This weekend saw the fifth Wirral Food and Drink festival take place at Claremont Farm.  Part of Wirral Council’s Year of Food, this years festival boasted more than 100 producers and stalls and attracting around 30,000 visitors, the biggest and best so far.  

Exhibitors and stalls showcased the finest specialist foods from England and North Wales including crumbly cheese from Cheshire, delicious lamb from North Wales, Sarsaparilla from Lancashire, coffee from Birkenhead, homemade cakes from Burton, and locally brewed real ale.  Visitors were treated to chef demonstrations, a mini version of Wirral’s Farmer’s market, live music and cookery workshops.Our very own Paul Askew and the North West Young Chef of the Year Tom Lee demonstrated on Bank Holiday Monday. Paul cooked fillet of turbot with saffron and golden beetroot risotto, poached oysters and girolle.  Tom cooked Anglesey mussel and panchetta ravioli with leeks and micro salad.

Paul said “It was a great buzz to see all the foodies gathered together, well done Claremont Farm!” 

The Wirral Autistic Society is Hope Street Hotel’s nominated charity so we were delighted to help with their Ken Dodd Literary Lunch last Friday.  54 friends of the Wirral Autistic Society had a private lunch on the Fifth and a talk/joke session with the hilarious Ken Dodd.  With sides aching the group enjoyed a bespoke menu created by Paul Askew which even included a ‘jam butty’ pre dessert course in honor of Ken. The lunch along with a raffle and silent auction raised in excess of £2,500 which will all go towards the building of a respite centre at the Wirral Autistic Society in Raby Mere.   

Ken Dodd and Rick Myers (Fundraising Officer for the WAS) with the silent auction prize - a bronze bust of Ken Dodd created by Rick.

Paul Askew with Rick Myers

Ken Dodd with guests

Despite the volcanic ash cloud, our latest winemaker’s dinner was a huge success, although the odds were stacked against us... 

Firstly we had a group of 15 guests coming from Belgium who were grounded.  Then due to the no flight situation all of the American east coast lobster hadn’t made it over, so the French and Spanish had bought out all of our British stocks.  The one plus side was that Paul Boutinot, who had recently sent his regrets having been called away to his vineyards in South Africa, was able to host the dinner again.      

At the last minute the ash cloud lifted, the Belgians made it and I managed to get my hands on some delicious Cornish lobster.  Paul Boutinot did jet off to South Africa, but he left us in the delightful hands of his master sommelier Nigel Wilkinson.   

We had a picture of Nigel last time so here’s picture of the Fifth in all it’s glory! 

We are delighted to be hosting Liverpool’s Cafe Scientifiqué which is a forum for promoting public engagement with science. The first meeting of 2010 took place on Tuesday 9^th February and got off to a great start with a talk by Marco Bertamini from the Department of Psychology at Liverpool University. It was entitled: Naïve physics: understanding how things work from everyday visual experience. One of the phenomena Marco Bertamini talked about was the 'Venus Effect' – how we incorrectly perceive what's going on when we look at people looking into mirrors.

The second meeting took place on Tuesday 9^th March and was given by Gareth Stratton, Professor of Paediatric Exercise Science, Liverpool John Moores University, entitled: The road to an active and healthy childhood, from fitness to fatness and back again. It was another excellent talk. Gareth Stratton's department is doing cutting edge research into the obesity problem among young children. He presented the group with some frightening data as well as saying what is required to prevent obesity amongst the young.

The next meeting takes place on Tuesday 13^th April.  There will be another speaker from Liverpool University's Department of Psychology, Sonia Tucci. Her talk is entitled: Appetite regulation and obesity. This should give us another view of the obesity problem that is prevalent in our society.There will be three further speakers and that will take Café Scientifique up to July. Topics include athletic preparation for the London Olympics in 2012, exploding stars and issues about ageing.

For the meeting on Tuesday 8^th June, the group will be moving from their usual meeting place on the ground floor up to the Fifth floor. The talk is being given by Mike Bode, Director of the Astrophysics Research Institute and Professor of Astrophysics, Liverpool John Moores University, and is entitled: Stars that go bang in the night. The view from the fifth floor is spectacular and will provide an appropriate back-drop for this meeting. 

The meetings are free and take place every second Tuesday of the month (7.30pm start).

Details of all the meetings can be found at: http://sites.google.com/site/liverpoolcafescientifique/

Please contact Michael Jackman, mjcafsci@talktalk.net, if intending to attend as places may be limited.   

Champagne Lallier produces 300,000 bottles a year, distributed all around the world, well we had 10 of them at TLCW last night.  And if we could afford it some of us would have loved to buy the remaining 299,990 bottles! From now on I shall only be drinking Grande Cruz Zero Dosage, it will be on every; birthday, Christmas, new house and get well list, its worth re doing my wedding vows just to get it on that list too!! 

Sue Ainger Executive Events Manager

We were approached buy the Alumni Relations Team at the University of Liverpool to see if we could help out with taking a London Carriage Works Afternoon Tea to a very special graduate of The University of Liverpool.  Colonel James Bryson is one of the University’s oldest graduates and celebrated his 97^th Birthday on February 4^th.

Colonel Bryson studied Law at the University of Liverpool at Graduated in 1932. Since Graduating he held positions including chairman of the Medical Appeal Tribunal, Senior District Registrar of the High Court of Justice and Liverpool Admiralty Registrar, president of the Liverpool Law Society, chairman of the Mayor's Poppy Fund, president of the North West Cancer Research Fund, organiser of the annual Remembrance Day commemorations at the Lime Street war memorial, and Commissioner of Taxes from 1968 to 1988.

One of his most startling stories was when he was presiding judge over a bankruptcy trial of infamous Liverpool nightclub owner George Wilkie in 1960. During the proceedings the accused took out a gun and shot at the Colonel several times injuring several people in the court and piercing the portrait hanging behind him. The Colonel was able to wrestle the assailant to the ground and for this act he received the Queens Commendation for Bravery.

Amongst memories he shared at his special ‘Afternoon Tea’ were his meeting with the Pope, and his many meetings with the Queen (two meetings of which ended in disaster, the first with a streaker barging between them and the second with floods at Buckingham Palace, after which he received a personal letter apologising for his bad luck and inviting him again to the palace), his personal connections to the University, and his work with many charities including presiding over the North West Cancer Research Fund, and working alongside Ken Dodd. Colonel Bryson is also a Papal Knight and a Knight of the Round Table. 

Of course we were delighted to help.  Our Pastry chef Bernie designed the menu for the Colonel and included one of her legendary Victoria sponge cakes which we know went down a treat. 

Like most businesses in the industry it’s just far too busy in December for us to have the annual Christmas ‘knees up’ so we always wait until January when things are a little less hectic.  We always have a theme, in the past anything from Little Britain to Masked Balls, but this year it was “Bollywood”.  Dressing up was optional but Bhindi wearing was compulsory!  We dressed the restaurant and The Residents’ Lounge in clashing colours, swathed pillars and fringing.  We usually have a stand-up buffet down in the Residents’ Lounge, this year we decided to spoil ourselves and enjoy the restaurant. Even more of a treat for the kitchen was that we ordered all of the food in!  The London Carriage Works got a takeaway!  Master Chef on Renshaw street were brilliant and the food was superb. We have annual awards every year for: The funniest, the most considerate, most hardworking and of course the “hotties”.  Here are some of the winners.  

After our wonderful feast we all descended to the Residents’ Lounge and danced until the early hours.

We’ve obviously done a bit of research and know that The London Carriage Works originally, as the name suggests, housed a coach builder, and since then the building has been home to various companies such as booksellers, telephone companies and more recently a furniture depositary.   

Some of our colleagues can remember the furniture store 'AJ Buckinghams', our Sue Ainger used to live nearby in the late 1980’s and said “I used to pass most days and barely even noticed the building, (which is quite shocking as it’s so beautiful), except for an overall impression of an abandoned space with a few dusty old card board cut outs on display in the windows”. 

We are wondering if any of our website visitors can remember the building before we moved in?  Do you have any interesting recollections or historical facts?  Please share your memories with us by clicking on the comments option below.

There was great excitement in the kitchen yesterday with the arrival of a 25 year old wild Scottish Halibut.  This fever did not really register on the rest of us but then we did not know then what we know now. For a start, did you know the colder the water the tastier the fish?  (No wonder Iceland can get a bit touchy fishy about its waters!)  She came from the North Sea and landed at Fraserburgh harbour on the North East corner of Scotland, Simon Ward, from Wards Fishmongers on the Wirral, told me Paul Askew was one of less than a handful of chefs he knew that could cut and do justice to such a magnificent catch.

She arrived at 11.00am and by 2.30pm she was resting in pieces, with head and toe (sorry tail fin) in the stock pot.  Wild Halibut is an unusual and fabulous fish for even more fabulous recipes; our last one came in at 18 stone two years ago. Unsurprisingly, halibut will be the special on The London Carriage Works menu for most of the week.  Paul will be pan roasting fillets of the wild Scottish halibut and serving it with an English risotto of leeks, wild mushroom and barley.

See our 'How to' recipes on the Home page.