed a few other gems as part of a small summer England theme. We visit the foodie haven of Ludlow, which has suffered its ups and downs but is once again on the rise; and taste the delights of English vodka — as disturbing a concept to some as would be Polish gin, but tasty enough for our Polish author Marcin Miller to review a few cultural prejudices.

Among our seasonal recipes nestles a historical delicacy — the evocatively named, 400-year-old salmagundi, a ‘layered salad’ combining sweet, sour, herbs, leaves, meats and egg in a timely reminder that weird and wonderful coalitions can sometimes pay off.

stockists, and enlist the help of the inimitable Jason

Yapp to teach you the secrets of chilling red wine — yes, that’s right, red can be pretty dandy when served cold(ish).

Lest we get too carried away with the brief sparkle of the sun, however, a note of realism is injected into the picture by writer and broadcaster William Sitwell, in his take on the growing modern British madness for outdoor eating — ‘al fresco loco’. Just what is it all about? He suggests that our attempts to capture the Italianate fantasy of eating in the sun beneath floral terraces is more likely to be characterised by concrete, cars and collapsing picnic tables. Will that put you off? We somehow doubt it. But don’t say you weren’t warned.

Alice Whitehead celebrates the Cornish pasty, a real social climber of the food world, while among many associated features to be found exclusively on our ever-expanding website is a report

Jonathan Ray and Dan Jellinek, co-editors, SpectatorScoff!

johnny@spectatorscoff.co.uk, dan@spectatorscoff.co.uk

Amuse-bouches potted guide to the best of our web articles and blogs

Athis season. Just visit www.spectator.co.uk/scoff and search or add the links below each entry to the web address above. A problem shared: Violet Hatfields discovers her disappointing ≥≥ experience at the Wallace Restaurant is by no means isolated: / scoff/5953928/breaking-up-is-hard-to-do.thtml

EuroHash: Wine expert Joss Fowler gets chippy waiting for the ≥≥ 2009 clarets to arrive: /6035568/eurohash.thtml

Friends, Romans, Countrymen: Bibi van der Zee watches ≥≥ grown men weep as Martin Blunos and his team cook at The Pass: /articles/5901668/friends-romans-countrymen.thtml

Postmodernist angst as Frank Armstrong bemoans the ≥≥ gastronome’s lot with his recipe for Chicken Foucault: /articles/5986943/gasterea-of-the-long-forelock.thtml

Tilly Culme-Seymour prepares for the true British summer ≥≥ with a warming recipe for a wet Saturday: /blog/6041638/soup-days.thtml

In her twenties, party girl Charmain Ponnuthurai was best ≥≥ not at cooking, rather at making coffee — always fresh, black and very, very strong. Older and wiser, she argues the kitchen is a cool spot for night owls no matter what time they come sneaking back home: /blog/5901003/what-do-party-girls-eat-at-home.thtml www.spectator.co.uk/scoff

SpectatorScoff! Summer 2010