The heat is on

WE’VE just had a highly entertaining and inspirational few days here at the cookery school in Ballymaloe with the flamboyant, irreverent and completely irrepressible TV chef Antony Worrall Thompson.

It was his fourth visit to the school and over four demonstrations he cooked American, Moroccan, Asian and Mediterranean dishes. Antony and his lovely wife Jay own two restaurants, the critically acclaimed Notting Grill and the Kew Grill. They also have an interest in the Angel Gastro Pub in Heytesbury in Wiltshire. The couple live in Henley-on-Thames with their two children Toby and Billie.

Over the years Antony has become more and more outspoken about food issues, and practices what he preaches by rearing his own Middlewhite pigs and growing a variety of organic herbs and vegetables for his restaurants. The Aberdeen Angus beef served in his establishments and for which he has become famous, is dry aged and hung for 28 days.