Food for the Journey

As I mentioned yesterday one of the additional items to plan on this holiday was where to eat, to make sure we got to some special places on our journey.

We have been lucky to eat in some fabulous places on our past holidays, regular followers of the blog have often commented that there is sometimes more about food than there is about the journey, and I'm sure this year will be no different.

I think my most vivid food memory comes from last year's holiday when we ate in a three Michelin star restaurant for the first time. The restaurant was in Chicago and called Alinea. If you have not see the photos before they are worth a look - they can be seen on Flickr, start here and move forward through the photos to see some amazing food served with theatre.

While we are not visiting any three star restaurants this year, we are planning to visit a number of one star and one two star places on our journey. 

There were, for example, a large number of routes we could take to get from Wales to Scotland, most involved a stay somewhere along the way. So it made sense to book one of our favourite places: Nigel Haworth's Northcote as a place to stop, and eat, on the way North. We have been lucky to stay (and eat) at Northcote three times in the past, having loved the look of Nigel's food in the early days of Great British Menu and subsequently seeing his Head Chef, Lisa Allen, compete twice in her own right it remains a great favourite of ours, with seasonal local food cooked to perfection. In a recent edition of Celebrity Masterchef we heard Nigel tell 'Little' Jimmy Osmond not to 'mess to much' with the food, and this could be a description for the style of the Northcote's food.

Moving into Scotland two names have long represented this nation's cooking for me, Tom Kitchin and Andrew Fairlie, so we decided we would visit both, this lead us to Leith for The Kitchin and Auchterarder for The Restaurant Andrew Fairlie. I can't wait to get to the days when I can share the pleasure of these places with you on the blog. I am filled with real anticipation.

Last years' Great British Menu introduced us to two other young Scottish chefs. Graham Campbell and Jimmy Lee. Campbell has been busy having worked at Pittodrie House and Glenesk Country House Hotel so we are visiting both of these. Since we booked Campbell has moved on, so we won't get to eat his food, this time, though we will eat in places he has influenced. Jimmy Lee, on the other hand, remains at his own restaurant cooking fine dining Cantonese food at the Lychee Oriental in Glasgow, so we will be heading there on our journey south.

Our final two destination restaurants were also influenced by Great British Menu, but from series 9, rather than the most recent series (10). So our journey back through England towards Wales will see us visit Frances Atkins at The Yorke Arms and Aktar Islam at Lasan.

I suspect that the two stone I have lost since retirement earlier this year, may quickly go back on during this holiday. I promise to report on the food, but may not weigh until after I have got home.

I'm ready for this holiday