Posted by admin | Under Special Offers
Friday Nov 20, 2009
With Christmas just around the corner now is the time to start planning your Christmas food shopping and present buying.
Popular discount code website Discount Tart have release a number of excellent food and drink discounts to help make Christmas food shopping a little bit cheaper.
Whilst it is still a slightly early to buy your food for the big day there are still lots of great food and drink offers that make excellent presents for other people.
Current food and drink deals on the site include -
25% off French wines at Marks and Spencers
20% discount code for Thorntons
20% discount code for Whittards of Chelsea
There are also many other additional deals and offers for lots of food and drink shops including many supermarket discount codes and deals which will be very useful as we reach December.
About Discount Tart
Discount Tart has been running for 4 years and offers a wide selection of discount codes as well as time sensitive shopping deals. The site has saves hundreds of consumers money over its 4 years of being live.
Deals and codes on the site are updated daily and correct at time of publishing.
Posted by Alan | Under Celebrity Chefs
Thursday Nov 19, 2009
Celebrity chef Marco Pierre White may soon find himself in hot water with his upcoming task of presiding over a Red Devil Kitchen with footballer cooks.
The event will take place in Old Trafford and will see the well known Hell’s Kitchen cook take charge of a crew of Manchester United Players as they test their culinary skills out at a swanky diner with real customers.
The football players in the show will be Rio Ferdinand, Edwin Van Der Sar, and Patrice Evra who have already been featured in another cooking segment of the MUTV Red Devil Kitchen show.
For this particular occasion however Rio will lead the way as all proceeds from the event will benefit Live the Dream Foundation which is his charity. Additionally, the event will be good practice for Rio who is set to open his own Italian restaurant in Manchester soon.
Wayne Rooney was also scheduled to appear on the dining extravaganza but cancelled his appearance after his son Kai was born last week.
The players will each be in charge of preparing different dinner courses and patrons at the diner will decide which of the players cooked the best. The winner will then be revealed in a special question and answer segment filmed live after the dinner is complete.
The event was organized by Front Row events who stated that due to the popularity of the idea that Manchester’s City players may be featured on a similar event in the future.
Account manager of Front Row, Simon McFarland stated that since sportsman dinners are not as intriguing or exciting to viewers anymore, the company created a niche event to get the footballers interested.
McFarland stated that they have already hosted a Hell’s Kitchen event at Aston Villa and that one will follow with Manchester City.
Posted by admin | Under Recipes
Wednesday Nov 18, 2009
Luxury Chocolate Cupcakes
Xmas is the most exciting time of the year but it can be a very confusing period as well especially when you have to decide on what would be the best Christmas presents to buy. Well what can be more amazing than some luxurious chocolate gifts that can make anybody’s heart warm this winter!
To make things easier for you, Hotel Chocolat brings a wide selection of Christmas Chocolates and ideas for every member of your family. Whether it is chocolate Santa and snowmen, or Christmas advent calendar for the kids or some premium luxury chocolates that the whole family can enjoy.. There is something for everyone!
Not just that, with the celebration is drawing nearer; you can now make perfect cakes with Hotel Chocolat’s extra special Cooking Chocolate. Well, here is the ideal recipe for just that occasion. Easy to prepare and even easier to consume, these cupcakes are bound to go down well.
Makes: 12 Cupcakes
Ease Of preparation: Easy
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Equipment
Sieve
Piping bag + Nozzle
Muffin tray
Cupcake Ingredients
- 85g Dark Chocolate for Cooking
- 85g butter, cut into 2cm cubes
- 100g soft light brown sugar
- 1 egg and 1 egg yolk at room temperature
- Half tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp soured cream
- 75g self-raising flour
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder
- Pinch salt
Icing Ingredients
- 30g Confectioners Icing Sugar
- 2tbsp Organic Cocoa Powder
- 75g of soft unsalted butter
- 25g of meted Dark chocolate for cooking (optional)
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180/ Gas mark 4 and line a muffin tin with 12 paper cases
- Put the chocolate, butter and Sugar in a heatproof bowl and place over simmering water and allow to melt, stirring continuously. Set aside to cool slightly.
- Whisk together the eggs, vanilla and soured cream. Stir this into the cooled chocolate mixture. Sift over the flour, cocoa powder and salt and fold in. Spoon into the paper cases, filing to around 2/3 full.
- Bake in a preheated oven for approx 20 minutes, until the muffins are risen and just firm to the touch. Allow to cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack
- To make the chocolate topping melt the dark chocolate over lightly simmering water. Allow to cool.
- Beat the butter, confectioner sugar and cocoa powder together. Add in the cooled chocolate a table spoon at a time until a thick consistency is achieved. Thick enough to pipe.
- Place the icing into a piping bag fitted with a piping nozzle of your choice and start from the centre of the cake and pipe outwards.
- Finish with desired decorations.
Posted by admin | Under Italian Restaurants, Special Offers
Tuesday Nov 17, 2009
Zia Teresa Restaurant celebrates its ‘Golden Anniversary’
Owned by Stefano Fraquelli of Metropolitan Restaurants and previously owned by his late father, Zia Teresa restaurant in Hans Road, Knightsbridge is this year celebrating its Golden Anniversary. To mark this momentous anniversary and the continuity of management and ownership, Fraquelli is offering every customer a complimentary glass of sparkling, golden Franciacorta wine, in association with one of Italy’s leading producers, La Montina, for the next 12 months.
Zia Teresa’s reputation and on-going success has earned it several accolades over the years, including The Independent’s “Best Neighbourhood Restaurant” award in 2005, for “serving hit-the-spot, reliable Italian food.” It was the only Knightsbridge restaurant that was consistently voted for by The Independent’s discerning readers. Incredibly for these times of credit crunch, sales figures are currently 25% up on last year, validating the impression that Fraquelli really knows how to look after his customers.
When asked about the success of this much-loved restaurant Fraquelli’s explanation is simple; “I’m terribly lucky; it’s probably one of the best locations for a restaurant in the world and we attract all generations from local residents to business people and tourists. They like the fact that the food is good quality without any hefty price tags, which you wouldn’t expect, given the location. People’s demands may appear to have changed over the decades, but in actual fact the success of Zia Teresa comes down to its traditional charm and character and the simplicity of the menu, which still reflects what Italian food has always been about. Nowadays there are very few concepts that are so resilient.”
Further endorsement of this special anniversary comes from Fiat’s flagship store in Marylebone, who have boldly displayed the Zia Teresa Golden Anniversary logo over two of their new Cinquecento model, (Fiat 500). Cinquecento and Zia Teresa could, in fact, both be considered modern day icons, with their roots firmly in the past, but still perfectly apposite in today’s world. One of London’s leading shirt-makers, T M Lewin, have sponsored the staff uniforms and collectively this level of support is a reflection of Fraquelli’s reputation and demonstrates their desire to be associated with this inveterate restaurateur, who was decorated with the esteemed title of ‘Cavaliere’ by the president of the Italian Republic, for his services and contribution to the Italian community.
Customers visiting the restaurant between November 2009 and 2010 will receive a complimentary glass of sparkling, golden Franciacorta wine; and for a limited period, a special 3 course Golden Anniversary Menu for only £15.00.
www.ziateresa.co.uk
Posted by Alan | Under Food Events
Tuesday Nov 17, 2009
Motherwell College students from Lanarkshire were chosen to help TV chef Gordon Ramsay with a 250 guest dinner for a charity gala. Seven students were selected to aid the celebrity chef prepare a six course meal for gala event that was organized on behalf of the Scottish Spina Bfida Association.
Outside of Ramsey, three other top chefs from Scotland were on board to cook for the event of which Ramsey is an honorary patron. It was Ramsey’s suggestion that the students also be invited to help out.
The dinner was hosted by Gordon and his wife, and was held at the Glasgow Science Centre.
The other chefs were Joe Queen, Willie Pike MBE, and Steven Docherty. Together the group worked on the menu for two days prior to cooking for the event.
All of the items were cooked with ingredients from local sources and guests were allowed to watch their food be prepared via a video link for “Hells Kitchen.”
Lecturer Jim Mullen stated that while the students seemed to be shy and awestruck at first they quickly got to work in the kitchen and continued to work for about 12 hours.
Mullen also stated that Ramsey had toned down his presence for the night from his lively TV persona, and was a gentleman offering the students advice about their future careers.
A student at the event, Hazel Gardner, commented that the night was amazing but exhausting at the same time because she had never been involved in such a large event before.
