Interesting things

I love meeting interesting people and today I met a guy who forages for food - not to supply his own needs, but for restaurateurs! He was extremely interesting to talk to, and I suspect a very intelligent guy - he speaks six languages!



The party I was with were all firing questions at him, but that's what happens to interesting chaps when you sit around a table with them. I don't know if foraging is the kind of thing I would like to do, it seems a bit perilous to me, grubbing around for food on the woodland floor, but it sure tasted great. I realise you have to know what you are doing which he was careful to point out.



This guy was on the BBC programme Autumn Watch a few weeks ago talking about his subject, and the guy who's restaurant we were in, Matt Tebbit, who owns and runs The Foxhunter near Abergavenny, has a regular spot on Saturday Kitchen, so I was mixing with the famous this lunchtime!


I am assured that locally sourced foods are more popular in restaurants than organic because it's cheaper. Well, most people have to think twice before putting organic Coriander in their supermarket trolleys in this present climate, and we all have had to start shopping in Aldi's for heaven sake, so why shouldn't restaurants cut back? What nobody was prepared for is that the taste of wild produce is so much better and fresher of course, and therefore foraging is one of the few industries where there is growth. Long may it reign!