Our blog about all things peachy
I love hospitality. Once it’s in your blood, it’s in your blood. You make friends, memories and stories, find partners, have loads of giggles, and pull together as a team, through highs and lows. Whether it’s your local boozer, a high end restaurant, or your favourite pub – hospitality is where many of us retreat … Continued
The Great British Bake Off is back – with its usual mix of people and personalities, this series looks to be as good as ever! Although the 12 contestants in this year’s Great British Bake Off are being described as the most polished in the competition’s history – the first week saw four contestants throw their creations in … Continued
It all started out as a little bit of fun, after seeing a clip of a similar looking guy dancing to his favourite song around the pool. Assistant Manager, Swifty, quickly decided to re-create the video in his Aspalls Cyder Garden at the The James Figg in Thame. The viral hit, showing him watering the new … Continued
So the Bake Off drama continues. For a moment yesterday we thought Channel 4 were going to end up with only a tent, after their big deal with Love Productions last week. Understandably, Mary is staying loyal to the BBC and is leaving the show, however, Paul is following the tent (and the ‘dough’) over … Continued
The White Lion is our most recently opened Peach Pub – a lovely, thatched country gastropub just two miles from Leamington Spa, beautifully restored in June 2022, with cosy nooks and crannies, inside an old, beamed building with a sunny eatery opening onto spacious covered terraces and a secluded garden beyond. Starting at the bar, … Continued
Christmas Day is hectic, but if you do the prep, it will be a breeze. Prep the night before, with a glass of wine in one hand and a potato peeler in the other . Champion the old hospitality saying of “mis en place saves your a**”. All veggies can be prepared in advance. Use outside … Continued
Vintage champagne isn’t my everyday tipple. On very high days, when something in the business has gone staggeringly well, we open a bottle of Krug. It’s our “taking time to smell the roses” moment. But at £125 a bottle for the multi-vintage blend Grande Cuvée and nearly £200 for the 2000 Vintage, is it worth … Continued
Farewell to welsh rarebit: our changing taste Looking at some old London restaurant menus we were given recently made me realise that if time travel were possible I’d not be spinning the dial back fifty years. Back then, starters really were confined to Orange Juice, Half a Grapefruit or Egg Mayonnaise, even at the finest … Continued
Last Saturday, I was lucky enough to spend the day at the Big Feastival. My day was spent tasting food samples, 3 course lunches, wine, copious amounts of cheese and listening to music and cooking demos… dreamy! In the afternoon, I headed to the Open Table tent to hear Rachel Khoo, British chef, writer and … Continued
Coffee is a fashion victim. Time was, you wanted a cup of coffee in a restaurant or good food pub, you ordered a coffee. It came, fresh from the filter if you were lucky (stewed on a diabolical hot-plate if you weren’t). You added milk and sugar to taste and drank it. Then came the … Continued