More Good Food News and Reviews

Percy my brother John

The first thing to tell you is that Val Kirkham, our next door neighbour and she of TopNosh fame, has sold TopNosh so that will still exist but is nothing now to do with her. However, she is still going to carry on cooking, under the name of catering4parwich. This is a non-profit enterprise based in our new village hall, ‘providing high quality locally sourced and prpeared food for hall user groups, village residents and visitors’.

So as far as we all are concerned, nothing has changed except the name and she now has no website so you have to contact Val for information on 01335 390 458.She is still very happy to make meals for our guests which she delivers herself to your door.

Now for the Peacock! We kept hearing glowing reports and at last I have been, taken by an extremely kind and generous friend who treated three of us to the most lovely lunch there last week. I could become a lady what lunches, very easily… Our friend was driving us (I said she was generous) so we her guests relaxed and had a glass of wine before lunch and another with it. The only thing I could feel the slightest smug about was having a coofee instead of a gorgeous looking pud, but then of course with the coffee came some delicious chocolates which were irresistible.

The Peacock has been bought back by Haddon Hall, who have refurbished it beautifully and it all feels very unfrighteningly elegant and charming. The staff were charming, the service excellent and the food quite delicious. To to set it all off the sun streamed through the glass doors into the dining room which looks over the garden; here we watched an ageless scene – a family happily and leisurely playing croquet while some little girls did handstands and cartwheels on the lawn. It all felt a million miles away from the technological frenzy that modern life all too easily can seem.

So another big plus for our recommended pubs and restaurant list! And, by the way, Percy the Peacock has nothing to do with the Peacock at Rowsley but I thought he’d approve of a little publicity. Percy just adopted my brother’s garden as his own many years ago and demands constant food and admiration; he struts about leering lovingly at his own reflection in every window.