Simon Hopkinson, “The Good Cook” on BBC 2. A cook for our times.

No cheeky chappie brandishing a whisk, no bosomy gastro-porn, no foodie-travelogues in foreign parts, no al fresco cooking sketches of dishes we are unlikely to try, no rants, no back-slapping, no slurping or faux bonhomie. Simon Hopkinson, aka The Good Cook on BBC 2, is the best thing to happen to TV cookery programmes since Delia Smith a generation ago.

The idea is simple. Put a great restaurant cook in his home kitchen and get him to show us how to make all the dishes we most enjoy eating. You know, dishes like steak and chips, coq au vin, salade Nicoise, sticky toffee pudding, rhubarb crumble… even the much abused Quiche Lorraine. No fancy production frills, just a careful, thoughtful demonstration of how to execute these recipes… to perfection!

I first met Simon in the early 1980s when he was cooking in a small South Kensington restaurant called Hilaire. It became my favourite London eaterie. Then, in 1987, he joined forces with Sir Terence Conran to open Bibendum in the old Michelin building a few hundred yards up the road.

For me, Simon Hopkinson was one of three seminal spirits of that era who shaped the future of modern British cooking. The other two were Alastair Little and Rowley Leigh. (You can read about them – and others – in my two volumes of Great British Chefs, published in 1989 and 1995. Find them on Amazon).

In The Good Cook, Simon turns his back on TV cookery as frothy light entertainment. What he gives his audience is the quiet, practical authority of a seasoned chef whose approach is based on the twin pillars of Elizabeth David and Jane Grigson. Substance and comfort in a time of uncertainty. Forgotten values made familiar once again.

More please BBC 2!

Kit Chapman, proprietor of The Castle at Taunton and author of My Archipelago.

Read Full Post »

The ECB emails The Castle from Lord’s with “high praise”.

As England and India face each other on the final day of the first test at Lord’s, the tourists need 378 runs to win with 9 wickets still standing. All eyes will be on Sachin Tendulkar to see if he can score that elusive hundredth century in his second innings.

Meanwhile, over the weekend, we received a surprise email from the England and Wales Cricket Board in London’s NW8, home to Lord’s Cricket Ground.

“The Indian Team really enjoyed their stay at The Castle,” wrote the ECB. “… the staff looked after them brilliantly… and the feedback from management and players was nothing but high praise… they volunteered some extremely positive comments.”

This message was important to us. The ECB goes to great lengths to take good care of their visitors and they insist that the hospitality offered in their selected hotels around England is of the highest quality.

On behalf of Team Castle, we send our wamest thanks to Lord’s and the ECB.

Kit Chapman, proprietor of The Castle at Taunton and author of My Archipelago.

Read Full Post »

The Castle welcomes Sachin Tendulkar and India’s test cricketers to Taunton.

I may not be a great cricket fan. And I may prefer music to most kinds of sport. But sometimes even I find my ignorance shocking!

In spite of a long friendship with Henry “Blowers” Blofeld, English cricket’s national treasure, and in spite of The Castle’s long association with the greatest names in test cricket (stretching back to Don Bradman in the 1930s), I had never been acquainted with the name Sachin Tendulkar. This, I now realize, is ignorance at its most shameful!

Letting me down gently, a friend explained that Tendulkar is to cricket what Mozart is to music. In India, he said, this genius with the bat is revered as a god. Since I was put right, his name has been splashed around the news media as frequently as that of Rebekah Brooks and the Murdochs… but, in his case, with wonder and admiration rather than dismay and disgust!

Well, that introduction to the Great Tendulkar happened almost two weeks ago, just before the Indians landed in England to begin their tour under the direction of the team’s renowned coach, Duncan Fletcher. And first stop on the tour was The Castle, a five-night stop-over to take on Somerset at Taunton’s County Ground. A warm-up before moving on to London for the first test at Lord’s which is where they are now as I write these words.

At The Castle, true to our tradition, we welcomed the Indians with open arms. After a long flight and then a  three hour coach ride down the M4 and M5 motorways, they needed to sleep off their jet lag. They arrived with over 150 pieces of luggage which we ferried to their bedrooms within minutes of the team coach pulling up in our forecourt.

And from that moment on we spoilt them rotten… my sainted General Manager, Kevin McCarthy, even lending his precious golf clubs to Duncan Fletcher to give the coach a round or two at the Taunton & Pickeridge Golf Club, high up on the beautiful Blackdown Hills.

I think The Castle has set the standard for the other hotels on India’s tour. As I said farewell to Mr.Fletcher earlier this week, he was generous with his praise. Rare, he told me, to find a hotel where the staff are so unfailingly courteous and helpful. “It’s all about good service,” he said. “And you find it here without exception!”

At Lord’s yesterday, England declared on 474 for 8 in their first innings. India go in to bat this morning, trailing by 457 runs. On the subcontinent, a billion people are holding their breath, their expectations high. £28 million in bets have been placed on whether Sachin Tendulkar will score his hundredth international century. If he does, their hero will not just be confirmed as the greatest batsman of all time, he will become immortal.

Kit Chapman, proprietor of The Castle at Taunton and author of My Archipelago.

Read Full Post »

The Castle at Taunton: Where you’ll want to be for an autumn programme of great events!

It’s high summer in England. And true to form, the lush Somerset landscape outside my window is sodden in rain as I tap out these words.

So, with leaden skies casting a positively autumnal gloom over the day, I am delighted to unveil our programme of events for the closing months of 2011. It will lift the spirit and excite your imagination. For more details, go to The Castle’s website or call my PA and Box Office Manager, Lorrie Kelly, on 01823 328324.

September 15th.  Launch of Taunton’s first Literary Festival in The Castle’s Music Room with distinguished author Salley Vickers. 6.45pm.

September 22nd.  Also as part of the 10-day Literary Festival, I shall be talking about my latest book My Archipelago. 11.30am in The Castle’s Music Room.

October 21st.  Craig Brown, writer and satirist, presents his brilliant literary parodies in his own “One-stop Literary Festival”. 6.45pm in The Castle’s Music Room.

October 27th.  Art expert, Richard Kay, explores the extraordinary fame and fascinating history of the Mona Lisa. 12.00 noon in the Music Room.

November 4th-6th.  The world-renowned Vienna Piano Trio, The Castle’s Ensemble-in-Residence, return to play four concerts over the weekend.

November 14th.  Lord Digby Jones, businessman, politician and past Director of the CBI is the Somerset Community Foundation’s guest speaker at The Castle. Music Room, 6.30 for 7.00pm.

November 18th.  An evening with Michael Buerk, BBC broadcaster and journalist, famous for his reporting of the Ethiopian famine and inspiration of Band Aid. Music Room, 6.45pm.

November 25th-27th.  A weekend of politics. Distinguished politicians debate the issues of the day. Music Room.

December 9th.  Exeter Cathedral Choir return to The Castle for our annual carol concert and Christmas entertainment in aid of the Cathedral’s Millennium Campaign. Music Room and Dining Room. 6.30pm.

We all look forward to welcoming you!

Kit Chapman, proprietor of The Castle at Taunton and author of My Archipelago

Read Full Post »

A Family Business: The Castle at Taunton looks forward to the next generation.

We live in a corporate world. Or so it appears reading our newspaper headlines these days. Too often it is a world that looks pretty murky.

But few people realize that, in fact, 75% of all UK businesses are family owned and run. Among them The Castle at Taunton and a host of other hotels and restaurants. With the rest, we operate in an economy that employs over 50% of the entire UK workforce. In a word, we are the backbone of the UK economy.

Some months ago I was introduced to the International Centre for Families in Business, or ICFIB, a dynamic outfit dedicated to the task of assisting these businesses to survive and prosper by providing consultancy, education and various professional services. Go to www.icfib.com

Part of ICFIB’s work includes the forging of links with other professional organizations and the brokering of events to spread the word. So, earlier this week, I presented myself as the guest speaker in The Castle’s Music Room where local chartered accountants Albert Goodman were launching their latest initiative – a Family Business Club – to a 70-strong audience of family business owners.

For me, there was a sweet irony to this occasion. In a week’s time, all the members of my family will be holding a series of meetings with our advisors to discuss the future of The Castle or, more to the point, the passing of the reins from Louise and me to the next generation of Chapmans – our two sons, Dominic, 37, an award-winning Michelin starred head chef; and Nicholas, 35, a successful new media entrepreneur.

Both boys sit on the family board as non-executive directors and both have been very clear in their desire to see the company continue in family hands. Meanwhile, Louise and I are keen to ease up from the hurly-burly of hotel life.

Managing the succession is no easy matter and we are taking our time. There is also the spectre of the past which haunts our thinking. My relationship with my parents collapsed in ruins twenty years ago. The business came very close to bankruptcy and I had to stage what can only be described as a palace revolution, a coup, to save The Castle for the future. It was bloody!

The story of my experiences – revealed in my latest book My Archipelago – persuaded ICFIB to recommend me to Albert Goodman as an ideal candidate for the launch of their Family Business Club!

What I gave the firm’s audience on Wednesday was less a case history and more a cautionary tale. A family business is, potentially, a combustible organism. It is as much about the members of the family as it is about the business. Inevitably, relationships intensify and issues are magnified. Tensions and conflict rise to the surface and easily erupt. It is a dangerous game and can easily destroy family harmony.

Louise and I are not going to stand by to see history repeat itself.

Kit Chapman, proprietor of The Castle at Taunton and author of My Archipelago

Read Full Post »