The French Thomas Kitchen

After a good nights sleep and some sweet dreams I made myself a very lovely juice: pineapple, papaya, lime, ginger and raspberry! Now that must be good for me right?

One of my colleagues in Horsham sent me a photo of the snow down there, and I know it is snowy up north, but here in Twickenham no snow- just a crisp wintry day. So a walk was called for, followed by a lovely lunch.

Broca Antica in St Margaret’s is a lovely Italian place, with a Puglian slant. I have always enjoyed every mouthful and today was no exception……

I had some pasta with crayfish, prawns and clams. Very, very tasty. C had some pasta with wild boar which looked and smelt lovely too! A bottle of Verdeca to wash it down went down a treat.

On the way home I indulged in a little retail therapy, stuff for the house which will involve a fair amount of rearrangement tomorrow, but I guess that will keep me out of mischief!

I am officially on holiday!!!

I am writing this in a cafe in a town called Bishops Castle, near Ludlow. I am drinking coffee and eating a chocolate cornflake crispy cake whilst Colin is trawling through thousands of books and music in lots of little rooms- I have 2 ginger cats and 1 black and white dog as friends with me in the mean time……

Ludlow is a lovely little town in Shropshire which I have visited many, many times- a town that is odd for its plethora of foodie places: shops, delis, wine shops, markets, restaurants, its just great! I could very easily move here but it would be quite an enormous drive to Horsham every day!

On the way here yesterday we popped into Cheltenham- another place I could live I think- and went to Brasserie Blanc for lunch. Burger for Colin, Scallops for me. Really lovely, if a little rich, and with bacon in the stew part of the dish it was the first meat I have eaten in quite a few months.

In the afternoon we popped into The Ludlow Food Centre- which I love almost as much as I love Wholefoods (but not as much as Borough Market of course!!!). I have a really fond memory of the food centre as I was browsing around here 3.5 years ago when I got the phonecall to offer me my first BM position in Waitrose.

The cottage is gorgeous, quiet and cosy, with a very well stocked kitchen! I made some pasta last night, drank some lovely wine, and slept like a baby…

If we ever get away from this book emporium we’ll find some food and maybe visit a really good Indian restaurant tonight. But I may be in this cafe for some time!!!

Last Monday I took my managers into London to have a look at foodie places- all in prep for my lovely new shop due to open in May! The day was great- well it was for me……. a day looking at food and thinking about what food to buy is a perfect day in my view. But everyone seemed to have fun, and a lot of cheese and fish were purchased. I have also purchased a mini drone which I can not get to fly properly….

We ended the day by making pizzas at Pizza Express in Soho. This is something they normally do with groups of children………….. but I can not recommend it more as it was so much fun!!!

As usual I piled way too much onto my pizza making it a little sloppy in the middle, but it was tasty! Other pizzas around the table looked gorgeous, and very Italian-like.

A really good day, a lovely evening and finished off with some cocktails at the end of the night…. Team Horsham do London!