Food and drink news, latest recipes, wine reviews & more

A FAIR price to pay?

IMAGINE having to permanently forego your morning wake-up shot of Peruvian coffee or soothing cup of Assam tea. Read

Gourmet Spot, The Avenue, Durham City

REVIEWING restaurants is like visiting major art galleries. I tend to focus on looking at specific pieces, because there are only so many I can take in at any one time before I feel saturated by the experience. Read

Rebecca de' Wessington, owner of Pride of Northumbria

Real treat in store for festival-goers

VISITORS to the North East’s biggest celebration of food and drink will be able to dine out in style. Read

Scores pitching support

MORE than 80 retailers and suppliers have signed up to take part in what promises to be the biggest and best food and drink extravaganza ever held in the North East – just four days after The Journal announced its Taste 2 event. Read

Home comforts

Many chefs claim to use local ingredients – but they don’t come much fresher than those utilised by Vicky Turnbull, who will be showing off her cooking skills at The Journal Taste 2 food and drink festival in August. Jane Hall reports. Read

Supermarket giant will stock North-grown oil

RAPESEED oil produced in the North is set to become a ‘must-have’ culinary ingredient after finding its way on to the shelves of the nation’s biggest supermarket chain. Read

Wine interview: David Ginola

Everyone expected former Newcastle United footballer David Ginola to go into modelling, management or advertising when he quit the sport. But instead he turned to producing wine. Journal wine writer Helen Savage talks about the finer things in life with the flamboyant Frenchman. Read

Ice cream dreams

ICE cream is one of summer’s essentials – whether it’s that cornet melting deliciously in the heat of the sun, or a snowy dollop on top of a bowl of strawberries, it’s a short cut to banishing the blues. Read

Restaurant review: Blackmore's of Alnwick

WE’VE a new regime in our household. It wasn’t a democratic process, just a sneaky suggestion that wormed its way in and has become the status quo. Read

Gourmet food at the Brinkburn Music Festival

FOOD and music have had a long love affair. How many pop tunes can you name with food in the title? Read

Food cooked with a conscience

SOME of my best friends are vegetarians. Honestly. But it’s not for me. It’s not that I’m against vegetarians or am even a committed carnivore; rather I’m a dedicated omnivore. When it comes to food, if you like it, I want some too. Read

A dinner of herbs

Jane Hall visits a very special garden that is as pleasing to the eye and healing spirit as the rumbling stomach, and finds out how we can all be more creative with herbs courtesy of cookery writer and trained chef Phillippa Lee. Read

McKenna's at Northern Stage, Barras Bridge, Newcastle

McKenna's at Northern Stage, Newcastle

THERE aren’t many laughs in an Ibsen play. His take on life starts in a dark place and travels, scene by scene, to an even bleaker one. Read

Banning alcohol will only help make it seem more attractive

WITH the rising problems associated with the extreme drinking habits of our adolescents, at first it seems completely logical to ban anyone under the age of 21 from buying alcohol, as they are proposing in Scotland. Read

Wined, sealed and delivered

TWO North East restaurants are showing that a commitment to Fairtrade and support for local producers can be a recipe for success. Read

Organic wine-making moves on to a new level

WITH almost 6% of its vineyard converted to organic production Alsace can claim to be the greenest wine region of France. Read

SHORT MEASURES

ITALIAN specialists Canaletto now offer new handy 25cl bottles of two of their best-selling wines – Pinot Grigio della Venezie 2006, a soft, crisp, melony dry white and Montepulciano d'Abruzzo 2006, a chunky plum and cherry-flavoured red. Read

Asparagus with Lindisfare castle in the background

An island to saviour

IT is asparagus time on Holy Island and green spears, as fresh as the sea breeze that whips across the salt marshes, are on the menu at one of Northumberland’s newest and most favourably located restaurants. Read

Matfen Hall, Matfen, Northumberland

IT was a perfect spring evening. The low sun was brushing the fields with long shadows as we drove to Matfen Hall in Northumberland. Read

Stuart’s great organic venture

WHAT chance of success has a fresh-faced Durham University philosophy graduate who decides to set up a wine business because he “can’t get a proper job”? Read