MENU
W
elcome to the first issue of Menu. The
campaign to bring back dewbit starts
here. What’s dewbit you ask? Well it’s
old Dorset dialect for the first meal of the
day, eaten before breakfast. Which is a great idea. But
that’s just the start. It turns out Dorset dialect is as full
of words for meals as the inuit’s is of words for snow.
Once we’ve got dewbit reinstated, we demand nuncheon, cruncheon, nammet and crammet, more brilliant
sounding meals which the average Dorset farm hand
managed to eat in the fields between breakfast, lunch
and supper. It suggests they were as obsessed with
food then as we are now. Maybe it comes from living in
a county that is blessed with such plenty, also the name
of our seasonal produce section starting on page 7.
It’s this love of local, seasonal food, the people who
produce it and the chefs that cook it, that we want to
share with you in this mag every month. We know, like
us, you’re always thinking about your next meal, about
what you want to cook tonight (p.25) and where you
want to eat out (p.41) at the weekend. And when you
find a dish that you love, tell us all about it (p.42) and
let’s celebrate Dorset at its most delicious. It’s time to
Robin Alway
get stuck in. Enjoy your Menu!
Group Editor
Contributors
Miriam Philips
is an award
winning journalist and editor.
When she’s not
writing for the
Guardian or
chasing after
her two young children, she helps
organise the Dorset Foods and Art
Festival in Poundbury. She loves
meeting producers and chefs and
is passionate about local organic
veg and meat which she cuts up on
her own butcher’s block, a money
saving tip from one of the River
Cottage courses she’s attended.
Russell Brown
is the acclaimed
chef and owner
of Dorchester’s
Sienna. His 20
year career has
taken him from
commis chef to
holding the only Michelin Star
in the county. His new venture is
Creative About Cusine, a showcase for his teaching, writing and
photography. We’re proud to have
him writing for Menu every issue.
We can’t think of anyone we’d
rather have tell us how to cook the
best of Dorset’s produce (p.33).
Tom East
started out
cooking Findus
crispy pancakes
for the family
(hey, it was the
80s), before upgrading to roasts
and cakes. Giving up dreams of being a pro chef after being yelled at
during work experience in a manic
restaurant, he moved into writing.
He still loves to cook at home, using
seasonal, local ingredients and has
added to his culinary knowledge
with cooking courses in Thailand,
India and Mexico.
www.menu-dorset.co.uk
Sophie Atherton
What she doesn’t
know about
beer isn’t worth
knowing. As
if writing for
the broadsheets
and numerous
TV and radio appearances didn’t
keep her busy enough, she became
the first woman in the UK to be
accredited as a beer sommelier. In
fact, the All Party Parliamentary
Beer Group made her Beer Sommelier of the Year 2013. Check out
her first round of beer and matching food for us on page 57.
issue one
Dorset
3