Bourbon is the pride of Kentucky, but not a lot is drunk in the UK. I went to try and rectify this with a visit to a bourbon and steak evening, as well as learn a bit more about the drink itself.

When it comes to the Foie Burger, obviously the ToL judges saw something different to me so you may well want to gamble £9.00 for yourselves. I wouldn’t recommend it though. I know Comptoir Gascon can do, and normally does do, far, far better food than this.

We started the evening by tasting four of the Villa Franciacorta sparkling wines in the bar. Having tasted these four lovely wines we descended the stairs to the restaurant area. These were some excellent wines supporting the great food that I had come to expect from Degò following my review.

The unpredictable weather hasn’t stopped Leiths from putting on a summer puddings workshop, and for a sweet tooth like Qin Xie’s, the offer to attend was never going to be met with much resistance. So there she was on a surprisingly sunny Saturday morning, a large collection of Tupperware in tow, arriving to attend the workshop led by Maxine Clark.

I probably wouldn’t have gone, but having been invited for lunch at the McGuigan wines stand, I decided to go, I’m a bit of a tart when it comes to lunch invitations. Decision made, invitations to attend a ‘seminar’ at the Friuli stand for a Pinot Grigio tasting and to meet with Steven Spurrier about the Decanter World Wine Awards soon came in.

We tried (and eventually just looked at – the chefs were more than generous!) a host of new dishes being served’at seat’ for the first time this week to passengers travelling for more than 70 minutes. Most dishes were yummy but some were a little on the’aeroplane-food’ side.

Invited to a Soho restaurant safari by the Taste of London people, I accepted straight away. The Safari was to give us a flavour of some dishes that three Soho restaurants, Quo Vadis, Gauthier Soho and Bocca di Lupo/Gelupo, would be serving up at the forthcoming Taste of London, held at Regent’s Park from 16 to 19 June this year.

Having opened on May 9,theDen has’evolved’ over the weeks, with student artists continually changing the in-Den art installations. Downstairs are now a floor maltings, with barley spread across the room to show how the grains are turned in the distillery, while in another corner an artist pieces together a barrel lamp shade.

The Rebel Dining Society revisit a few old friends when they team up with Pernod Absinth for the second year running.

Californian winemakers Turning Leaf have recently launched their ‘Discover the Colour” campaign to present their portfolio of five wines as expressions of colour. To be precise, Turning Leaf’s oenologist Stephanie Edge has teamed up with Dutch chef Esther Röling to create a new series of colourful recipes designed to match the Turning Leaf wines throughout the seasons. Qin Xie was invited to sample their selection of wines and some of the summery dishes to match.