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Kate Hawkings

@kate_hawkings

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Food/booze/travel trollop. Writes a bit.
"Queen of the Aperitif".
Does anything for oysters and/or Campari.
Bristol but gets around.

POSTS STORIES REELS

Trip down memory lane today to Clevedon, whose 1869 pier was described by Betjeman as “the most beautiful pier in England.” It’s not exactly seaside, being on the stony, mushroom-soupy shores of the Severn Estuary, but it’s close to my heart and really soothed my soul on this sunny Sunday afternoon.

Marine Hill House was my primary school, then St Anthony’s convent run by the Sisters of Mercy (who weren’t that merciful, tbh, especially Sister Aquinas, who looked like a tortoise and made me sit in front of tapioca pudding 🤢 until going-home time). This and so many memories came flooding back; watching the Apollo moon landing next to a boy called Kevin who smelled of biscuits and Johnathan Jefferies, known as the Naughtiest Boy In The School, for eg.

Just around the corner is @monplaisirclevedon, now in the most capable hands of @pumphousetoby and the divine @salengerr and what a joy it is.
Prawn cocktail, for eg, a blast from the blast but doubtless a big step up from those I remember at the Regent (RIP), a Badger Inn just down the road where we went for special occasions when whitebait with a lemon wedge was always my highlight.

Clevedon’s forgotten claim to fame, which I’m ashamed to say I didn’t know until today, is that it’s where the first British motor car was designed and built, in 1897. It predated Henry Ford’s production by a full 15 years although, tbf, only produced 12 vehicles.

It’s changed a lot since I was a child, quelle surprise; gone is Marks chemist, where I remember buying Vicks vapour rub, Spillsbury’s gentlemen’s outfitters where my dad bought his socks (the Fast Show’s “suits you, sir” had it to a T), Seeley’s stationary shop and Hagley’s haberdashery who kept buttons and ribbons in endlessly fascinating wooden drawers.

Then it was a sleepy town still steeped in Victorian gentility, now it’s a really bustling place with loads going on. Poorly served by public transport, obvs, but only half an hour by car from Bristol. It’s a treasure of a place; a real joy to go back ❤️ by @kate_hawkings

This was SO GOOD 😍

The audience donned their silky eye masks then 30 musicians and singers walked among them performing music that soared in the incredible acoustics of Bristol Cathedral. It’s amazing what music can do to your head with no other distractions - profoundly moving, it made me laugh and it made me cry.

@inthedark_live are on tour to some of the UK’s most beautiful churches; do catch them if you can. Tickets from @rglivetickets, fyi

#guest but I went went with friends who bought their own tickets and agreed it was worth every penny

Huge thanks to the all the performers 🙏 by @kate_hawkings

Still slightly overwhelmed after the Women Of The Year Awards on Monday. 400 women doing incredible things in all walks of life celebrating the very best of us, whose President is the awesome @tannigreythompson.

It’s an amazing charity, set up in 1955 by Antonella Lothian who’d witnessed the horrors of Nazi Germany and devoted her life to campaigning against injustice and recognising the achievements of so many women who had not been noticed. Her work continues with this annual event. Do check out their website; it’s a fascinating story.

So many inspiring winners inc @childrenhands @women4biodiv @idasports @proflesleyregan and @prueleith.

The Woman of Courage Award went, quite rightly, to Gisèle Pelicot who made this very moving and dignified speech that made me cry.

I’ve no idea why I was invited but am deeply honoured that I was. Thanks to @womenofyear and @bijouwine for inviting me, and to all the generous sponsors, and to the excellent women at my table, all with extraordinary stories 🙏 by @kate_hawkings

Huge congrats to (insta less) David Williams and @dklivinguk for this proper tour de force.

An incredible list of writers whose words are put into a really beautiful book that rewards deep reading or, as in my case, keeping on the kitchen table and dipping in and out of, sometimes while cooking with greasy hands. These are pages just opened at random; so much information and insight written with such alacrity and put together so well, plus THE most gorgeous cover.

Bravi @margaret_randpocketwine @rebeccagibbmw @winklorch @anneinvino @mrmattwalls @natearll @amanda_wine @drjamiegoode @simonjwoolf @elizabeth.gabaymw @anthonyrosewine @ronansayburn et al👏👏👏🥂 by @kate_hawkings

#toughwork
#notspitting

🙏 @ruinart @amorimcork @spritzmarketing @ruinart_winemakers by @kate_hawkings

So, so sad to hear that Corinna Hardgrave, Irish food writer and complete tour-de-force, has died.

I met her on a press trip to NZ in 2019 and we immediately bonded, like I rarely do with new acquaintances. Madly, I have no pics of her but have just found this post of hers from then.

I’m very, very fortunate to meet many, many brilliant people in what I laughably call my work. Corinna is right up there with the very best and most memorable of them all, whether sharing her pin-sharp and wickedly funny observations on the food/drink/people we were with, thoughtfully discussing the pleasures and agonies of parenthood, childhood and the maudlin nature of our Irish genes, or, most usually, camping it up by out-Ab-Fabbing the Ab Fab gals and weeping with laughter as we did so. We thought it was all hysterically amusing and if nobody else did, that was totally their loss.

I saw her only once after that, in Dublin two years later at @notedublin for one of the most glorious, and gloriously giggly dinners. We were planning to meet up there later this year.

RIP, you very, very special woman. Sending all my love and thoughts to your husband and daughters who I never met but know you totally, totally adored 🙏 by @kate_hawkings

Another @afoodfestival done and dusted with SO much good stuff going on.

Highlights included the @hangfirebbq gals perfecting puffy skin, @petebrownbeer being brilliant as ever on what music different beers tastes like, splendid spread of Spanish preserved fish from @mevalco_ @brindisaspanishfoods for my and @owen_morgan_44 @carteblanchewines wine event at @unfiltered_vino , first glimpse at @timhayward GORGEOUS new cocktail book, hot off the press as we speak and which must contain the very best author bio ever seen, @gowercottagebrownies Kate being her very best with knobs on, the best wine label at the festival from @pasoprimero, @chesterswinemerchants (again), and @ollysmith winning the weekend’s #trouserwatch prize with such aplomb.

Big thanks to all inc @oxfordlandingwines for generous wine sponsorship, and the festival team for such fab #hospitalty.
Special shout out to @anita_mangan @totallyjackson @fiona_c_smith @roocarter for extra lols 🙏😎 by @kate_hawkings

You can tell a lot about a place just by looking at the boxes stacked up in front of the bar before you even look at the wine list and ace menu, let alone the ‘black book’ of brilliantly priced bottles they also have to choose from. With producers like these, you know you’re in very good hands.

@chesterswinemerchants is a treasure of a wine shop. In Abergavenny, a bustling market town that is flocked with good things this weekend for @afoodfestival, Chester’s is everything you want from a local indie shop and wine bar, and more. Lovely wines, lovely food, lovely people. Great music, too.

Big thanks to Lloyd and the team for all help with my @unfiltered_vino gig with @owen_morgan_44, and for much-needed respite with this glorious crozes 🙏😊 by @kate_hawkings

Masterclass by the master.

@angueiraadrian, exec chef for @jose_pizarro’s excellent clutch of Spanish joints, demonstrates a textbook tortilla (no pic cos was too busy eating it 🙄) at @lolobyjosepizarro lunch to launch #EatDrinkSpain2026, a government-led promotion of Spain’s many, many bounties that operates in an astonishing 18 counties, running in the UK from 11 - 27 September

Keep your eyes out for events at yer local Spanish-leaning shops and restaurants, people - there are happenings all over the nation including London (obvs), Liverpool, Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Birmingham, Cardiff and, erm, Knutsford. And, of course, in Bristol where @bravas @bar44bristol @oliveshed and @meanwhiledeli (and maybe more - the website is 🥴) will be clicking their metaphorical castanets extra loudly for the duration.

Terrible, terrible pics of a mighty fine time, reminding me (as if I need being reminded 🙄) how much I love good, unfussy Spanish food, great ingredients cooked with no superfluous flourishes or ( god help us) ‘twists’, served with great modern Spanish wines, and, just as importantly, the warm hospitality that seems to course through the veins of the Spanish. So sorry I had to dash off and miss the pud; muchas gracias for the DIVINE cheese 🙏 💃

Thanks @hopscotch_season @spainfoodwine for the invitation 🇪🇸 by @kate_hawkings

New pencil day AND a palindrome 😍

#blackwing602 #palindrome #halfthepressuretwicethespeed by @kate_hawkings

Nuff said.

Superlative lunch @juliet49londonrdstroud. Superlative company, food, wine, service, and, er, Armagnac. I’m usually one of those annoying people who never quite finishes their food, especially after six other dishes plus extra bread, but here I was literally running my finger across the plates (sorry, mum 🙏) to get the last of the sauce. And then I had the dreamy fig ice cream (ace with the Armagnac, fyi)

HUGE thanks @tillymackley, and to Dan and the team, for such a brilliantly life-affirming time. Lucky, lucky Stroud.

And fab to bump into @benhawkerwine too - thanks for the negroni 🥴😘 by @kate_hawkings

Another Wednesday, another grippingly geeky lecture by wine buff and ex-chemistry prof John Manley at the @thecliftonclub

On why we all used to hate pinotage, summed up wickedly well by @hamishdanderson_ in his 2003 book Vino; turns out that burnt rubber ick comes from a polyphenol molecule called Pinotin A that occurs in fermenting pinotage but can be controlled with different yeasts, lower temperatures and aerated must, which is why most modern pinotgae is so much more palatable now than it was in days of yore.

Also a breakdown of the main chemicals that give mushroom flavours during ageing, complete with models of the molecules in question, a run-through of what causes turbidity and how best to clear it, a nod to Popeye, some taste theory (feat. lovely @robbuckhaven adding salt to vile wine in @metro.co.uk), a prediction, and some wine. Oh god, and so much more, including a natty #trouserwatch.

Thanks so much, John and Robin, and the CC team. It’s so stimulating to flex one’s wizened intellectual muscles like that, looking at wine through a totally different lens than the one most of us in the drinking biz are used to, and in such good company, too. Thanks all 🙏 by @kate_hawkings