A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM FOODONWHITE!

Lunch at Fifteen Cornwall...

When I first thought of writing a review of 15 Cornwall - Jamie Oliver's west country venture - it got me thinking 'what are the best meals I've ever had?'

Of all the most memorable meals in my lifetime, none have been the Michelin star restaurants or the swanky central London hotels, in fact, thinking back I can barely remember what food I ate. Of course this can occasionally be put down to excessive alcohol consumption, like the time I was invited to two Christmas do's in one day, the first being in a bar with a bunch of heavy drinking 'laddish' designers, the second at Asia de Cuba at the V swanky St Martins Lane Hotel (with some slightly more sophisticated designers) http://www.stmartinslane.com/#/explore/?id=asiadecuba

Of course I turned up absolutely steaming drunk, trying to act all posh and not slur my words or drop world class food all down my shirt (and failing on all counts), I then got trapped in the flush-wood-panelled-toilets and had to wait for someone else to open the door before casually strolling out.

I do remember seeing some dish in front of me, tasting it and thinking 'WOW this is good', but have no recollection whatsoever of what it might have been. And I don't think I offered any money for the bill (though I can't really remember leaving!)

So, thinking of some of the best meals I've had, they seem to be linked more to the location I was at or to a particular time of my life. Several occasions from our travelling days stand out - A fish curry at dusk on a rooftop restaurant overlooking Trivandrum on the first night of our trip, with all the new sounds, sights and scents of South India exciting and intoxicating our London-weary souls.

Then, on an overnight train, being brought idli sambaar for breakfast on a metal tray. Or a masala dosa with coconut chutney in a cheap Kottayam cafe before the start of our backwater trip.

And THEN there was Singapore, Thailand & Malaysia!!

So, is it just the discovery of something new that my tastebuds have never experienced before?

Not necessarily. A communal meal in the front garden of our student house in Somerset, with cheap wine & candles and a pot of slightly burnt Paella will stay with me til the onset of alzheimer's.

With all this in mind, the trip to Fifteen Cornwall with a couple of good friends is almost up there with them.

Firstly, a big plus was the fantastic location - overlooking Watergate Bay on a blustery day with waves rising and crashing onto the huge expanse of sand.

We got there early with plenty of time for a brisk stroll on the beach (dog and child included). The weather remarkably turned in our favour on our arrival and the relentless driving rain relented, giving way to a brief offering of sunshine.

After a quick change of shoes by the boot of the car, we made our way to the restaurant.

The outside appearance seemed surprisingly subtle, not how you'd imagine the cheeky chirpy cockerny to brand his 'gaff'. Maybe a measure of reserve was used so as not to offend the locals with a grand display of London money.

In fact, we were unsure how our very Cornish friends would react when telling them we'd booked there. Fortunately they were actually very supportive of the project, as it employs local young people mostly from troubled backgrounds.

The interior quite took me by surprise, all very open and modern with a slightly odd mix of 'style' and 'street'. I wasn't overly keen on the graffiti type illustrations (actually applied vinyl cut, not real graffiti) - just thought the style looked a touch dated (although I AM from the creative industry, and my wife's an illustrator!).

The stars of the show for me were the hanging 'drip'lights, the open kitchen and of course the view. Overall there's a very relaxed informal atmosphere which fits very comfortably in this part of the world.

OK, I should mention the food shouldn't I?

Now, I have a couple of fussy nutritional requests, mainly no sugar & yeast, and even though I'd explained in advance I was still slightly apprehensive about ordering. I needn't have been - when asking the waitress whether I could swap the desert on the set menu for cheese, she had already checked beforehand and said it was absolutely fine! Now that's good service.

On top of that I am 'a bit' vegetarian - nothing hardcore, I just rarely cook meat, or order it when eating out.

However, I cannot feel overly compassionate towards a pigeon. So I started with the Pigeon Breast on Roasted Beetroot and what I believe was Quince.

All very good flavours, only one minor flaw was that the breast underneath wasn't pink inside, but hey.

I did have a very small taste of the Ribollita, which was intense, punchy and packed with herby flavour, REALLY good - the favourite dish of the day.

For mains I had locally caught Pollack, Pan-Fried on top of Braised Fennel, with a salsa verde and fennel leaves. Nice simple flavours, worked very well.

The house red, a Montepulciano, was superb. My son had Fifteens own 'Traditional Herbal Cola', I had a tiny sip and got an explosion of different fragrant herbs & spices. Would be awesome with a good vodka.

The two cheeses were served with 'Carta di Musica', a flat wheat bread/cracker, which they'd prepared yeast free. This was the first time I'd eaten cheese for several years and this was first class cheese, a real treat to finish the meal with.

All in all a fantastic day. One I shall long remember, perhaps not for the great food alone, but also the atmosphere, the walk on the beach beforehand and a couple of hours spent with fine wine and good friends.

My, how things have moved on!

Found these Fantastic 60s recipe cards by the original celeb chef Robert Carrier, while on holiday last month in a cottage in North Wales.

The recipes range from the classic to the exotic to the absolutely bizzare! I also photographed some of the recipes close up, so if you fancy spoiling your guests, why not try cooking Egg & Anchovy Barrels, followed by a Fish Turban with Scallops, with a grande finale of Rice a la Royale.

More to follow soon.

Enjoy!

Latest Crop: Lettuce, Broccoli, Sage & Eggs.

If, like us, you get a bit TOO excited each week when your Veggie box gets delivered, you'll understand how an organic leafy broccoli and a curled up little lettuce got me running for the camera a few weeks back.

Here's a selection from our most recent batch of images, shot in natural light, including a before & after shot of some lettuce leaves, showing the mess and clutter that gets lovingly photoshopped away to give you a nice clean foodonwhite image.

New Contact Food Photographers book...

The latest Contact Food Photographers book is due out in the next couple of weeks, but in case you just can't wait any longer, here it is online...
http://www.contactebooks.com/food14/
...enjoy!
ps. See our page in the Image Libraries section at the back.

digital food fight

Having re-discovered google fight and having just photographed, re-touched and uploaded some new fruit images it got us wondering who would be the 'fruit of all fruits' in a digital food fight... so we lined up the following 8 juicy contestants: pineapples, strawberries, kiwi, bananas, grapes, apples oranges and lemons which would be the most searched for fruit, across the world right now..?
Unsurprisingly pineapples [16400000] lost to strawberries [37500000] whilst bananas [49100000] overcame kiwis [18200000] next was apples [33400000] crushing grapes [16100000] and finally the arch rivals lemons [7350000] being easily beaten by oranges [12300000] - just to complete citrus wars, limes [1190000] just beat grapefruits [1070000]

So the final line-up starting with most popular: bananas, strawberries, apples, kiwi, oranges, pineapple, grapes and lemons. Draw your own conclusions as to why bananas reign supreme.

Books For Cooks

Books For Cooks in Londons Blenheim Crescent is a smallish shop crammed from floor to ceiling with cookery books on every conceivable food subject. Food books demand browsing and books for cooks encourage this. Another advantage is the owners knowledge of cookery publishing and what is in print or out of print. We have been visiting the shop from it’s early days in 1985 until today and it never ceases to inspire & intrigue. Like many restaurants they also have a test kitchen with a program of cookery classes – I guess it’s a sign of the times that the extra revenue helps the shop survive ...

Whilst in this part of West London it’s a short walk to Rough Trade to check out the latest indie record releases…another highly recommended shop

the foodonwhite blog...

Welcome to the new blog from foodonwhite, a place for us to keep you updated on our latest shoots, provide recipes and other foodie facts, share with you whatever inspires us (be it photography, design, cook books, our latest favorite food finds etc), get all techy & nerdy about techniches & equipment or just let you know what's on our minds.

If you don't already know what we do well the name pretty much sums it up - we are a new online photolibrary selling a unique, steadily growing collection of food ingredient images on pure white backgrounds, retouched and ready to drop straight into design layouts.

Check out the website and let us know what you think.