I seem to have been in the Connaught bar rather a lot recently, well twice to be precise, and in the self same seat too. The first time was to sample vodkas and now a line of gin filled glasses are looking warily at me. All this is after eating a large pizza and a drinking the best part of a bottle of red wine earlier. Oh dear, I hope this isn’t going to get messy.

The Goring Hotel recently played host to an event promoted by British Turkey, the body that represents British turkey producers, attended by foodie scribes and representatives from those producers, to see Phil Vickery give a demonstration of the versatility of turkey in cooking. Phil’s focus was on turkey recipes for summer dishes, and he had developed four recipes to demonstrate different from those of his that already appear on the British Turkey website.

So who knew that one company, Diageo, were responsible for, or had an interest in, the production of such a wide range of alcoholic beverages that you wouldn’t have to go anywhere else to achieve a well stocked bar? We were amazed at the products they have under their umbrella organisation, including more than 20 Scottish single malt whisky varieties, gins, vodkas, tequila and Baileys. They even have an interest in Moet and Chandon Champagne.

As far as I am concerned if a poem neither rhymes nor scans, it’s just bad prose laid out in a non standard way. So an invitation to The Goring Hotel for an evening of poetry had me fearing the worst – Maya Angelou being read aloud perhaps? Or, God forbid, some of Ezra Pound’s dribblings who was locked up for being a traitor and not, alas, for his poetry.These fears proved groundless…

Dolmio ‘Taste of Italy Flirting with Flavours’ was a one-off put together specially to give a demonstration of how to use Dolmio’s newest, range of products to prepare interesting dishes, devised by Giancarlo Caldesi, for their loved one at home on Valentines day.

Oh God, the entire Foodepedia office is now lying around like stunned elephants. Tortilla, the ‘only burrito joint in South East London’ has just delivered us a complimentary bonanza of burritos, nachos and dips for the whole office. Thing is though that one medium burrito is enough to feed a small family while a large could probably feed a small country. They are absolutely stuffed with goodness though and now, so are we.

Spaghetti House has been a family run business for over fifty years. If you would like to see how the menu is being developed for the chain of restaurants, you can check out their website at www.spaghettihouse.co.uk to see what is on offer now to tempt you. A number of the newly developed dishes will be available as ‘specials’ from next week and the fully revised menu will be in place by the end of February, after Franco Taruschio has approved content of the menu and the quality of the new creation

Some restaurant owners will tell you privately that a Michelin Star can be an annoyance. Suddenly the place is full of restaurant nerds who keep taking pictures of their food, make obsessive notes and act like Wookie fans at a Star Wars convention. They supplant the regulars and make a noise.

Times are tough and people are feeling the pinch, but not everyone is shopping downmarket, in fact many people can still afford to go to Waitrose. But how to look responsible and still eat well? Enter the Camo Bag concept. ‘Of course we can still afford to buy the best,” says Helen whose husband is a well-paid columnist on a liberal newspaper. ‘But in our circle it’s just not cool now to admit it. When Tatiana gets the Waitrose bags out of the back of the Range Rover I can almost feel the neighbours disapproval.” So Helen had as she puts it, ‘a brilliant idea!”