ACE Camp Days

I had a great time with my friend and chef Alison Bell hosting an ACE Camp London culinary tour. The group was great and we ate and ate and ate! We went to soooo many good places: St John, NOPI, Borough Market, Maltby Street Market, Marylebone farmer's market, Neal's Yard Dairy, lots of exploring in Shoreditch, Soho--where we had a great tour by Jenny Linford--and Everyone had plenty of time to explore and venture out during free time. Lots of campers went to the V&A, Selfridges, and plenty of other shops and restaurants that weren't on the itinerary specifically. One highlight was going to Alastair Hendy's home, where he has an amazing kitchen (the whole place is amazing, but the kitchen in particular is dramatic because you can look down into it from the upper floor where his living room is). Above is my delicious lunch at his house. He gave a talk about his food styling and photography work and then he cooked us an amazing lunch, which he let us all style. So much fun! Now I want to take an ACE Camp. I'm looking forward to seeing what camps Angela Ritchie has planned for the rest of the year and 2016. Here's a look at our London culinary tour.

Alastair Hendy and his kitchen shown from above. (And I'm happy to have gotten down to his Home Goods store in Hastings... more on that soon.)

Just a few amazing things in his kitchen! He is a food stylist after all.

 Donuts at St John at Maltby Street. Yum. 

The kitchen where we stayed in Marylebone, right along Regent's Park. 

The cheese room at La Fromagerie in Marylebone. 

Liberty. Always a must when playing tour guide to any visitors.

Bone marrow feast at St John. 

An outing to Lamb's Conduit Street where everyone enjoyed Persephone Books. 

Lunch at NOPI.

For our first night with the group I made meringues for Eton Mess, pistachio rosewater meringues from the Ottolenghi cookbook.

And my BFF from San Francisco, Caroline (shown on the left, me right), was one of the Ace campers! I missed her as soon as she went home but it was great to see her.