CottoCrudo: Little Italy in Prague

CottoCrudo: Little Italy in Prague

After a day of new experiences in Prague, we decided to try another – the recently opened restaurant CottoCrudo at the Four Seasons Prague. The name means “cooked” and “raw” and the restaurant serves a variety of raw Italian delicacies as part of the menu.  Executive Chef Richard Fuchs describes the concept like this: “Working with the best of our seasonal quality ingredients, we offer an extensive menu of Italian [...]

Opulent Moroccan Retreat at Dolphin Square

Opulent Moroccan Retreat at Dolphin Square

What better day than a somewhat overcast Monday to shepherd myself and a tall, dark and handsome companion to Pimlico and disappear down some secret stairs into the soothing world of the Dolphin Spa. The spa itself is located within Dolphin Square.  Located minutes from Pimlico Underground Station, Dolphin Square is not your classic London square with streets set round a communal garden, being instead a vast 1930s residential development [...]

Bowled over at Bombay Brasserie

Bowled over at Bombay Brasserie

One of the best things about dining in London is undoubtedly the variety. Londoners enjoy a rarely matched level of high quality foods from different cultures and often times in close proximity to one another – though this is not exactly a new phenomenon in the Capital, it was at the top of my thoughts on my way to Bombay Brasserie having been betrayed by Google Maps.  I got off [...]

Eyeing up The Long Bar: Sanderson Hotel

Eyeing up The Long Bar: Sanderson Hotel

The eclectic collaboration between designers Phillippe Starck and Ian Schrager streams through the 80 foot Long Bar at the Sanderson Hotel: an exclusive, opulent and flat out fabulous bar situated in the heart of the West End.  Size clearly matters for this sleek, chic and beautifully contemporary bar. Boasting a simple, pale and fresh colour scheme complimented by the decorative vegetation seen in the outside courtyard, the Long Bar has [...]

Turner Inspired at The National Gallery

Turner Inspired at The National Gallery

For over a hundred years now the paintings of William Turner have been inextricably linked to those of Claude Gellée. Not only was Turner inspired by the landscapes of Claude, but is reputed to have burst into tears on his first viewing of Claude’s Seaport with the Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba, 1648. Something within that painting resonated so strongly with Turner that he embarked on a number of [...]


Food & Drink

Modern Pantry, Naturally

Modern Pantry, Naturally

Natural wine finds itself a happy home at Modern Pantry where for the month of May, it is all about minimal intervention. Collaborating with natural wine importers, Les Caves de Pyrene, chef Anna Hansen has created a light tasting menu with matching natural wines as part of Real Wine Month. For a food fanatic like me, there really is no better way of exploring wines than with great food. Hansen, [...]

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Travel

Golden Weekend at Four Seasons Prague

Golden Weekend at Four Seasons Prague

Prague is called the Golden City and, arriving at sunrise, we immediately understood why. In the early light, a rich, magical glow transforms the buildings, a mixture of Baroque, Art Nouveau, Gothic, Renaissance and modernist architecture that lines winding alleyways and broad, lively squares. The Four Seasons Hotel Prague has what is possibly the best view in the city, across the Vltava river and the 15th century Charles Bridge (Karlův [...]

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Arts & Culture

Blades of Gory with Sweeney Todd

Blades of Gory with Sweeney Todd

Everyone raved about Jonathan Kent’s production of Sweeney Todd when it opened at the Chichester Festival last year where it ran for six weeks and this West End transfer of Stephen Sondheim’s darker work does not fail to be gory! From the moment Stephen Sondheim’s menacing score begins, clashing harmonies spilling from the powerful organ, your nerves are held in a vice. The tale is about the psychotic Todd who has [...]

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Fashion & Trends

Trends Menswear 2012: Checks

Trends Menswear 2012: Checks

We won’t lie.  When we got the call to say checks were on trend for SS’12 we downed the nearest available liquid in the hope it would put us in to a state dangerously close to death.   For we just couldn’t face having to fake gasp at yet another press event, being told how a collection was inspired by travels around an arid Midwest on the back of some [...]

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Recent Articles

Modern Pantry, Naturally

Modern Pantry, Naturally

Natural wine finds itself a happy home at Modern Pantry where for the month of May, it is all about minimal intervention. Collaborating with natural wine importers, Les Caves de Pyrene, chef Anna Hansen has created a light tasting menu with matching natural wines as part of Real Wine Month. For a food fanatic like me, there really is no better way of exploring wines than with great food. Hansen, [...]

read more

CottoCrudo: Little Italy in Prague

CottoCrudo: Little Italy in Prague

After a day of new experiences in Prague, we decided to try another – the recently opened restaurant CottoCrudo at the Four Seasons Prague. The name means “cooked” and “raw” and the restaurant serves a variety of raw Italian delicacies as part of the menu.  Executive Chef Richard Fuchs describes the concept like this: “Working with the best of our seasonal quality ingredients, we offer an extensive menu of Italian [...]

read more

London: A Pop-Up Paradise?

London: A Pop-Up Paradise?

If you thought the pop-up craze was over, you certainly have not visited London recently. With summer approaching, the frenzy is already in full flow, so Emyr Thomas from concierge service Bon Vivant has compiled three of the best below. A Michelin-Starred Cube by Electrolux The Cube by Electrolux will open on 1 June and will run until 30 September 2012, positioned on top of the Royal Festival Hall offering [...]

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Opulent Moroccan Retreat at Dolphin Square

Opulent Moroccan Retreat at Dolphin Square

What better day than a somewhat overcast Monday to shepherd myself and a tall, dark and handsome companion to Pimlico and disappear down some secret stairs into the soothing world of the Dolphin Spa. The spa itself is located within Dolphin Square.  Located minutes from Pimlico Underground Station, Dolphin Square is not your classic London square with streets set round a communal garden, being instead a vast 1930s residential development [...]

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Interview with Paul Hallett, Head Chef at JW Steakhouse

Interview with Paul Hallett, Head Chef at JW Steakhouse

Welsh born Paul Hallett descended from a small community but was always surrounded by, and interested in, cooking.  At seventeen Paul decided to further his passion for cooking and attended catering college. This served to fuel his love of cooking and he decided to pursue it as a career, leaving home and moving to Milan.  Paul sharpened his culinary abilities at Michelin starred La Trompette and can also count himself [...]

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Whisky and Wine Flight check-in at The Caxton Bar

Whisky and Wine Flight check-in at The Caxton Bar

“Darrrrling”, purred Natasha on my mobile. “I am so bored at home, I vaant to do something, vherre are you my little Mishka?” she sighed. As luck would have it, I was en-route to The St. Ermin’s hotel in Westminster, for a Wine and Whisky Flight.  In 1940 Winston Churchill, held a historic meeting at St. Ermin’s Hotel. He asked a group of people to join him in ‘Setting Europe [...]

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