Tired all the time? It’s a modern-day ailment, which, unless you’re a chronic insomniac or a new parent, could be a sign you’re over-stressed, over-stimulated and find it a struggle to relax and recharge. Despite technological advances and time-saving devices, our busy lives mean there never seems to be enough time. That feeling of being overwhelmed and overloaded can easily become a permanent fixture.

‘We’re always switched on: we can be accessed any time, anywhere, by phone, text, email or Skype,’ says HFG expert and GP Dawn Harper. ‘Many of my patients tell me there’s always something to think about or worry about – some other thing they should be doing, whether they’re lying in bed, driving to work or meant to be relaxing on holiday. It’s mentally exhausting.’

You can read the full article in the Winter 2015 edition of CuiZine.

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Time to beat energy slumps appeared first on CuiZine Magazine.

This wonderful pub set inside a lovely tile-hung Edwardian building combines a bustling bar to catch up with friends over a drink after work, a smart eatery serving outstanding quality food, and beyond it a sunny terrace which is an idyllic place to relax.

PRIVATE DINING

The Barn sits just by the entrance to The Swan and offers a lovely venue for all sorts of events. Enjoy the same attentive service as in the eatery but with the menu, layout and whole experience tailored exactly to fit your needs.
This beautiful country pub has undergone a transformation inside and out to make it an even more stunning place to enjoy fantastic food cooked by its award-winning head chef Stefano Boi and warm hospitality from its friendly team. For memorable dining, whether you come for a family celebration, an intimate wedding breakfast or an elegant dinner party with friends or colleagues, The Swan is the perfect place.

You can read the full article in the Winter 2015 edition of CuiZine.

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Private dining and more appeared first on CuiZine Magazine.

Common myth has it that the cocktail is a wholly American gift to the world of high spirits. But let’s hold that glass between bar and lips for a moment or two. Vermouth. Gin. Vodka. Surely European inventions. We might concede that the Americans came up with the idea of adding the ice but as for its being the fount of all things cocktail we might need to think again. Maybe think back as far as early 18th-century Britain.

During the 1690s Britain was blessed with good harvests and mountains of surplus grain. With prices careering south, King William III decreed that taxes should be cut on the distillation of grain in order to make good use of the bounty. Soon hundreds of thousands of gallons of neutral grain spirit was coursing through the nation.

The initial selling point of all those peddling all this hard liquor was its benefits to the drinker’s health. And they had a point. Although the exact science was still to be laid bare, there was an understanding that poor quality drinking water contributed to the outbreaks of such fatal conditions as typhoid, cholera and dysentery. The antidote was to consume alcohol instead: sterilised and pathogen-free. And now here was a market awash not just with beers and ciders but the real tough stuff.

You can read the full article in the Winter 2015 edition of CuiZine.

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A surprising history of the cocktail appeared first on CuiZine Magazine.

Want to create fabulous homemade Italian dishes? Then you may like to spend a few hours with Giuliana Cortese at her cookery school in Cuddington. Alison Isherwood of the Thame Food Festival reports.

You love Italian food. You love cooking Italian food at home. But you would like to venture beyond pastas and pizzas. Me too. So that’s why I signed up for a day course at CiCi CoCo.

CiCi CoCo is a home cooking kitchen run by Giuliana Cortese. Giuliana first came to the UK to work with fashion designer Vivienne Westwood. While in London, she would recreate her mother’s lasagne recipe and bring it into the design studio. Earning her the nickname of ‘Lasagna’.

Later Giuliana, who grew up in Friuli, her mother a northern Italian and her father a southern Italian, decided to make her passion for great Italian cooking a career in itself. In 2010 she set up CiCi CoCo in her own kitchen in Cuddington on the Buckinghamshire-Oxfordshire border. Her aim was to introduce people to the joys of fantastic artisan Italian dishes. “Although the philosophy and style of the kitchen is Italian,” she explains, “we used local products and ingredients.”

The CiCi CoCo kitchen soon won not just customers but awards as well. In 2011, it was given a Great Taste Award for its Lasagna Alla Bolognese, and another three – for its speciality Lasagna, Caponata and Heritage spelt and Rivet Wheat fresh pasta – in 2012. It was also voted best independent producer in the Muddy Stiletto Awards in 2013.

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A visit to an Italian cookery school appeared first on CuiZine Magazine.

Nelson Street Restaurant, which has been winning itself quite a reputation for its imaginative, beautifully prepared dishes, is owned and run by three school friends. Louis Myhill is the head chef; Josh Sheppard is a chef and in charge of new business; while Mike Norris is the restaurant manager.

The three had all embarked on different careers. Josh was a broker in the City. Mike was working in an office. Louis was the only one in the restaurant business, a chef at the prestigious Ivy in London. It was Louis who first mooted the idea that they set up their own restaurant

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The Buckingham restaurant started by three school friends appeared first on CuiZine Magazine.

Throughout his career, Raymond Blanc has not just been an inspirational conjuror of sensational food but an inspirational teacher in the kitchen too. A menu full of the UK’s most renowned chefs have
had the opportunity to hone their skills, their dishes, their balances of textures and flavours under
Raymond’s tutelage.

To celebrate 30 years of Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, Raymond Blanc is set to welcome back members of his brigade to host a series of Diner des Protégés at his two Michelin Star Oxfordshire restaurant.

Throughout 2015, guests joining the Diner des Protégés evenings will be able to savour the acclaimed chefs’ signature creations during an evening of gastronomic excellence.

The food of Belmond Le Manoir will be reflected in each menu, which will include an introductory course from Raymond Blanc, as well as one from Executive Head Chef Gary Jones and Pastry Chef Benoit Blin.

You can read the full article in the Spring 2015 edition of CuiZine.

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Raymond Blanc invites former chefs back to celebrate appeared first on CuiZine Magazine.

When Michelin-starred chef, Michael North, bought the Nut Tree in Murcott, he wasn’t simply investing in a pub; he was, as he tells Julian Foster, coming home.

Twelve years ago, Michael North and his partner, Imogen, were visiting the picturesque Oxfordshire village of Murcott. Out for a walk, the couple, in the middle of one of those ‘what would we really like to be doing’ conversations, found themselves stood outside the Nut Tree pub, thatched, oak-beamed and marinaded in age-old traditions of hospitality. “Own that pub,” they both said, smiled and wandered on.

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