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One of the things I’ve found most time consuming about lockdown is the need to plan all my shopping, food planning, preparation, cooking and eating up of left overs.  It’s not been the easiest thing to achieve, which surprised me as I do generally cook from scratch a lot and would consider myself a good food planner.  So in amongst the meal planning and preparation, it’s nice to have a few meals that are less work and take up less time. It’s good to be able to pick out a good quality prepared meal to give the chef of the house the occasional evening off.

Created by foodies for foodies, Charlie Bigham’s dishes are lovingly made following the same attention to detail that you would if you were to scratch cook them yourself at home. Using top quality ingredients, chosen for their deliciousness, his goal is to help people steal back quality time by doing all the dinner prep for them.  And with more than 60 savoury dishes to choose from, inspired by British classics and world flavours, as well as a new range of gloriously indulgent Proper Puds, you’ll find a dish for you. 

A Little Luxury is offering four lucky readers the chance to win a Charlie Bigham’s meal for two, redeemable in-store. If you’d like to win, please enter via the Gleam widget below.

Sweet Cakey Thing recently got in touch and sent me a selection of their sweet cakey things to try out.  With all the doom and gloom around at the moment, it was a real treat to have something a little bit decadent, but filled with high quality ingredients, arrive at my door.

Sweet Cakey Thing started life as a Kupkase & Co which made wonderful cakes, but following the owner’s change to a paleo – keto – plant based food lifestyle, there was a move to providing something that was a real treat, but good for you at the same time. All the little pots of sweet cakey things are handmade in small batches and the cake batter is actually baked right in the jar, creating a moist and flavourful crumb, made with ingredients that work to actually nourish the body, unlike regular cake. Baking with almond flour rather than wheat flour; using coconut milk rather than cows’ milk and butter; and all natural sugars, rather than refined sugars or sweeteners is all part of the story. Sweet Cakey Thing is free, from wheat, gluten, grains, dairy, soya, additives, preservatives and refined, white sugar.

There are four flavours to choose from:

• Rouge Bouche with red velvet sponge, rich chocolate sauce and white chocolate almond cream. Finished off with a sprinkle of cocoa nibs.
• BerryLicious is a take on the classic victoria sandwich with layers of vanilla sponge, red berry compote and white chocolate almond cream.
• CocoaCrush is made from layers of moist chocolate sponge, chocolate coconut sauce and chocolate almond cream.
• LemonLush encorporates ribbons of lemon zest through the lemon, blueberry and tumeric sponge. There’s fresh made lemon curd and white chocolate almond cream.

I was very excited about the pots arriving and they did look so tempting as you can obviously see the goodies through the glass.  The tops are tightly on and I had to run the lid under the hot tap to open them, but that was easy enough and better than them leaking in transit. Once you open them up and taste them, you realise how moist they are.  The pot size was just right for me: enough to feel I’d had a treat and to make me feel full.  I loved that they are packed full of good things and they are really tasty too.  They are so indulgent to eat, you don’t feel that you are depriving yourself of anything and that is the perfect way to be.  I really enjoyed them and would certainly consider buying them again, or getting them for a friend as a treat.  If you’d like to find out more, pop over to https://www.sweetcakeything.co.uk/shop or visit them on Instagram.

The Celebrity Indian Restaurant on Broad Street has been a familiar feature of the famous thoroughfare for many years.  In fact, the restaurant has a long history and started life just around the corner near the Rep Theatre and was known as The Celebrity because it was a regular haunt of the theatre stars.  I first became aware of the restaurant after its move to Broad Street where it occupies the top floor of a handsome red brick building (the ground floor of which is the Brasshouse pub).  The location is ideal as its at the heart of Birmingham’s nightlife area and there are a host of places near by to enjoy a drink afterwards, or you can go clubbing if you want to party.

The Celebrity Restaurant is beautiful decorated and it’s a very stylish place to spend an evening.  The decor is almost monochrome and has been put together with an eye for detail.  The tables are generously spaced and it’s a very comfortable environment to spend time.  You wouldn’t know you were so close to one of Birmingham’s busiest streets.  It’s truly a place where you can savour the restaurant experience concentrating on the food and your companions.

One of the things that stood out for me as I looked over the menu is the range of dishes available and the fact that The Celebrity offer some interesting and unusual plates of food that are very different to the usual fare on offer at a local curry house.  Over the years the restaurant have created a comprehensive range of modern and traditional dishes, which are presented flair and vibrancy.

One of the highlights of the evening for me and my table companions was their signature starter: an onion bhaji stack.  This is the perfect dish for sharing as it’s so tempting to pick out those stands of onion with their gram flour batter coating, although you might prefer to keep it all to yourself.

The main course I picked out from their Signature Main Courses was the Seabass Khazana. In fact, I was very pleasantly surprised by the amount of fish dishes on the à la carte menu.  I think it’s a delicate balance to hit: to get the combination of Indian spices right, but without overpowering the fish (some types of fish can be quite delicate in flavour).  The seabass is first marinated in spices and then pan fried in herbs to get that crispy skin whilst keeping the fish flesh moist.  Then the seabass is served on a bed of creamed vegetables with paprika, tomatoes and onions.  The Seabass Khazana did manage to find that sweet spot between delivering a punchy Asian flavour and overwhelming the sea bass, which should and did remain the star of the dish.

Disclosure: I was invited along to The Celebrity Restaurant to try out the food with the Westside Bid in Birmingham.  The Westside Business Improvement District (BID) is constantly working towards creating a more attractive, better marketed, brighter, safer and cleaner business environment in Broad Street, Brindleyplace, Five Ways, Centenary Square, Broadway Plaza and all the surrounding areas.  Photos are by Jas Sansi.

This isn’t so much a review as a few thoughts and impressions of my experiences at the Seasons Restaurant at the Eastbury Hotel in Sherborne, Dorset.  As I wasn’t there for work purposes, I wasn’t taking loads of photos and I didn’t make notes or anything like that.  There’s less detail than for a usual review because of that.

We were booked in on a Saturday night and as you’d expect for a 2 AA Rosette restaurant in a popular hotel, it was reasonably busy.  The tables are well spaced though and you have enough room to enjoy your meal in comfort.  Whilst we were eating there was a pianist playing live music which was very enjoyable and certainly added to the atmosphere.

One way of getting a good idea of what a restaurant has to offer is to try the Tasting Menu as you get to see how they use a wide variety of ingredients.  To get the most from the experience, it’s great if you can try the accompanying wine flight too.  The tasting menu has seven courses (plus an amuse bouche) and there were five wines served with it. I think it’s fine not to have a new wine with every course – that can be a bit much to be honest, but I’d have liked the first wine to arrive a little earlier.  I know we could have had another drink first, but with five wines to come we didn’t want to do that.  The wines were well chosen.  I liked the first of the red wines best as it was a very smooth drink (Honest Valley, Shiraz, Australia) and a good accompaniment to the black pudding course that it came with.  For me the other highlight was the rose that came with the next course: La Serenite Cuvee, L’ame Rose, France.  It was a lovely, light, refreshing wine that matched the goats cheese dish perfectly.

It was good to taste such a range of different dishes which showcased the chef and his kitchen’s talents well.  I really enjoyed the Laverstock Park Black Pudding  and the Venison Tartare with Quail Yolk, Juniper and Blackberry. Both plates were served early on in the menu and they include some of my favourite ingredients.  I liked the fact that the ingredients were handled careful and didn’t overpower their dishes (which is easily done when you are working with such strong flavours).  The flavouring and accompaniments really enhanced the food, especially the perfectly cooked quail yolk.

My stand out dish of the evening though was the crab. It sounded intriguing on the menu: Devon Crab, Cucumber and Wasabi, Brown Crab Tuile, with Green Apple, Grapefruit and Dill.  I was a touch concerned that the wasabi would overpower the crab because wasabi is such a strong flavour, but it was a well balanced dish and the wasabi didn’t dominate.  Instead it enhanced the delicate flavours of the crab and the cucumber, apple, grapefruit and dill added a complementing freshness.

For my companion the Roasted Lamb with Tandoori Spice, Served with Cauliflower, Cucumber and Yoghurt was very flavoursome and just nudged the crab off the top spot.  For me it was probably my second favourite of the dishes from the tasting menu.  It had all the spice of a curry, but the lamb was traditionally roasted and cooked to perfection.  The yoghurt added a lovely cooling contrast.

The service throughout the meal was very good, attentive without being intrusive.  I liked that the waiter seemed genuinely interested in which courses we liked best and which wines.