By way of introduction...

Meet our resident epicurean – journalist, broadcaster and compulsive composer of limericks, Philippe Boucheron. Well known throughout the Midlands for putting the fun back into both wine and food, he has carved out a nationwide career as an entertaining after dinner speaker, as well as a relaxing informative host of both wine tastings and dinners. You will find him either hosting, or making inter-course comments on the dishes and accompanying wines, at many of our own events.

Philippe spends an enormous amount of time reviewing restaurants and gastro-pubs for us from Hereford to Solihull and Gloucester to Oswestry. He enjoys bringing the best of Middle-England’s tables to your attention. And the not so good? Well, he doesn’t want to waste your time with anything less than good to excellent. But between ourselves he is extremely critical of anything that lets the standards down, and more often than not will send a copy of his not-for-publication review to the management in the hope that they will improve and eventually make their way on to our pages.

His passion is for those restaurants where the chefs prepare fresh local ingredients with the minimum of fuss to extract the maximum of flavour, with carefully selected wine lists that pay attention to matching the chefs dishes. And his pet hate? Those pretentious places with patronising staff and long menus whose dishes are well beyond the competence of the kitchens and whose wine lists more closely resemble a family bible in size, if not content!