Bologna Food Tour Home of mortadella and Maserati, Bologna is routinely ranked among Italy’s top 10 most liveable cities and has one of the most extensive food markets I’ve ever seen. Join me on an Italian Food & Wine TourFinishing in Bologna! Bologna is famous for its porticos (covered walkways), all 45 kilometres of them, […]
Modena Food Tour Cars and cucina – perhaps Ferrari and Francescana – are the two things that bring most visitors to Modena in Italy’s ‘food valley’. The startlingly white Romanesque cathedral, with its 90-metre-high bell tower, is impressive, as are the passion and skill of Enzo Ferrari explained through the museum in his family home. […]
Parma Food Tour The province of Parma in Emilia-Romagna is famous for some of my favourite foods, including Prosciutto di Parma, Parmigiano-Reggiano and eggplant Parmigiana. Join me on an Italian Food & Wine TourStarting in Parma! Smaller than neighbouring Modena and Bologna, Parma is easy to discover on foot (or bicycle) and full of fabulous […]
Top 5 Southern Italy While everything south of Rome is generally considered southern Italy, exactly where ‘the south’ starts depends on who you ask. The wife of a Calabrian once told me her husband ‘wasn’t southern’. Well of course not, there’s still all of Sicily further south than Calabria, right? Yet to a Florentine, Rome […]
Top 5 Provence Salade Niçoise, le grande aioli, tapenade, ratatouille and the famous bouillabaisse of Marseille, Provence has much to offer food lovers. Add great weather, delicious pale rosé, colourful markets, beautiful scenery and fascinating ancient sites and you have all the makings of a splendid holiday. Here are five of the things I love […]
Top 5 Glen Innes In February 2023 I had the honour of being the guest cook at the Gourmet Fiesta at the Glen Innes Show on the Northern Tablelands of NSW. The fiesta has been the food-lovers section of the Glen Innes Show, dubbed ‘the Royal of the North’, for over 20 years, with past […]
Top 5Country Pubs Pubs are a great part of Australian culture, egalitarian spaces where tradies and CEOs drink side-by-side and everyone feels at home. In the old days there was a public bar for the blokes and a ladies’ lounge for the gals, with no cross-pollination. Today’s public bars welcome anyone who enjoys gaming and […]
I love French markets – not just for the fresh produce, though there’s always something new to discover, but also the traditional baked goods, distinctive charcuterie and local cheeses that give an insight into the regional cuisine. There’s also the voyeuristic pleasure of watching locals go about their daily business and the chance to find […]
Let’s take a quick vicarious holiday to the town of Jerez de la Frontera and its surrounds, a fascinating part of southern Spain. I visited a few years ago to learn about my favourite wine style, Sherry, and discovered there’s so much more to this very special spot just over an hour’s drive from […]
One of France’s most remote and intriguing regions, Brittany (Bretagne in French), is the rugged north-western tip of France jutting into the Atlantic Ocean. Prehistoric standing stones attest to its ancient past, while its local dialect, Breton (closely related to Cornish and Welsh), and its very name are a reminder that it was an outpost […]
