The week in pictures

Anton Manganaro (Head Chef, BAFTA, 195 Piccadilly), Jamie Holme (Sous Chef, Bubble) & Paul Bates (Executive Chef, Grosvenor House Hotel)

We’re right on the cusp of awards season, so on Monday night, the author made a trip to the Grosvenor House Hotel for a preview of the food and drinks stars will be served at this years British Academy of Film Awards (BAFTAs) taking place next month.

Jonathan Pryce in conversation with Anne Morrison at the Academy Circle. (Photo: BAFTA)

We brought you a sneak peek of the menu already this week, but before we got round to the tasting, the BAFTA team hosted a Q&A with British actor Jonathan Pryce, known for everything from Pirates of the Caribbean to Game of Thrones, to his most recent role as a celebrated novelist and husband to a long-suffering Glenn Close in The Wife.

(Photo: David M. Benett/Getty Images for Whitechapel Gallery)

Later that day, award-winning comedy actor, Black Books star and all-round babe Tasmin Greig was at the Whitechapel Gallery with husband and Penelope actor Richard Leaf to toast its annual Art Icon Awards. Champagne Castelnau provided the fizz for the prizegiving.

(Photo: Vincent Isore/IP3)

On the continent, Christophe Pelé, Chef at the two Michelin stared Le Clarence, devised the menu of the seventeenth edition of the “Dîner de la Mode de Sidaction” in Paris. Organised in partnership with the Federation of Haute Couture, the event celebrates the cutting edge of French fashion.

(Photo: Vincent Isore/IP3)

In keeping with the glamour of the event, Pamela Anderson and Jean-Paul Gauthier compéred.

(Photo: Ian Jones for WineGB)

Back in Blighty, the Duchess of Cornwall and the Queen of Wine (Jancis Robinson MW)  headed to Vintners’ Hall in the square mile on Thursday evening to toast the success of English and Welsh winemakers with WineGB.

You may have heard that 2018 was a stonking vintage for English and Welsh wines, with a record-breaking 15.6 million bottles produced. Higher volumes are predicted in the years to come due to ongoing expansion of vineyards across the country, as acreage planted has grown 160% in the last 10 years.

This week, in Politicians Taking A Break From Brexit Discussions via UK Business Promotions, Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was at the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday. Why? The politician was with Glencairn Crystal’s new product development director Scott Davidson to celebrate the seven companies have formed to launch ELITE Scotland — an LSE Group programme for fast-growing companies.

The seven new additions to the group join the existing contingent of Scottish companies in ELITE including Skyscanner and craft beer giant BrewDog.

In planning news, Diageo revealed its blueprints for the restoration of Port Ellen distillery on Islay this week, featuring two separate distillation regimes that will both replicate the distillery’s original character and allow for more experimentation.

In Cambridgeshire, road workers stumbled across what archaeologists believe to be the earliest evidence of beer ever uncovered in Britain, identifying fermented residue dating back to 400BC.

Archaeologists overseeing the project, which has already unearthed several other historical finds of significance, found “tell-tale signs of the Iron Age brew” during work on improvements to the A14 between Cambridge and Huntingdon.

In Compounded Extravagance news, glassmaker Lalique has created an exact replica of a 225-litre barrique made of crystal and filled it with Sauternes to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Château Lafaurie-Peyraguey.

As well as being made from crystal, the barrel is ‘bound’ by leather straps designed to imitate the metal hoops that hold a traditional oak barrel together, but these have been secured with cabochons of crystal and the opening of the barrel with a crystal bung.

There are lots of ways you can deal with a cold snap, and more than one London bar has chosen flat-out denial. Leading the charge this week was Madison in St Paul’s, which debuted its tropical, rum-based tikki cocktail menu on Wednesday 30 January.

Our favourite was the Walking Dead (pictured). Presumably named in honour of how we’re all feeling this month, this serve brought together Zacapa, Amaro Di Angostura, lime juice, orange and grapefruit bitters, spiced syrup, fresh passion fruit and a garnish that sits somewhere between a cigar and a rollie.

However in Germany, winemakers see freezing temperatures as a lucrative business opportunity. Schloss Johannisberg has managed to produce its first icewine in a decade after temperatures plummeted below -10° centigrade along the Rhine,  allowing harvesters to venture out into the cold and pick the frozen grapes.