We arrived at the launch party for The Lonsdale rather later than we had intended, it was after 9.30 and all was in full swing, with young and not so young, west Londoners spilling out onto Lonsdale Road with colourful cocktails and beers in hand, taking advantage of the warm evening and of course the freedom to smoke out there.

Can you eat at a high level and still stay healthy? From the look of most restaurant critics the answer is an emphatic no, the men so fat of chin they’ve given up shaving out of fear of cutting their own throats. Anita Pati has no desire to end up like that so she was happy to hurry along to Apsley’s to try Michelin Star Heinz Beck’s healthy summer tasting menu

This was my first visit to a Bodean’s restaurant and definitely will not be my last. There’s more of a welcoming and personal atmosphere compared to other American sports bar style restaurants I’ve visited. The attention and care given to the preparation and standard of the food is shown through the tenderness and taste of the meat. Throw in some good American beer and sweet cocktails and you’ve got a fine recipe for a good night out.

Invited recently to the launch of Richard Bertinet’s new book Cook, at a well known kitchen showroom in Wigmore Street, I arrived hot and bothered having not had the best of journeys. I descended to the lower ground floor where an active kitchen is set up to join a select gathering of food writers and others from the foodiemedia. After a quick cup of coffee, I was immediately set to work.

It seems that much of what I have attended recently is focussed on Italian produce and a tasting of olive oil from Liguria recently was yet another. The purpose of the tasting was to alert us to the quality of Italian olive oil generally, but in particular to that produced in Liguria which like many Italian region’s oils has DOC status.

The great thing at these sort of cooking class turnouts is to make sure you mark your efforts clearly before they go in the oven. That way you avoid having to eat yours when they come out and can instead feast on far better efforts made by your fellow cooks.

Having been invited to its recent launch and not been able to attend, it seemed quite appropriate that I went along to this new food outlet during National Vegetarian week. An abbreviation of ‘simply authentic food’ saf, is a sister outlet to the restaurant in Curtain Road, East London.

So, following my cordial invitation from the Italian Trade Commission and the Istituto Valorizzazione Salumi Italiani to a Press Conference on the subject of ‘A celebration of Italian Cured Meats in Europe’ I dutifully trotted along to the Haymarket Hotel in Suffolk Place and took my place among the myriad of foodie types from the disparate parts of this media.

Pack away the rusting, and frankly insanitary barbeque. If you fancy your food cooked to perfection and not flambeed to ash then The Montague on the Gardens has got the grill to thrill

The Michelin-starred subterranean Mayfair restaurant has launched its spring menu, . At the moment there’s a lunchtime deal where you can get three courses for £18.50, £28.50 with wine, if you fancy.