Celebrity chef James Martin has joined forces with recipe sharing site manyfacesofpotatoes.co.uk, to search for Britain’s favourite potato recipe, ready in 30 minutes or less.

To inspire home-cooks to go beyond the staple baked or mashed potato, James has created a selection of his own 30 minute favourite potato recipes which include: Salmon Fish Cakes, with a Lemon and Basil Mayonnaise; Herb Chicken and Potato Kebabs, and Pan-Roasted Potato Tart with Goat’s Cheese and Red Onion.

James is calling upon budding home-cooks to upload their own or their family’s much-loved, quick and tasty potato recipe to www.manyfacesofpotatoes.co.uk. The winning recipe will have the opportunity to feature in a national TV advert, to be aired in July 2012, and the lucky winner will receive a luxury family farm stay holiday for four in the beautiful English countryside.

From the hundreds of potato dishes uploaded, 12 finalists will be selected from across Britain. The finalists’ dishes will then be tasted by a panel of serious foodies – including James – before the winning recipe is selected.

James Martin said: “Manyfacesofpotatoes.co.uk is a fantastic recipe sharing website, where you’ll find a whole host of quick and tasty potato dishes, including some of my own. Who knows, you might discover a new family favourite.”

For hundreds of simple and delicious recipe ideas, as well as James’ top potato tips, go to www.manyfacesofpotatoes.co.uk

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Available for download now – its free but they insist you register – is the second issue of The Cocktail Lovers Magazine.

The contents include:
Spotlight on spirited females in the drinks industry
The team from Callooh Callay add East End swagger to West End style
Tasting the best cocktails Berlin has to offer
London bars with birds eye views
Rebekkah Dooley talks to Tomas Estes, the tequila ambassador
Detox or Retox?
Plus 25 reasons we’re loving this season

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The way to a perfect stress-free Christmas dinner is just a click away thanks to the new free and must see Christmas cookery website which has been launched by Ashburton Cookery School.

The “The Perfect Christmas Dinner” website has been designed by one of the UK’s leading cookery schools to take the stress out of cooking for what can be one of the most pressurised family meals of the year.

Ashburton Cookery School’s professional chef tutors have included 26 video recipes covering every component of the traditional Christmas meal. Either watch a video or print off a favourite recipe for free. The site offers essential tips and expert advice from everything on how to cook perfect crispy roast potatoes to creating the most succulent turkey. Cook canapés with confidence and dazzle your family and friends with perfect puddings and decadent mince pies.

The website simplifies the meal into separate sections and gives advice on meal planning and delicious recipe ideas to master the classic Christmas meal with all the trimmings.

It is an essential culinary tool to have at your fingertips according to the Chef Director for Ashburton Cookery School Darrin Hosegrove: “ The website is very simple to use and it will bring Ashburton Cookery School renowned training to you in your very own kitchen. It will guide you through the difficulties of cooking for large groups of people, using tips and helpful hints based on the broad wealth of experience from our talented chefs at the cookery school.”

Further details on the Cook The Perfect Christmas Dinner can be found at the dedicated website www.perfectChristmasDinner.co.uk

For more information about Christmas cookery courses or the full range of courses available at Ashburton Cookery School then please visit: www.ashburtoncookeryschool.co.uk

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The influential cruise news and reviews website, Cruise Critic, has announced its 2011 Editor’s Picks Awards with accolades for the best wining and dining at sea.

The awards which celebrate excellence in cruise travel are selected by a panel of international cruise journalists. This year, the 2011 categories have a distinct gastro flavour with awards for, among others, “Best Dining,” “Best Alternative Restaurant,” “Best Buffet,” “Best Wine List” and “Best Bar”, as well as an award for “Best for Healthy Eating”.

Awards were widely distributed among the cruise lines offering itineraries for U.K. travellers, but Oceania collected top honours for “Best Dining”. The award citation stated “Not only does Oceania’s superb alternative dining come at no supplement, but it’s consistently excellent. The restaurants actually look like upmarket shoreside bistros and extra touches like an olive oil menu here and a proper cheese trolley there simply add to this class act. Better still, there’s no compromise on the outstanding cuisine in the elegant main dining room on each ship.”

Oceania was also judged to have the Best Buffet, a subject close to many a cruiser’s heart: “Oceania has successfully created a gourmet marketplace in Marina’s Terrace Café, as opposed to the canteen style into which many lines fall. Hot and cold tapas, pizzas from the oven, giant paellas, grilled-to-order meats and fish and decadently rich breakfasts on the sunny aft deck make this a place to linger over a meal at any time of day.”

Meanwhile, Cunard took home three top awards including “Best Alternative Restaurant” for The Verandah on its newest ship, Queen Elizabeth: “Cunard’s nostalgic venture back the Golden Age of cruising, when The Verandah on the original Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary was the most stylish restaurant at sea, has paid off in spades. The sumptuous cream-and-gold décor aside, chef Jean-Marie Zimmerman’s classic French dishes are exquisite.”

Another British favourite P&O Cruises took top honours in two categories including “Best Cruise Ship Bar” which was was awarded to The Glass House on the Azura: “Jolly Olly Smith’s exuberance and passion for wine are apparent throughout Azura’s stylish The Glass House, a bar/wine-pairing grill for which the TV presenter has tracked down unusual but affordable wines to taste by the glass, accompanied by irreverent but informative descriptions. The knowledgeable bartenders make this a fun place to hang out, chat and learn about the wines.”

Finally Celebrity Cruises Solstice-class ships were given the accolades of “Best for Wine Lovers” as well as “Best for Healthy Eating”. Commenting on cruise line’s wine offering, Cruise Critic said: “The enormous wine tower gracing one end of the light and airy main dining rooms on Celebrity’s four Solstice-class ships is a sure sign that this is a line that takes its wine seriously. As well as the extensive wine list, there’s a huge range of wines by the glass and regular on-board tastings.” And regarding Celebrity’s healthy eating option, comments included: “Celebrity’s focus on offering a wide range of healthy dishes in formal restaurants and more casual venues like the AquaSpa Café makes it easier to stay on a wellness track, even when faced with the usual cruise temptations.”

Talking about the Cruise Critic U.K. Awards for 2011, Carolyn Spencer Brown said, “The U.K. cruise industry continues to grow year-on-year, despite the tough economy, due in part to the exceptional standard of service and hospitality provided by the cruise lines that keep customers coming back time and time again. That’s something the industry as a whole can be proud of. With these awards, however, we aim to honour the cruise lines that deserve credit in specific areas, where we believe they truly excel, such as dining or onboard activities.”
The annual Cruise Critic U.K. Editors’ Picks Awards complement the Cruisers’ Choice Awards, which are announced in the spring and highlight the cruise ships which receive the highest ratings from reviews posted on Cruise Critic.

For the full list of winners, as well as information on why each award was given to a particular line, ship or port, please go to: http://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/news/news.cfm?ID=4660

There are 25 different categories embracing a wide variety of cruises, ships and onboard features and attractions available to U.K. travellers.

• Best for Dining: Oceania Cruises
• Best Alternative Restaurant: Cunard – Verandah Restaurant (Queen Elizabeth)
• Best Buffet: Oceania Cruises — Marina
• Best for Wine-Lovers: Celebrity Cruises — Solstice-Class Ships see Celebrity Eclipse and On the Celebrity Eclipse: The Cellar Masters Lounge
• Best Cruise Ship Bar: P&O Cruises — The Glass House (Azura)

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Great British Chefs, a digital business championing the best chefs across Britain (www.greatbritishchefs.com/the-app), has today launched the Feastive app, a new iPhone and iPad app aimed at bringing a touch of culinary glamour to Christmas and New Year celebrations with the help of 12 of the best chefs in the country, including Marcus Wareing, Tom Aikens and Simon Rogan.

The app puts 60 recipes – ranging from brilliantly simple through to haute cuisine – in the palm of your hand, encouraging food-lovers to attempt anything from a single ‘feastive’ dish to a full five course menu featuring the lost art of canapé and petit four. The app also offers novice users a range of how-to videos on difficult sections of recipes and features a voice control function so users don’t have to get their iPhones and iPads sticky.

The Feastive app, which follows the success of the Great British Chefs app earlier this year, features some of the most dynamic British chefs offering their take on a seasonal meal. The app delivers recipes ranging from Roasted venison, wild mushroom pie and creamed parsnips to Coconut Pistachio Snowballs, while Vineet Bhatia, one of the newest additions to the collective, offers an alternative to the traditional roast in the form of an Grilled lamb rack, cinnamon lamb jus Apricot-walnut cous cous Blue cheese-lamb tikki.

Matthew Fort, strategic advisor to Great British Chefs, comments: ‘If you can’t celebrate at this time of year, when can you? There’s no need to celebrate Christmas the way you did last year and the year before that, not when there’s inspiration, help and advice from some of the country’s finest chefs at the touch of a button and the scroll of a finger on the Feastive App. It’s a feast for the eyes, for the brain, and above all for the tummy.’

Marcus Wareing comments: ‘The restaurant goes mad around this time of year. Everyone wants to enjoy good food and good company and that is the reason I do what I do so I am thrilled to share even more of my favourite recipes on the new Feastive App from Great British Chefs. With step-by-step recipe instructions and ‘how to’ films on complex sections it fills me with great pleasure knowing that people of all cooking abilities will be recreating my dishes in the comfort of their own homes – making Christmas time even more memorable for friends and family.”

The Feastive app features 12 of the UK’s best chefs with a free upgrade to 23 chefs and 110 recipes for free from 1 December.

The brand new app includes multiple features to make sure that the cooking experience is enjoyable and stress free:

Easy-to-use, intuitive navigation and search facility so people can find the recipes for them whether searching by ingredient, course or chef . Making the cooking process easier, the voice control function allows cooks to cook without even touching their iPad or iPhone . Access to three menus made up of 5 courses (canapés, starters, mains, desserts and petit fours) from each chef including the full step by step recipes . A series of ‘How To’ films for particularly tricky stages of recipes . Shopping list function meaning cooks can collect together a list of produce they will need and view them by aisle or by recipe . Full information on all the chefs including a profile video with links to where they cook and a cookbook list linking directly to Amazon . The new app will be compatible with iPhone (iOS 3.2 or later), iPad and iPad2. Using stunning photography, the iPad and iPhone apps have been carefully designed to make usability and functionality of an equally high standard on both Apple devices.

The Great British Chefs Festive app is available for £1.99.

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VeggieVision “Your Healthy Vegetarian Lifestyle Internet TV Station’ is running a competition to win an ‘exclusive’ private charter hot air balloon ride!

You will experience a superb adventure as we drift quietly along in one of the oldest forms of air travel. After your balloon flight, we will celebrate with traditional champagne toast made popular after the first hot air balloon voyage.

You enjoy real value with our hot air balloon trips – besides the flight itself, you’ll get:
• champagne
• informative tour of the flight terrain
• a flight certificate signed by the pilot
• transport back to the launch site
• lots of help and advice with preparations and planning
• local parking managed for you
• free insurance

To enter head on over to VeggieVisionTV and answer a simple question…

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Award-winning micro-brewery WJ King has become the first brewery in the world to put their head brewer into every pub. Exploiting new technology, the Brewery has added a unique QR code to the pump clip and bottle label of each of its 25 beers. Scanning this code with a smartphone enabled by the freely available QR App, automatically links to a video of Head Brewer, Ian Burgess, talking about that specific beer and the ingredients from which it is made.

Real Ale is the fastest growing sector in the pub trade and new style microbreweries like WJ King are attracting a new generation of real ale fans all over the South East of England. This new generation of beer drinkers is passionate about what they eat and drink and they have a real thirst for knowledge about the provenance, ingredients and manufacturing process of what they are drinking.

Marketing Director Orla Lambe comments: “This is such a fantastic and obvious way to communicate with our customers at the point they are deciding which beer to choose, that we are sure other brewers will follow our example. It will be great for the consumer and we are very proud of being the first brewery in the world, we believe, to put our Head Brewer in every pub.”

WJ King Head Brewer, Ian Burgess, is more knowledgeable about beer than most, due to his 32 years of experience in the business and he is very proud of the natural ingredients and traditional brewing techniques that go into every pint of WJ King beer.

Ian comments “We want to ensure that customers really understand the style and flavour characteristics of each of our beers and how they are made, to allow them to make an informed choice of which beer to try. Being able to see me in the brewery talking about each beer will hopefully help them to develop their pallet and understand a little bit about the art of the brewer.”

The videos of Ian talking about the beers are also available to view on the Brewery website at www.kingbeer.co.uk and on YouTube at youtube.com/user/WjkingBeer for customers who do not have smartphones.

Brendan Shannon, Food and Beverage Manager of the Metropole Hilton Hotel in Brighton says “this is the most innovative way to get customers to choose one beer over another I have ever seen. It is genius and yet so simple and a great learning tool for my bar staff too”…..

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The 21st edition of Cool Cucumber TV is now served. It’s ready and waiting at www.coolcucumber.tv.

This new edition begins with the Elephant in the Room – at Cyrus Todiwala’s enticing new restaurant at the recently-opened Hilton close to Heathrow’s Terminal 5.
After which we rush over to sunny Barnes to take a look at all the goodies on offer at the very first Barnes Food Fair.
For our books item, we grabbed Jane Hornby after her cookery demonstration at the Food Fair in Barnes and persuaded her to talk about her excellent and useful book “What to Cook and How to Cook it”.

After which we bumped into star chef Phil Howard, of the Square – who is also behind the Ledbury, featured in coolcucumber tv programme 19. He talks about his restaurants, deliciousness, and the next generation of chefs.

Louis Xavier Lewis-Smith, the Hendricks Ambassador, invents a cocktail for us, which he calls his Grandfather’s Clock.

And finally, Paul Danabie from the Hilton does wonders with beetroot.

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The Hummingbird Bakery is well known not only for its beautiful recipes, but also the bakery books that allow you recreate your favourite cupcakes at home. The new app, accompanying their second book Cake Days, has 85 recipes and 20 exclusive videos showing you how they make some of their favourite cakes, including a guide to frosting, decorating and some friendly video advice when your baking doesn’t quite go according to plan.

Including features such as clapping your hands to change the recipe steps and saving ingredients straight to your shopping list, it’s a practical easy to use addition to your app collection. Optimised for iPhone, it works on the iPad too.

Cake Days: Recipes to make every day special not only includes the Hummingbird favourites that so many people have come to love, but many new ideas such as cocktail and fizzy pop cupcakes, flower-infused cupcakes and sticky toffee pudding cupcakes. Whether you fancy a classic Red Velvet, or want to bake Lemonade cupcakes for a party, the Hummingbird Bakers will show you how easy it is to make fun and delicious cakes. In addition readers will find the Hummingbird’s new whoopie pie recipes, easy tray bakes, classic layer cakes, cheesecakes and plenty of scrumptious cookies.

Tarek Malouf was born in London and studied at London and Los Angeles universities, where he discovered American desserts. After working for ABC News in the UK and enjoying American desserts on trips to the USA, he decided to set up The Hummingbird Bakery on Portobello Road. The Bakery’s home-cooked cupcakes, pies, brownies and other high-quality American desserts were a huge success and the Bakery now has branches in South Kensington and Soho.

Visit the website at www.hummingbirdbakery.com

The Cake Days App is available from the Apple App Store, priced £3.99

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Ocado, the online supermarket, are proud to announce that they now stock the delicious Reflets de France range from Carrefour, offering over 100 items from a huge selection of delicious French favourites, from cured meats and tasty cheeses to fruity jams and rich pates, to UK shoppers.

The Reflets de France range includes baked goods such as brioche, galettes and cakes, biscuits, butter and cheeses, tinned goods, pastas, preserves, cured meats and patés, sausages and so on. Price-wise the Reflets de France Orange & Clementine Jam, great for making a Wallingford Tart, is £2.99 for example, a jar of Reflets de France Campagne Rough Pate is £2.25 and a Reflets de France Plated Brioche Loaf is £3.29.

The full range of products can be viewed/purchased from a dedicated Ocado Reflets de France page.

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The Foodie List - Foodie stuff from around the UK