Melanie and I always go out for something to eat on a Friday and what better way is there than to start the weekend with a curry. Last night we visited our local Bengali Restaurant – Samrat. We’ve been going here for a very long time – I think I must have made my first visit in my twenties, which is a long time ago. It’s also where Melanie and I met up for our first date. Samrat has all the usual Bengali favourites and a few house specials always served to a high standard and we are always greeted with a big welcome. I don’t drink alcohol these days…

Well……what do you know? I had to go out for a business lunch today at Gordon Ramsay’s Bread Street Kitchen, www.gordonramsayrestaurants.com. I’ve been seen there a few times before and as luck would have it managed to get chatting to Head Chef, Paul Shearing. For lunch I’d had a rib-eye steak, which tasted wonderful, but was a little on the firmer side than I would normally like. Anyway, I mentioned this to Paul, who was very appreciative of my experienced feedback. I told him we sourced a lot of our meat at home from our local butchers, Chadwicks, who incidentally supply our favourite Tooting restaurant Tota. Paul passed me his…