THE WAY WE DO CHRISTMAS IN ITALY

It's that time of the year again and I remember some of the Christmases spent with my relatives. If we went to a restaurant it would be somewhere in the mountains, restuarants with big windows from which you could see stags leap around whilst you were having your meal. Magic. But also magic was getting together at home around the table (one of the relatives in Ivrea, where I used to love to go, had La Cantinetta - a cellar which had been turned into a basement dining room, fully equipped and with a vey very long table. Here we would have La Tavolata, there would be about 20-25 people all sitting around, and the food would just come out, be put on the table, and everyone helped themselves. And the food kept coming and coming. Also magic.

I have found that same thing here in London, at Spaghetti House of all places, where they have this lovely Tavolata with around 8 courses, all put on the table, and half a litre of wine per person for around £20 - crazy. To be snapped up immediately. And the food is not just pasta - there are a lot of dishes that come out from the kitchen, including a lovely dessert. Give it a go. just google Spaghetti House to find them.

SICILIAN WINE TASTING AT DEGO'

New discoveries of the Sicilian wine kind were on offer at Dego' new degustation restaurant at Oxford Circus last night. Three autoctonos (indigenous) white varieties, and three red. The whites included Inzolia, Grecanico and Grillo. All very high quality, the first two from Caruso & Minini from the 2009 vintage. But the Grillo was probably my favourite. This was a 2007 Sicilia Bianco Grillo IGT from Fazio. Their vineyards cover an area of about 100 hectars planeted on hills at an ideal altitute between 250 and 500 metres. The microclimate is excellent (northernly winds and sea breezes) and the soil is poor, causing the roots to go deep down thus increasing the quality of the wine. Grillo is quite a serious wine with peach and pear on the nose, some pineapple, and an almondy finish. In another life, I would compare it to the 'style' of a good Mersault, luscious, deep gold yet dry and layered. Lovely.
Of the reds the tipical Nero D'Avola could not be missed, followed by Frappato and Nerello. The 2009 Sicilia Rosso Frappato IGT from COS impressed me no end. Byodinamically produced, no alterations are made in the wine, not even in bad vintages, as the aim is to let the wine speak for itself and tell its own story. This company even ages teh wine in ceramic amphoras, in an effort to preserve the purity of this traditional grape. It was quite light in colour, with notes of almond and straw, with a brisk and decisive palate and a concentration of fruit. A cool red wine. Read more tomorrow.

EVEN SANTA CAN EAT HEALTHILY

SANTA’S SIZZLING SALAD AT TOSSED WESTFIELD

‘Tis the season to be indulgent…and healthy too!



You know it’s almost Christmas as lunchtimes have suddenly become a lot more exciting. Sandwiches come with Turkey and Cranberry stuffing, tempting mince pies abound, but at what cost for the waistline? It is refreshing to know that you can tuck into gorgeous Christmas food knowing that is actually good for you, and without counting the calories. Christmas has never tasted so good at Tossed, the healthier eating place at Westfield London, W12. Shop ‘till you drop for all those Christmas presents, and when you need a break head for Tossed in the Balcony area, overlooking the stunning atrium.



For £12 including a glass of festive Möet & Chandon champagne and a Christmas cracker, discover pure indulgence without the guilt. The ultimate treat for a Christmas lunch ‘on the go’, Santa’s salad at Tossed is a very tasty combination of turkey, pigs in blankets, sage and onion stuffing, roast parsnip and potatoes, carrots, cranberry yoghurt served on mixed leaves freshly tossed in French dressing. It’s high in protein, low in calories and saturated fats (just 2.4g), with no added salt and nutritionally balanced, and at only 547 calories for a very large serving, this is where health meets pleasure…. in a bowl. Or ask for the veggie version, same price, 468 calories.



Pull the cracker quickly, because this is no ordinary cracker. Many of the crackers offered with Santa’s salad contain vouchers for tasty treats from the Tossed counter, from freshly made smoothies, freshly squeezed fruit and vegetable juices, to frozen yoghurt desserts, redeemable on the spot or on another occasion at Tossed Westfield only.



The Christmas salads are also available at all other Tossed in the West End’s high streets, selling at £5.95 for a large portion without alcoholic drinks (£5.25 for the veggie option).



Taking healthy eating to a whole new level with its upscale healthier foods, Tossed counts calories and nutritional content, ditches mayo and uses low GI carbs. It’s just that you wouldn’t know it because everything tastes so good. Packed with superfoods and protein, the quality, presentation and creativity of Tossed’s healthy choices is on a par with those found in restaurants.


Find Tossed at: 31-33 Baker Street, W1J 8EJ, Tel:020 7486 8555; 47 Mortimer Street W1W 8HR Tel 0208 616 1187; 10 Sheldon Square, Paddington Central, W2 6EZ Tel 020 7289 2516; 101 St Martin’s Lane, Soho, WC2N 4AZ Tel 0207 240 3599; Tossed @ The Qube, 101-106 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 5AB Tel: 020 7998 6454; Westfield London Shopping Centre, Ariel Way, White City, W12 7GE Tel: 020 8740 9613. Just in time for Christmas a new Tossed opens in the City at Leadenhall Street in mid December. www.tosseduk.com

DEGO' IN THE TELEGRAPH PROMOTION

Great News! One of my favourite new restaurants was in the Telegraph Weekend and in the Sunday Telegraph as part of the new 'Eat Out' promotion. They are offering a two course meal for £15, with two Telegraph tokens. Really worth trying out if you have not yet been, great wines by the glass (it's a degustation restaurant after all) and rather good food! Go now.

Luisa Welch Restaurant Guru: DEGO' IS HERE - DEGUSTATION RESTAURANT

Luisa Welch Restaurant Guru: DEGO' IS HERE - DEGUSTATION RESTAURANT: "I dont get the time to write as much as I would like on my blog these days, but when I come across something as special as Dego' - I simply ..."

DEGO' IS HERE - DEGUSTATION RESTAURANT

I dont get the time to write as much as I would like on my blog these days, but when I come across something as special as Dego' - I simply have to make an exception.

Dego’ (with an accent on the o) and is at Portland House, 4 Great Portland Street, London W1V 8QJ Tel 020 7636 2207.

(2 minutes walk from Oxford Circus Tube).

It is a degustation restaurant Deg = degustation 0 = osteria. Osteria meant in the modern urban sense, not the old fashioned osteria with wooden tables and Chianti flasks hanging from the ceiling. Osteria in Italy is becoming a trendy word again, and in today’s urban Italian environment has come to mean a new interpretation of what in England we would call ‘wine bar’ – just far more sophisticated.

Behind the concept is a sommelier, Massimo Mioli, whose passion for good and unusual wines really shows on the wine list. He comes from a family of restaurateurs. Together with three partners who have also been his friends since childhood, they came to London and opened Dego’. The head chef is Dario Schiavo, young and highly talented, having already worked with Alain Ducasse and Gualtiero Marchesi. His food is quite different, both in texture, flavour combinations and style. His Suckling pig fillet with bacon served with steamed mixed vegetables and Barolo sauce is already a hit, but even something simple like chocolate ice cream tastes like velvety melted ganduja, because of the way it’s made. The food changes regularly, so if and when you go, these dishes may no longer be on the menu.

Massimo chooses the wines personally, and many are imported directly from Italy for Dego’. He is a lover of Franciacorta and takes great pleasure in explaining to customers the difference between Prosecco and Franciacorta. The Refosco from Pierpaolo Pecorari impressed me no end. Obviously coming from North East Italy, he has selected the best from the area, but you will also find the more unusual wines from the south, such as Pecorino and Falerno. He has even built a humidity controlled cellar to store his wines correctly.

Upstairs, Dego’ is a degustation bar, with many wines by the glass, all served in 125 cl for the perfect degustation experience, along with freshly cut salumi, blue goats cheese and burrata. They are also developing a ‘tramenizzeria’. (bit of a mouthful, literally), eg a place where you taste tramezzini, which are the dainty, crustless sandwiches you get in the best bars in Italy.

Downstairs is an a-la-carte restaurant and cocktail bar, with an even more extensive wine list. Based on Northern Italian food and taking its inspiration from the towns of Venice and Vicenza, the menu changes frequently to reflect the best and freshest market availability. Here, a big feature will be the ‘bigoli’, a hand made pasta from Vicenza which will be twisted at the table, before being cooked.

The décor is very sleek and elegant, styled around a red and black theme mixing lacquer, leather mosaics and soft textures on the wall for a really stunning effect. Wine buckets are inset into the tables for a striking effect, and the super modern, space-style lights add a touch of futuristic glamour.

The wine bar upstairs is open from 12 to 23.00 and the restaurant is open from 12 to 3.30 and 6 to midnight Monday to Thursday, and 6 to 0.30 Friday and Saturday. Closed Sunday (but they might open for a few Sundays in the run up to Christmas, they are too new to gauge the demand for a Sunday opening just yet).

For the full wine list, current menu and more information you can also check www.degowinebar.co.uk (don’t be put off by the word wine bar, because it’s nothing like a wine bar).

MCMILLAN COFFEE MORNING 24 SEPTEMBER

It's that time of the year again, and the great idea of a coffee morning paying a few pennies for your coffee, donating the money to Mcmillan, has grown into an initiative which last year raised 7.8m in the UK alone.
This year the charity is aiming to raise £8m, so we need to drink a little more coffee.

And when the coffee is as good as you find it at Tossed, the healthier eating venue, this is no hardship. With a triple certification of organic, fairtrade and freshly roasted to order, this is a coffee to relish - whether you take it as an americano,a cappuccino or an expresso or even a latte if you really must. What Tossed are doing on the 24th is to offer coffee and a toastie for just £2.95 - an incredible bargain,a great way to eat healthily as the toasties are low fat and high protein, and raising money for McMillan. there are six Tossed venues in London at Westfield, St Martins Lane, Tottneham Court Road, Baker Street, PaddingtonCentral, and the new Mortimer Street. See you there!

BIRTHDAY OFFERS AT SPAGHETTI HOUSE

Hello everyone, starting today Spaghetti House if offering all pasta dishes at £1 - anythign from the delicious linguine con gamberoni which normally sells a t £11.95 to anything else is just £1. you book on line on www.spaghettihouse.co.uk and there are 55 dishes to be had at this price, at 5 of the main Spaghetti House restaurants, lunch and dinner, every day from 6 to 10 September. Whn it's gone it's gone, so book early, from 9 am every morning this week.
And from today until 30 September you can have any dish from the special anniversary menu at £5.55 each. When you eat from this menu, you are given a voucher for £5.55 to come back another time. Not bad for an offer, tell your friends

BAR BOULUD: NOT FOR THE FAINT HEARTED (THANK GOODNESS)

Braving yet another rainstorm, I made my way to Knightbridge for a meal I had been looking forward to for sometime: Bar Boulud at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. With its own entrance from the street, the feeling is sheer luxury, but in a relaxed way. It's just so good to be welcomed by people who seem genuinely pleased to see you. Pre- bank holiday, and the bar was buzzing, full to the brim, with people eating at the bar from the bar menu and at the informal bar tables. I loved the bar, which is a spectacle per se. A spray perfume bottle contains vermouth, with which the glass is sprayed to make the driest martini, and there is also a jar of olive brine for a dirty martini, and all sorts of other little containers. The barman is a mine of information too. House champagne is Ayala, delightfully dry and crisp. Simple nuts are served, but the mixture is the best, salty and sweet, for a great flavour. Moving onto the restaurant, this is everything I would want from a dining room. The kitchen in full view, so that I see what's going on but I dont hear anything. Tables large enough not to have to push the salt and pepper on the edge. Chairs and banquettes which are actually comfortable. Then in walks the lovely Brian Turner OBE, one of my favourite chefs, probably just back from South Africa, with a great tan and looking very fit - the new slimmer line figures really suits him. He is here too, good sign. We say hello, so nice to see him. The menu is very well conceived, with sharing dishes, hot and cold appetizers, and the famous cured meat board. Good to see a meat slicer, meaning that everything is freshly sliced for the best flavour. The board offers not just sliced meats, but press' of rabbit, and a sausage tasting. We opt for the small portion of seafood and share that: delicately blanched cauliflower, carrot and haricot verts, accompany a plump scallop, mussels and cockles. Freshly steamed, served with aioli, a perfect start to the meal, and we have a glass of Picpoul de Pinet to accompany this. Wonderful to see some of the more unusual regional French wines on a wine list, which incidentally is very extensive and I love it. Shame that my favourite Washington State Pinot Noir is no longer on the list,there is only the one from Oregon, so we opt for something else to go with the rest of the meal. Attention-grabbing is the Givry, at £66, but in the we opt for the complex and delicious Rasteau 2006 at around £39. The wonderful spiciness of the Mourvedre comes through, mitigated by the richness of the Syrah aged in oak, giving the wine a slight woody sweetness. A good choice. My Beetroot salad starter with mixed leaves and blanched fennel, with Sardinian caprino, tossed in a flavoursome dressing, is so complex and interesting that I relish every mouthful. My companion's sausage starter - there is a whole sausage section on the menu, in true Daniel Boulud style - looks great and smells divine. Mains see my favourite lamb arrive, saddle and leg, cooked to perfection and beautifully assembled. The other starter is the most massive pot of moules marinieres I have ever seen. I taste one. Plump, juicy, delicately flavoured, a real treat. The signature chips, served in paper and presented in a silver pot, also arrive. We share a simple bitter chocolate torte with caramel ice cream for dessert (which we dont really need but we cannot resist) is bitter-sweet and almost digestive. Another good choice. I give this restaurant 99 out of 100, and although I have been fortunate enough to eat in some splendid establishments (Capital Hotel and Waterside Inn will forever be imbedded in my mind) this one is a place I would like to return sooner than later. I absolutely loved it and I do recommed it. The food is quite affordable and they also have a set menu at around £22.50 I think, but the wine is quite expensive. But many wines come by the glass, so if you choose carefully, you dont have to go overbudget. Thank you for coming to London, Daniel Boulud!

CRAYFISH FESTIVAL TO CHECK OUT

It's Kräftskiva time...Right now the Kräftskiva/Crayfish party season is in full swing in Sweden. The crayfish menu starts on Thursday, August 26 and runs to Saturday, September 18. They will be stocking lots of Swedish Nils Oscar beer, OP Anderson and Skåne Akvavits. The crayfish menu can be ordered for parties down to 4 people, as long as you give them minimum 48 hours notice.
This year the menu features both dill and cumin marinated crayfish, herring with potatoes, smoked salmon canapes, Västebotten cheese with Peter's yard crisp bread and mushroom quiche. You can find the full menu on their website.
To book please write an email to reservations@madsenrestaurant.com - remember to mention you are interested in the crayfish party.