Thompson Brand Partners

Leventhorpe Vineyard

Whilst checking out the talent in the plonk aisle in my local shop, I was very surprised to find a wine called Leventhorpe Seyval, Yorkshire Regional Wine. The big attraction apart from the name was two Leeds owls at opposites on the label, kind of reminded me of the old Leeds Rugby League badge before we became the Rhinos. Anyway I found myself buying a bottle and taking it home. Again to my surprise it was really tasty - I'm no wine expert, so if I say it tasted of honey and lavender with a sharp crisp finish and it was tasty that will have to do.

I enjoyed it so much that at the weekend, after a bit of Google tinkering, I found the address I drove over to the vinyard based just outside Woddlesford in Leeds. To my astionishment I found 5 acres of grape vines and a nice man called George on a red tractor. They do free tastings for the passing public and mostly white wine, which is excellent. They do have a red which if I'm honest is a little weak, but Janet (George's wife) let us try all they had to offer.

It all gets a big thumbs up from me,  a really local company producing award winning, sustainable British produce and that really does taste good.

Asparagus

Asparagus has one of the shortest vegetable seasons. Blink and you'll miss it. There's nothing nicer than snapping up big fat bundles of green joy from a local farm in north Yorkshire for a spring treat. Cheaper and much better tasting than it's supermarket counterparts, the farm spears really are superior. And they make make your pee smell REALLY strong, which brings out the kid in all of us. What could be better?

Dickens' local

Feeling particularly parched after a long day of back to back meetings, we came upon The George Inn just off Borough High Street in London. On recommendation by my good friend Ian, we partook of a pint of the local George ale brew - which for a southern beer was remarkably smooth displaying a full, frothy head.

As you can probably tell, it's a proper old London ale house and was frequented by Dickens and Shakespeare before him. Apparently Churchill drank there and although he brought his own vintage, they charged him 1s 6d corkage!

Worth calling in for if you're in the Bankside vicinity, a reminder how good a proper English boozer can be.

Pancakes

Fresh lemon juice and sugar.

Maple syrup.

Tabasco sauce.

Jif lemon juice (plastic lemon essential)

Chillies.

Reggae reggae sauce.

Strawberries and raspberries.

Chocolate sauce.

Blueberries.

Nutella.

Whatever you put on your pancakes, enjoy.

Two bags

I’m not sure that I agree with the general view on strong tea. 

The serious brown stuff is often referred as builders tea. I don’t know about you, but I know plenty of people who aren’t builders who like strong tea and in fact my experience is most builders like it milky with lots of sugar. Strength isn't usually an issue with these boys, it's sweetness. The more sugars the merrier.

Anyway, when somebody kindly makes me a brew at work, I usually request two tea bags (I know, I know) because tea can potentially be too thin for my liking - I blame my dad - and the amount of milk in it is just another tricky thing to calculate. By and large though, the teas are pretty good special and special mention goes to Ted.

By the by. I'm told by a reliable source that the only other person they know who has two teabags is Sheffield song maestro Richard Hawley. He's a fellow fan of the brown tea. None of that pretentious Earl Grey nonsense. 

Good lad.

Bet he doesn't have a the benefit of a Pantone swatch to check the strength of the brews...OCD anyone?

The Corn Exchange, Leeds

When I was a kid growing up in Leeds in the 70s, the city was pretty shabby to be honest. They were dark days I think the entire country and even darker in Yorkshire. In those days the city centre was to be avoided, not lived in.

So it gives me real pleasure when I see one of the buildings I remember being neglected for so many years get a new lease of life. The Corn Exchange in Leeds had enjoyed a renaissance in the past 10 years and has recently been acquired and transformed into Leeds' newest foodie emporium. It's obviously had a big chunk of change thrown at it and you really can tell. It looks stunning.

We dined at Anthony's Plaza restaurant in there last night - but it's worth a visit just to see what they've done with this venerable Leeds landmark.

Weekend Hog Roast

Vegetarians and those of a nervous disposition should look away now.

On Saturday, a few of us spent the entire day roasting an entire pig over an open fire. Not everyone's cup of tea I realise, but it has to be one of the best days ever.

The pig was a locally reared, ethically sourced beast from my good friend Jonathan Ives at Blue Hills Farm, and it was a collective effort in sourcing logs for the fire, the rig for cooking and all the other paraphanalia needed for feeding 60 plus people.

I'd never cooked anything of this size before, so it was a real relief that after 10 hours gently roasting, the pig was ready and cooked properly. And the crackling was superb too.

Im Jamming!

Last night, I turned the rest of the bilberries I had picked on Sunday into a lovely jam. Now, jam is very easy to make. Simmer for 10 mins - 1lb bilberries, with 2floz of water and a good squeeze of lemon. Then add 1lb of sugar, dissolve and then bring to the boil for at least 4 mins. Test the jam is done by doing the cold plate test - when dropping a small amount of he jam onto a cold plate the jam should set. When ready pour still hot into a jar, leave to cool and then enjoy.

Afternoon cream tea

Well, that was a first.

We combined a client presentation with a Thryth/Chloe bake off and an everybody invited office afternoon tea!

Thryth and Chloe were pitted head to head in a no holds barred scone challenge which provided the perfect excuse for everybody - including our client of course - to judge which of the bakers would be the scone queen for the day.

On top of that, the accompaniments were absolutely perfect - clotted cornish cream, bramble jelly, fresh strawberries and Earl Grey. Incredibly decadent.

Back to the baking. Although everybody praised the overall high standard of the competition, Thryth pipped it once again, retaining the coveted wooden spoon baking trophy. When will someone come forward to challenge her culinary superiority? As both clients and Thompson folk had equal voting rights, there can be no fear of vote rigging from the Chloe camp and Ian adjudicated fairly as ever.

So, our first experiment with a client meeting combined with afternoon cream tea went down extremely with with both client and Thompsoner alike and has provided us with much inspiration. We're already thinking about how we might transform other meetings by combining them with food-based activities (which let's face it, always go down well).

Spare a final thought for poor Dan, who's turn it was to wash up after that lot - he wasn't happy.

Can we get the Dom Perignon near the front?

Harvey Nichols' most expensive Hamper is £2,500 of pure indulgence.

It took an entire day to get all the product in the shot - there was that much stuff.

We got it in the end - watch this space for the finished shot.