Be a chef for the day, cook with a Michelin starred chef and learn some of his kitchen secrets.

Located in the pretty riverside town of Marlow in Buckinghamshire, UK, in a traditional half-timbered inn, is The Hand & Flowers, a laid back, Michelin starred pub and dining room owned by husband and wife team, Tom & Beth Kerridge. Responsibilities are split with Chef Tom to be found in the kitchen and Beth overseeing the running of the business.

Gloucester born Tom’s CV includes time at the Capital, Rhodes in the Square, Odette’s in Primrose Hill and Monsieur Max in Twickenham. Prior to The Hand & Flowers, he was head chef at one-Michelin-star Adlard’s in Norwich, which gave him the opportunity and confidence of running a restaurant kitchen. After a two-year stint there he decided it was time to return to the South-East. “I wanted to re-focus the food I was doing; maybe I was trying to be too clever at Adlard’s and that’s not really what I’m about. I’m about basic, strong, good cooking and a pub seemed right.”

It took a year to find the Hand & Flowers and it was a “stinking hole of a place” when Tom and Beth took over in February 2005. Following a thorough refurbishment, the pub reopened.

The Hand & Flowers has allowed Tom to develop his signature menu of robust dishes. “Ingredients are key to what we do and we make sure that we source the best available according to the season” – chicken and pork from Suffolk, oysters from Northern Ireland, vegetables from Covent Garden – and local suppliers are used where possible. Signature dishes include potted Dorset crab with brown bread, cucumber and dill chutney and seasonal specialities including rack of lamb, braised white beans, pickled girolles, broccoli and herb sauce; or braised shin of beef with herb dumpling and parsnip purée.

In 2008, Tom built a new, state-of-the-art kitchen in an extension at the back of the pub. That space is now given over to training and Tom is looking to launch a series of cookery courses in the summer, along themes such as preparing and cooking fish and baking.  Keep an eye on the website for updates.

The roomy new kitchen has also allowed Tom to offer diners the opportunity to join him and the team for a ‘chef for the day’ experience, offering hands on experience in a Michelin starred kitchen, prepping and cooking the lunch service before taking a “well earned rest”.

Since opening, Tom has established the Hand & Flowers amongst the highest rated food pubs in the country, with a Michelin star, a rating of 6 in the 2007 Good Food Guide, and three AA rosettes. Tom and the pub have also won numerous awards, as diverse as Best Pub Chef at the Craft Guild of Chefs awards, Best Newcomer from the Publican, Buckinghamshire Newcomer of the Year from the Good Food Guide and Best Fish and Chips in Restaurant Magazine.  Heston Blumenthal, who lives in the area, and his fellow Michelin men the Roux brothers are regulars.

For more information or to book for ‘chef for the day’, call The Hand and Flowers on +44 (0) 1628 482277 or visit their website.

Twitter has triumphed at Ooh of late. Not only have we deeply enjoyed the #blameoprah thing, but we chanced upon a a twitter feed from some people hard at work on the J&E Riggin, a schooner sailing yacht located in Rockland, Maine, USA.

Captain John Finger and his wife Captain Annie Mahle never thought they’d own a schooner, though Jon had entertained the fantasy. Annie ‘wasn’t even a little bit interested’. But, she informs ooh, ‘telling your spouse it’s not okay to live your dream is a terrible thing.’ Damn straight.

Around 12 years ago, Jon was strolling idly along the docks in Maine when he came across Captain Dave Allen at the end of a long season’s sailing, changing the oil in the yawl boat. ‘He looked cross, with motor oil dripping down his elbow. He grouched to Jon, “Wanna buy a schooner?”’ From the sounds of things, Jon didn’t need much persuasion.

With a crew of six including two captains, the 90ft schooner, built in 1927, has 24 berths including 9 double cabins. Annie tells us that J&E Riggin started life as an oyster dredger down in Delaware Bay: ‘For a time she was fitted with an engine and eventually did some ground fishing. In 1977, after an abbreviated rebuild, she began life in her current form as a Maine windjammer taking guests out for 3, 4 and 6 day sailing adventures.’

Trips on J&E Riggin can include activities like photography or cookery courses. Guests are encouraged to help sail her. ‘For most people, the more they’re involved, the more fun they have. It can be as participatory or as unengaged an experience as a person chooses,’ Annie tells us.

Jon is primarily in charge of the sailing, putting years of accumulated nautical know-how to good use and Annie, a published cook, with 25 years experience, is in charge of cooking. ‘All of the meals on board become part of our daily “events.” They’re prepared by me using only the most local and freshest ingredients, mostly from our own garden.’

With the oily troubles of Captain Allen in mind, we wanted to know if owning an 80 year old boat was as troublesome as we imagined. ‘Well the politic answer is that it’s a labor of love,’ Annie explains, ‘and we do love her. We consider ourselves stewards of her and even though our names are on the mortgage, she’s really a part of our collective American history as a National Historic Landmark…’

Annie doesn’t mince words, going on: ‘…working in the snow, painting around driving spring rains, and dealing with continual repairs related to weather and wear sometimes makes a person wonder what they were thinking when they decided on an antique wooden vessel.’

To be honest though, the ooh team is pretty sold on this idea already. Just to be sure we asked Annie to tell us what makes an experience on the J&E Riggin so special.

‘A week on board is a gift to yourself, letting go of all of the multitasking and 100’s of tasks one manages every day. It’s nourishing to the body and spirit, exhilarating without being an extreme adventure, and unusual for people looking for something different.’

So if, like me, you’re now wondering how you sign up for one of these trips, it’s right here. Alternatively you can email Annie with any questions you may have.

If you’re reading this and you own a similar business offering something really special, we’re always keen to write about it, so drop us an email here.

Cash-strapped times make us all (k)need the dough, literally. Home baking, particularly bread, is having a huge resurgence. And we like that. Courses on the subject are booking up as quickly as yeasty loaves are rising in ovens around the world.

So save money, leave your supermarket sliced loaf on the shelf to contemplate its chemicals and additives, and opt instead to fill your own kitchen with arguably the best smell in the world – home baked bread (and we promise you, it really is cheaper to bake your own). 

Courses prove that bread-making is not only easy, but that the flavours, shapes and types you can make are endless. Bakers often add the prefix ‘artisan’ to their job title – bread making has become a craft. Quite right.

Photo by cesarastudillo

Carl Shavitz, founder of the Artisan Bread School, is an artisan baker who trained in the UK but who teaches all over the world. You can learn with Carl in Tuscany, New York, Florida, New Jersey, Ireland, Cambridgeshire….

We’ve heard great things about St Martin’s Bakery in the Scilly Isles. Does it get any better than learning to make fantastic breads, pastries and pies in one of the most beautiful places in the UK? Book now before the secret’s well and truly out.

Photos by Carlton Browne

Yeast-intolerant? Avoiding wheat? All covered. Courses cater for all diets and such intolerances don’t mean you have to miss out.

There’s even a Bakers Blog at The Fresh Loaf website - and more recipes than you can shake a french stick at.

Kitchen gods and goddesses, sandwiches just got great again.  And toast is officially trendy.

Photo by Phil Hawksworth

If you know of any other courses out there, let us know.