Food & Drink

From Saturday 27 May, intu Milton Keynes will showcase over 35 local independent businesses on the Boulevard, to create its first ever Artisan Market.  From fresh fruit & veg to handmade pottery, the Artisan Market will be trading for nine days until Sunday 4 June and give customers a chance to see, talk to and buy from the wonderful array of local talent in the area.  “We have been overwhelmed by the interest we have had from local businesses wanting to take part in the Artisan Market,” says Kirsty McGiff, marketing manager at intu Milton Keynes.  She adds: “I think customers visiting the market will be delighted to see the diverse range of products Milton Keynes entrepreneurs have to offer. We hope the Artisan Market gives these local companies a chance to talk to new audiences and expose their services to the thousands of people that visit the centre each..

Milton Keynes College is excited to announce that acclaimed patisserie consultant and pastry chef, Claire Clark MBE will open a Patisserie Academy at its Bletchley Campus this May.  The Claire Clark Academy; centre of patisserie excellence will realise a joint ambition of both Claire’s and the college, to nurture the next generation of pastry chefs in the UK.  The Claire Clark Academy will officially launch on 18 May and will be for students, professionals and enthusiastic home bakers. The programme will start with part day, one day, evening and weekend courses for home bakers and professionals. The areas covered will include; chocolate, sugar work, bread, pastry work, modern desserts, classic desserts, plating desserts and more. Specific times of day will be focused on, such as the ever popular afternoon tea and the constantly growing trend for baking real bread. The doors will open to the first intake of college students in..

It’s the first and only independent restaurant in The Hub district of Milton Keynes, and this month it celebrates one year of serving exquisite Indian food. Maaya Indian Kitchen & Bar, owned by four local entrepreneurs, opened last year after converting an empty office space in a lavish and modern Indian restaurant. After investing over £1/2 million in the transformation, Maaya has delivered in more ways than one. “From day one the business has been busy and it took a few months of fine tune our service and food but we are now producing some of the finest Indian dishes in the region.” Said Mo Abdul, Manager and co-owner of Maaya.  He adds: “We have built a wonderful following of customers, some of which come back every week but we are also delighted to see new people find us, whether through word of mouth or simply stumbling across us. We..

The Grumpy Cook, which runs the hugely popular café at Howe Park Wood, has officially opened its second site in the newly-revamped Shenley Church End shopping centre. The ribbon cutting took place last week, with the site officially opened by manager Barry Ashley and The Parks Trust’s Head of Property, Ben Allott. The café and bakery is located at 34 Benbow Court, between the estate agents and the pharmacy in the shopping area which has also recently welcomed a barbers, yoga studio and post office. The site has undergone a considerable refurbishment prior to reopening. The Parks Trust provided Barry and his partner Sandy Annells with assistance throughout the project, and arranged for local creative agency Mindbomb to create a stylish new look. The café now boasts a rustic, industrial appearance, with details including wooden wall panels and beams, Wi-Fi and marble-effect tables. The Grumpy Cook café will offer customers..

intu Milton Keynes is hosting its first ever Artisan Market between Saturday 27 May and Sunday 4 June, offering local businesses the chance showcase themselves in the busy city centre.  The shopping centre has already lined up 20 local companies to fill the nine-day event but there are still has spaces available. Event organiser, Louise Layton from intu Milton Keynes said: “whether you’d like to be in the centre for a day or the whole eight days, we’re open to making this event as simple and beneficial to companies as possible. Spaces are filling up very quickly so we would advise getting in touch sooner than later.”  The companies confirmed so far range from apparel to homemade sauces & pottery to speciality vodka, all of which will be selling their locally made produce.  Shelley Peppard, general manager at intu Milton Keynes said: “The Artisan Market is about giving local businesses..

The Peach Pub Company, which runs The Swan at Salford and The Black Horse in Woburn has been named one of the best places to work in the country by The Sunday Times in the newspaper's annual survey of great employers.  Peach shot into the Top 100 Best Companies to Work For at number 45, with a Two Star accreditation.  Now in its 17th year, The Sunday Times Top 100 is an annual ranking and survey of the best of Britain's employers. Its publication each year is a highly anticipated event in the UK’s business calendar.   Ben Paul, Peach Partner said, "When we started Peach fifteen years ago we set out to open one, really great pub. Now, to be recognised as one of the best companies to work for in the whole of the UK is a dream come true.  "We're a great team of like-minded individuals serving fantastic..

Local children deliberated, cogitated and digested when they were invited to become food critics and decide what dishes should feature on the healthier new childrens’ menu at a Bedfordshire pub. Twenty-four children from Aspley Guise Lower School, Eversholt Lower School and Husborne Crawley Lower School, took part in the after-school menu tasting session at The Anchor at Aspley Guise, Bedfordshire. The tiny tasters sampled around 14 dishes during the tasting session with the pub’s head chef Stefano Boi and nutrition advisor Catherine Turner-Perrott of Dotty’s Kitchin, who is helping create the nutritious new menu. The children decided what dishes should earn a place on the exciting new menu which is to launch in the middle of March. The Anchor’s head chef Stefano Boi says: “We thought it was really important to bring the local schools and local community together and ask the children what they want to eat. We had..

As we bounce into half term, Comic Relief has a magic ingredient to put the icing on the cake of a fun filled week. Keep the whole family busy during cold and rainy afternoons and help change lives at the same time by baking up some tasty treats in preparation for a Red Nose Day Bake Sale. There are a whole host of delicious Maltesers® baking recipes online at rednoseday.com/recipes to help inspire you and the family. All of the recipes are affordable and fuss free, guaranteed to keep the most energetic budding bakers busy weighing, mixing and decorating. Why not share your treats with friends and family for a small fee at your very own bake sale and raise some cash for Red Nose Day at the same time, to help change lives both here at home in the UK and across Africa. For all your bake sale needs,..

With Valentine’s Day fast approaching the team at the Knife & Cleaver in Houghton Conquest are celebrating the best stories of love and romance in Bedfordshire and want to hear from couples with epic love stories. To celebrate Valentine’s Day, the pub is offering the couple who impresses the judges most with their love story, a romantic three-course dinner for two, an overnight stay in one of its fantastic bedrooms and a delicious breakfast the next day. So if you have an interesting story about the lengths it took for you to first get together with your partner, the challenges and obstacles your relationship has had to overcome, a marriage proposal with a difference or maybe you have been together for an epic length of time, then the Knife & Cleaver team want to hear from you. Amy Smith, The Knife & Cleaver’s general manager says: “Valentine’s day is the..

A chef from newly reopened gastropub the Knife & Cleaver in Houghton Conquest has been shortlisted as a competitor in the Great British Sausage Roll Off 2017. Jon Leyton, who is sous chef at the Bedfordshire gastropub, is among 20 talented chefs from around the UK who have been selected to compete in this prestigious cook-off contest which is taking place this week on Wednesday, 25th January. Finalists will bake their own take on a sausage roll for the competition, which recognises chefs who add care, quality, expertise and that little ‘je ne sais quois’ to the most British of bar snacks. Jon is hoping to impress the judging panel, which includes top chef Pierre Koffmann and Mark Poynton chef/patron, of the Michelin-starred Restaurant Alimentum in Cambridge, with his delicious game sausage roll. He is creating a Pere David's Woburn Estate venison, girolles and apricot sausage roll served with a..

Preparation time:10 minutes Cooking time:15 minutes Total time:25 minutes Serves: 2 Ingredients 40g Président Unsalted Butter, plus extra for greasing 2 large white potatoes, peeled and cubed 75g frozen peas 4 sprigs fresh lemon thyme 1 small clove garlic, crushed 2 sea bream fillets 2 slices lemon 2 leeks, very thinly sliced Method 1. Preheat the oven to 220ºC, gas mark 7. Lightly butter a small ovenproof dish. Cook the potatoes in a large pan of boiling water for 10 minutes until almost tender. Add the peas to the potatoes and cook for 2-3 minutes until both are tender. Drain well, return to the pan and mash roughly. 2. Meanwhile, strip the leaves from 2 of the thyme sprigs and mash with 25g butter and the garlic. Lay the fish in the dish and dot over the herb butter. Lay a lemon slice and a sprig of thyme on each..

Duke of Edinburgh Students at Slated Row School in Wolverton are going the extra mile for their Volunteering  strand by running a Meals on Wheels project for members of the local community. Each week, pupils cook and deliver hot meals to a group of elderly residents living near the Special Needs School. “More usually, it is our students who the beneficiaries of volunteer projects so this is a wonderful opportunity for them to make a valuable contribution to the local community” says Sarah Garratt, D of E manager at the school. As well as using their lunch break to deliver the meals, the students prepare a variety of dishes from Boeuf Bourguignon to a full Christmas dinner so they are able to polish up their cooking skills at the same time as meeting one of the four elements of the Bronze Award. The school used their links to the local..

One of the ‘trends’ I am noticing with restaurants is towards really small sites opening up. These places, which can take a maximum of 20 people, are more intimate for customers and are much less unwieldy for owners and chefs to run. They require less staff and often feel more like eating in someone’s front room, rather than in a restaurant. I think one of the forerunners of this kind of restaurant was ‘Marianne’ in London, which was opened by Masterchef The Professionals runner-up Marianne Lumb three years ago. Within my patch of Beds, Herts and Bucks, Crockers in Potten End recently opened its doors. Run by a lovely chef called Luke Garnsworthy, he only has 10 seats around his fine-dining chef’s table. But Luke also loves the kind of simple recipes he makes on my Weekend Kitchen programme, like this foolproof slow-cooker pork shoulder dish. Meltingly tender, full of..

It’s one of the glitziest awards of the year in the restaurant industry, the British Curry Awards, and Maaya Indian Kitchen & Bar proudly represented Milton Keynes at the internationally celebrated event. Broadcast live in over 200 countries, the event, held at the glamourous Battersea Evolution, was attended by over 1,600 restauranteurs and guests including, The Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, Chef Heston Bulmenthal, Dancing on Ice star Frankie Poultney and Arsenal legend David Seaman. Compered by comedian Alistair McGowan, guests were also greeted by a video message from the Prime Minister, Theresa May. Maaya, which opened earlier this year in The Hub, was shortlisted for the best Newcomer award amongst 14 others from across the country and chosen from 218,000 overall entries. The Indian restaurant didn’t win the overall title, which was presented to Darbaar in London, but the owners were incredibly proud to have made it to the..

Christmas has come early as intu Milton Keynes opens its latest food retailer, the phenomenally popular American burger chain, Five Guys. Opening its doors at 11am, customers were queuing to be among the first to sample the burgers, fries and drinks offer. With as many different toppings as you like, the chain’s custom-built burgers have developed a cult-like following despite only launching in the UK in 2013. Not forgetting the Coca-Cola® freestyle machine too, giving 125+ drinks choices! From Orange Coke® to Raspberry Sprite®. The freshness of Five Guys is one of its unique selling points, the chain doesn’t have freezers on-site because they don't use frozen ingredients. At Five Guys, everything's cooked fresh from scratch. The potatoes are hand-cut daily and there is always a sign to tell the customer where they’re grown from – for the opening in intu Milton Keynes, they were from Nottinghamshire. More interesting facts..