How to open a restaurant in a full recession... (I must be insane). Actors – Michele English and Russell Clement – winners of the BBC 2 "The Restaurant" 2008

Trainers – Raymond Blanc, Brasserie Blanc, and Le Manoir Aux Quat’ Saisons. It is now official; we are in a recession. The turmoil in the banking world intensifies and turns into a dizzy waltz of lost billions. The once-trusted financial institutions are crumbling. Doom and grim news from the biggest names in global finance are sending more distressing signals. We, the small businessman, restaurant owners, shopkeepers, et al. are watching wide-eyed, dazzled by the carnage, trying to evaluate how it’s going to affect.... READ MORE »

Happy Birthday Dine With Wine

Two years ago and long before the recession and the end of civilisation as we know it, we launched our Dine With Wine menu. Little has changed except the price, the reduction in VAT allowed us to bring the price down. It is now a two course lunch including a glass of St Jean Conques or St Chinian Merlot for only £11.35. You can also upgrade your wine to a glass of Joseph Perrier Champagne for just £2.50...  READ MORE »

Get them whilst they’re young

In Milton Keynes the team have joined the local NHS to try and make sure the next generation’s taste buds extend beyond what comes out of the microwave. The Milton Keynes Primary Care Trust is determined to tackle health issues and has created a Lifestyle Guide Project. Seemed a perfect combination to us; local things and food. We admit a small hidden agenda, finding good chefs is always hard, so why not start...  READ MORE »

Gunwharf Quays
 

Only I could plan to open a restaurant on April fool’s day, but in this business if your humour fails you then you’ve lost. We are opening the latest Brasserie Blanc in Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth. Housed at the base of an imposing tower modestly named No 1 Gunwharf, I have discovered the locals call it "The Lipstick", a much more fitting and female name I think.
Gunwharf is a fantastically well run complex...  READ MORE »

Ma Belle France

As so many of you travel to my birthplace, some of you even staying, I thought I would share some of the sights that have delighted me over the years in this country so bountiful with history and scenery. France is a large country and outside my native Besançon area, I regale being a tourist; finding the villages, monuments or views that have shaped the local people. In wine, the terroir plays a crucial part in the final product, it is no different with people. My little travelogue is an attempt to give a taste, a sense of each area. I immediately apologise to any locals for any omissions or false representations; I am after all just a tourist in most of Ma Belle France. These little descriptions are not travel guides, think of them as amuse bouches, there to titillate your senses tempting you to discover the real thing.

Le Bas Languedoc

Conques
Why not start with a Brasserie Blanc connection? St Jacques De Conques, our house wine, is made near here by Regis. Conques is a medieval village built on a hill, overshadowed by the Romanesque Sainte Foy abbey. Read more »

Gorges du Tarn
Frances own little Grand Canyon, not as big but much prettier. The Tarn is a river that along the gorges can take on the mantle of lazy puddle to roaring rapid, depending not only on the time of year but where you stop over this 50km stretch. Read more »

Chaos de Montpellier le Vieux
Not a village and nothing to do with the city it takes its name from. Montpellier le Vieux is in fact rocks, admittedly lots of rocks and rocks that have been shaped by the waters of the region, but rocks none the less. Read more »