Chef at Large

We had a dinner guest last evening and like all such occasions, there were a few left overs. Rather than leave the stuff in the fridge till it starts evolving into a different life form, I thought I’d use some of it for breakfast.
Boiled and mashed some potatoes, added a dash of mustard, paprika and [...]

A hectic day ended with a visit to Pind Balluchi. I wasn’t very enthusiastic about it as more often than not, places serving Indian food tend to smother everything in thick, over-spiced gravies. Also, when you see a ‘rustic’ ambience being offered, it’s probably their way of saying ‘our waiters are monosyllabic morons and our [...]

Cooking all three meals every day isn’t proving to be as much of a load as I thought it would be. After reaching home around 7:00pm with fresh vegetables and breads, dinner is ready in the next 1 hour. The next morning, breakfast is usually served around 7:30am with sandwiches for lunch ready by 8:15am. [...]

We visited Blanco a few days back for a drink and some food.
Quite a nice place. Either I haven’t been getting around as much as I used to, or restaurants are becoming more and more daring and experimenting with bold themes for their decor. I did like the way Blancos was set up. The staff [...]

I’ve been meaning to change the way we eat for quite a while, but for some reason or the other, didn’t really get around to it. But now, things are going to change and thats that. I’m tired of being overweight. Hence the new health regime at home now.
The kitchen is now off limits to [...]

We awoke to watery sunshine then went back to sleep.  We dozed for ages, it was so relaxing.  We read and drank coffee then went for a drive at about 3.00pm, by which time it was raining again.  We climbed Mont D’Or where D had been the previous evening but the 56 steps of the [...]

I cooked this for dinner yesterday. It’s interesting what innovative dishes you come up with, when you don’t really have a choice of cooking implements or ingredients.
Looking up my inventory, I chopped up some courgettes, spring onions, potatoes, smoked sausage, mushrooms and french beans. Heated some oil, fried a little cumin seed, added some finely [...]

We a woke to sunshine and I wore my summer clothes.  We had breakfast of fried eggs and mushrooms on  toasted sunflower bread, it was lovely.  French eggs all seem to have very yellow yolks and they are always delicious.  We read a little in the sunshine but soon had to have a little snooze…
We [...]

We awoke to a cool and damp day but as it is our holiday we don’t mind that much.  We did some basic shopping then had a drive out to the countryside.  There is a distinct lack of wild life in this area compared to some places we have stayed, the only things of interest have been [...]

On the MV Bretagne from Portsmouth we find our cabin and stow our luggage.  To the restaurant for dinner but there was a long queue and we had to put our names on a list to be called when a table became vacant.  To the rear deck, with drinks - Sancerre for me and a [...]