Wednesday 19 October 2011

International food overated!

Julie & I have just returned from a week in Sicily. We stopped in a small town near Palermo and had a great time.

As you would expect we spent time visiting the historic sights in the grand old town of Palermo. One thing, however, that we both commented on was how disappointing the Italian food was. This led on to a discussion about the quality and variety of food now available in the UK. It was very telling that we both felt that we have had better cappuccinos recently in both Bakewell and Sheffield.

For years the UK has had a reputation for being in the culinary wilderness. Now with a whole new breed of artisan food producers I would say that the range and quality of food available would challenge that available anywhere in the world. There were a couple of exceptions. The local Caponata we had a starter for our Sunday lunch was fantastic and a seafood risotto made by a local fisherman was simply outstanding!

We are both passionate about the local food producers who come to our regular food fairs in Baslow. Our cookery school in Bakewell is opening very soon and we will be putting on a range of courses to inspire people to get involved in artisan food production, perhaps setting up your own business to produce great tasting artisan food. We are almost ready to release the full details and dates of our forthcoming courses on our new website so keep checking this blog for details of when we go live! We've already signed up some great visiting chefs and two fantastic artisan bread makers and we are currently working on a food blogging and writing course.

Interested? Then .....why not come along to our open weekend on the 26th & 27th of November?

Hartingtons Cookery School & Food Events
1st Floor, Rutland Mill, Rutland Mews, Off Coombs Road, Bakewell.

1 comment:

bitwix said...

Best cappuccino of my life was in Agrigento bus station in Sicily, but that's just me. Good luck to all at Hartingtons, Jonathan Clarke