Up (2009) - Disney animated

IMDB 8.4/10


Maybe I wasn't in the right mood, but Disney's highly-acclaimed 2009 animated movie Up didn't quite ignite the fire of delight that I was expecting. Perhaps it would have been more impressive in the cinema large screen? As it was, the quality on TV was exceptional - like nothing I've seen before. But I enjoyed Ratatouille more. Maybe it was the subject matter...


Official Disney site is here.

Epicurean adventurousness - the whole hog

I can't say I've been to Feast, a restaurant in Houston, Texas, but I was inspired by this photo of 'Duck sausage (with Head)' to googlesearch more about them on the interweb. As it turned out, it's run by a couple of ex-pats clearly inspired by Fergus Henderson's St Jhn Restaurant in Clerkenwell, London.


Feast has been run by 40-year-old ex-pats Richard Knight and James and (American) Meagan Silk since March 2008, bringing a traditional and relaxed 'European' approach to dining to Downtown Houston, with simple, honest, (extremely) rustic cuisine in a relaxed, homey environment. The emphasis is on quality, local, seasonal ingredients prepared with passion and imagination, aiming to summon the spirit of a family meal shared around the kitchen table of an old-fashioned European family farm...

Richard and James grew up together in Bognor Regis, England and have been eating, drinking and cooking together for their entire lives. Meagan, who runs front-of-house and was born and raised in Massachusetts and Arizona, joined the group and the 'Feast Family' was born. Their work together has been described as a labour of love and it's their hearty, passionate, European-style eating that they brought to downtown Houston.

Richard has more than 20 years experience as a chef. Whilst in London he worked in, amongst others, Green’s and The Lindsay House, Michelin starred, high profile, establishments, before becoming Head Chef of a successful restaurant in the artist community in St. Ives, Cornwall. He's lived in the US for 13 years, first in California, working as a private chef and caterer in Laguna Hills, before moving to Texas in 1998. Prior to opening ‘Taverna’ with James and Meagan in Conroe, he was the Executive Head Chef at the Chevron Texaco Building in downtown Houston.

James has also worked in all aspects of the restaurant business for two decades. Amongst much other experience in London, he ran Charles Fontaine’s renowned Quality Chop House and then Moro. Most tellingly, he worked extensively at St John Restaurant in (recently once again named in the top twenty best restaurants in the world by the US Restaurant Magazine - and is Anthony Bourdain’s ‘favorite restaurant in the world’). There, following in his family’s tradition, he also trained as a butcher and a chef.

Big up for the supplier of the duck (as well as the rabbits, guinea fowl, oxtail, bones and livers: Sebastien Bonneau, Countryside Farms, Cedar Creek, Texas.


New York Times article on nose-to-tail cooking, naughty nomenclature and an ode to offal: British Derring-Do, Innards a Speciality

Feast, 219 Westheimer Road, Houston, Texas

‘The industrialization - and brutalization - of animals in America is a relatively new phenomenon: no other country raises and slaughters its food animals quite as intensively or as brutally as we do. No other people in history has lived at quite so great a remove from the animals they eat. Were the walls of our meat industry to become transparent we would not long continue to raise, kill and eat animals the way we do. Tail-docking and sow crates and beak-clipping would disappear overnight - for who could stand the sight? Yes, meat would get more expensive. We'd probably eat less of it too, but maybe when we did eat animals, we'd eat them with the consciousness, ceremony and respect they deserve.’ Michael Pollan, writing in The Omnivore’s Dilemma