Daniel Galmiche and canapés, both hoovered up by Leila

Occasionally I try to get along to Ladies Lunches and promote West Berkshire Mencap (well that and eat good food, you will notice that my choice of venue depends on the quality of the food).  One of my favourite places to eat, as you all know, is The Vineyard, hotel of great wine and Daniel Galmiche.  The Ladies Lunch was great value at £60, more canapés than anyone else, ahem, and of course Daniel.  He joined the swooning ladies for the whole event and had a small team of staff administering smelling salts to those that succumbed as he walked around chatting.   I have anther reason for thinking that Daniel is an all round good egg,  I asked, in my capacity as CEO of West Berkshire Mencap, whether he would consider opening our new training kitchen.  He agreed wholeheartedly and with huge generosity and has accepted our invitation to attend our Garden Party with his wife.  The catering has been donated by @janestaunton1 and beer has been donated by @TwoCocksBrewery so all round my tweeting friends have come up trumps.  

Carole, my PA, and I arrived in the same colours!

Canapés YES canapés, delicious and plentiful

Oh my such delicious arancini, can’t tell you how many I ate or you may think I was a touch piggy

 

Sweet onion veloute, pickled red onion and truffle – divine

 Line Caught Turbot, Tomato, Shallots, Aioli, a perfect combination of flavours

 

 The guests at our table, all delightful, full of interesting conversation and great fun, no surprise there are so many regulars

                   

                                        Poached peach, nectarine dougnut, peach cassis sorbet

 

 Petit fours. always good at The Vineyard

                      Daniel attempting to look at me sternly

Giving up on the stern and just laughing

     

Ha ha ha ha GOT HIM and he cant get away because I have a broken wrist, he gives in with good humour Thank you to The Vineyard, Daniel and the gracious and welcoming staff and we look forward to letting you know abut the new training kitchen opening and seeing Daniel later today at the Garden Party

Carte-du-vin – wine enjoyment made friendly

I am so lucky to be able to do interviews for KennetRadio and leilaslocallarder.com.  Apart from the terrifying journey of getting to see Carte-Du-Vin in Micheldever I had a wonderful time with lovely people telling me about wine in a friendly and encouraging way.  I also got a great interview for Kennet Radio whilst learning about what why the Jacks are so passionate about wine.  They import from three countries, France, Spain and South Africa and they import in fairly small amounts.  They also listen to their customers to find out what is popular  and what needs to be dropped.  Torq and Marian are a lovely couple who put up with me being rudely late (car issues) and were still very welcoming.

As you know I constantly bang on about this wine and food being 2 and 2 equals 5 issue.  They totally understood and gave me a wine and a chocolate brownie.  It was amazing to have a sip of wine first, then the brownie and then the wine again.  What a contrast! I love learning and they taught me.  Even more important they taught me without making me feel a fool.  They are very involved with the local community and hold regular tasting evenings.  it is well worth signing up to their website to find out about the tasting evenings as well as offers.  As an aside the wine is very reasonably priced.

Why don’t you sign up, support local providers and learn about wines in a fabulous atmosphere.  The interview will  be on Kennetradio.com, 87.7.

 

 

The pictures show the lovely couple who run Carte Du Vin.  The second and third pictures show posters that I really want.  One shows what influences different wine or what they evoke, the third shows the huge range of colours that wine comes in.  I believe they are going to see if they can get hold of the posters to sell, I really hope so.