Welcome back. Sorry about the gap between post 1 and 2. Turns out we had to do some catering in the intervening weeks. We’ve also been busy setting up our new prep space in Clapton. I’m going to follow the format from last time for now at least. As formats go I think it’s okay!

The season hasn’t really got going yet but we’ve had a few interesting bits and bobs in the last few weeks including our first proper show of the year at the Chatham Historic Dockyards. Nice show with lots of vintage cars and steam equipment. The dockyards themselves are well worth a visit with three battleships and the amazing 1830s timber built slip, a covered ship building facility. A great day out for all ages, I’m sure. If you do go, make sure you also visit Nelson Brewery on site. Some of the nicest beer I’ve had recently.

We also did a bit of private catering for a function at the office of Bibendum Wine who were a very nice bunch indeed. Bibendum is also the real name of the Michelin Man (the Bibendum restaurant now occupies the former HQ of the tyre company) and we ended up digging into the history of the mascot a bit. The original posters are pretty terrifying.

The wikipedia page on Bibendum gives an acceptable explanation of this frankly bizarre scene. Nunc est bibendum is a Roman toast, which translates as ‘drink up’ and the raised glass contains roadside obstacles. He drinks up obstacles that the other lesser tyre companies (represented by the freakish apparitions on either side) cannot handle, thus establishing himself as a lord-like figure in the world of tyres. I felt a bit better after reading this but it didn’t answer all my questions. (The pinz nez, for example.)

Now, a book:

The book of sauces by Ambrose Heath, published in 1948, is a vaguely useful book if you want to read lots of sauce recipes but is mainly noteworthy, to my mind, for its outrageous dedication to legendary food and wine man, André Simon.

If you’re not exhausted after reading that, here’s a couple of Devil Sauce recipes from the book.