I soon felt motivated to get on with some sowing and planting, continuing until I dropped. I actually did lie down on the grass for a nap, with Coco keeping me company. 45 minutes later I awoke with sunburn on my forehead and a still-asleep cat on my stomach. I had to leave, but the little poser remained, paws up, modelling for the camera. Cat life can be tough.

“It’s the early 1960s and my dad is spending yet another night outside trying to protect his poultry from a hungry fox. Fast forward 50 years, it’s 10pm on a Saturday night and I’m trying to protect my poultry from a hungry fox. The intervening years saw a revolution in the way that farming, in particular poultry farming became industrialised. Small scale free range poultry all but disappeared from the UK countryside. The upshot was the supermarkets and a handful of large scale producers totally control the market.” by Robert Morris of St Bride's Poultry

“In 2018 I opened The Brand Family Larder on the farm, a shop to sell our home-reared pork, lamb and free-range eggs to the local community, as well as the restaurant trade.” Jane Brand, Brand Farm East Fortune

1985 (continued)

Back to my story. The first week at La Rotisserie Tourangelle went very well. As previously mentioned, I was asked if I could do simple tasks like make mayonnaise or a shortcrust, and I did so with ease. I was then asked to get organised to make puff pastry - this was slightly more complicated, as it takes a little know-how. I was shown, then managed on my own quite easily. Puff pastry is made of flour, a large quantity of butter, a little water and egg yolks folded in such a way that the pastry is made of hundreds of layers when it rises in the oven. You cannot beat a home-made puff pastry - nowadays very rare in restaurants, even in the Michelin-starred ones as its much easier (and quicker) to buy it in ready-made, already thinned down. [Stop it Fred…] Of course these ready-made rolls have poor quality butter and flour, that could never produce a tasty and healthy pastry. [Time to stop, Fred!]

“I am very glad that Fred cares too much to compromise. It is why his food is so satisfying. I suspect that his eyes will narrow when he first reads this and I may well get a socially distanced poke in the ribs when we next bump into each other on Broughton Street. I don't mind because at some point in the hopefully not too distant future, I'll be sitting in bleu, for the first time in over a year, with a menu in one hand and something cold and alcoholic in the other. “ Jonathan Trew

It was 1986, or maybe it was 1985, yes 1985, and I found myself seated at the hairdresser. “Shorter” I hear, “a bit shorter”. That’s my dad talking to the guilty party who will leave me with hardly a hair on my head. I’m about to go to the second job interview of my life (remember, I lost my first job at The Nemrod in St Maure de Touraine).

“I won’t forget this year, like all of us, but I’ll keep in mind the good times. I’ll always remember that evening we spent at Fred and Betty’s house, when we decided to start a take-away service. A brand new job for all of us and we had to adapt. I’ll always remember the famous “allez” (“come on”) we all shouted every time the phone rang on the first days, or Fred singing his heart out while we were out on deliveries. Good times!” Our general manager Carole

“Sometimes reading in the media you would think that’s it’s only cod and haddock that our fishermen catch in the seas around the U.K. Nothing could be further from the truth. Looking into the fish hopper on my trawler Budding Rose, I’m always amazed at the amount of different species we catch, especially in the summer months when we can catch up to 15 different species in one haul. Yes, we do catch cod and haddock but also species like wolffish (rock turbot), monkfish, hake, saithe, whiting, lemon sole, plaice, megrim, halibut and turbot to name a few of them.” By fisherman Peter Bruce

It was a year ago, yes a full year, when we closed both restaurants. It’s now God knows how many weeks since blanc has had a visitor. No-one has been there except me for a weekly check: pipe, taps, meter readings. Bleu has been doing ready meals since what feels like May 2016, but we did manage to trade as a fully-operating restaurant for, erm, 5 whole weeks in 2020. Enough said on the subject.

“I first met Fred in 2010 at the old Institut Français, a short stroll from l’escargot blanc in the West End. In a neat continuation of l’entente cordiale, the photography collective I was a member of held our inaugural exhibition at l’Institut, and I would go on to develop more connections over the years, even getting married there in 2013.” by photographer Albie Clark