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Thom Archer

@thomarcher

8K

followers

4207

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Socials for Leeds Hospitality
Words & Leeds Local Expert for The Good Food Guide
Still dining out on a Guild of Food Writers award

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

Argh look at that, you become a features writer for the Good Food Guide and they call you a “Local Expert”! Embarrassing!! Anyway yes, going to be writing some features for the Good Food Guide focusing on Leeds & surrounding areas. Exciting.

First up is a version of my substack from a couple of weeks ago featuring a few positives to cling onto in the coming, frightening, 12 months - including all of the people I’ve tagged.

If you didn’t read it on substack because it seemed like unhinged ranting then I hope this lends it some legitimacy. If you did read it then read it again anyway and see if you can spot which parts were too obscene or libellous to print in a legitimate publication!! Ok thanks x by @thomarcher

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2 years ago

New essay on the ‘stack. Felt a bit futile writing a review of something monolithic as The Fat Duck, so I wrote specifically about what it meant to me to take my Mum there, and then a bit of pondering about the balance between innovation and just giving the people what they want because, fine, 2500 words on lunch with my Mum could be accused of
“being a bit self-indulgent”.

Made my Mum cry when she read it! And my girlfriend! And a stranger just sent me £40 unsolicited even though I don’t have payments turned on on substack so it’s just in the ether. Let me know if it makes you cry or want to give me £40 x taken in The Fat Duck Restaurant by @thomarcher

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2 years ago

Catch me in The Stylist offering my prediction for 2025’s biggest hype food which, record scratch, isn’t actually a food at all!! And if you ever questioned my “finger on the pulse” credentials then refer to the very timely George Foreman Grill reference.

Thanks to @hiyalauren_ for humouring me by asking and including me among the predictions. There are like 15 of them, go and read the article! by @thomarcher

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2 years ago

Very nice day and a half in London eating mostly dips and watching Danny Dyer drink paint

- One of three pubs called Coach & Horses within 10 minutes of each other in Soho, which as you can imagine resulted in 0 confusion at all!
- Personal highlight of a very good meal at @kid_soho with expert Icli Kofta slicer @slaterchef
- Lunch dips at @mangal2restaurant - I was going to attempt to do the full Dirik trilogy in a 24 hour period but I don’t think my body could handle the carcinogens from that much open fire cooking
- More dips, at @kid_soho again
- This was actually a dining room as well an an atelier (@slowburnlondon)
- See!
- This was just an atelier, no dips
- See!
- Assortment of good pastries from @weirdough__bakery
- Seeing a Martin Lewis sticker on a day that came about because of MLMSE Megafan @ayoadebam felt like nice serendipity, but the fact it was in a pub where it costs £7.40 for a pint Timothy Taylor Golden Best sent my head briefly to mars
- Last photo I managed to sneak before having to put my phone in a little neoprene pouch
- In summary by @thomarcher

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7 days ago

7:30am @edgespizzas American Hot slice at the top of pen-y-ghent (if this doesn’t get me on Accidental Bronson then I don’t know what will) by @thomarcher

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17 days ago

Used to think it was very mindful and relaxing to dedicate an entire Sunday to making a project-lasagna while drinking a bottle of Aldi red, and then @slaterchef came along and over engineered a lasagna recipe with all of his little Memento style flashbacks to things that you needed to have started about five days ago, actually. And of course, I had to give it a go. And of course?m, it was- GUESS YOU’LL HAVE TO WATCH AND FIND OUT!! taken in Leeds, England, UK by @thomarcher

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a month ago

If co op limited edition crisps have 0 haters then I am dead. I’ve been hating on these guys for years - hot honey nduja, abysmal! “Sauce” flavour, what you playing at! Their product innovation department is on a generational bad streak with crisps, so they decided to take on a flavour that not even everybody’s favourite £7 a bag status symbol can pull off: Dill Pickle. Will they succeed?? Tune in to find out!! Also a good opportunity to try the @yewdrink pickle flavoured sparkling water that I was kindly sent for free a few weeks ago. taken in Leeds, England, UK by @thomarcher

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a month ago

Walking to 80 pubs between now and Spring to prepare for an 80km trek. Last time I went to @knotfieldvines and back and today I’m doing it in reverse

22km route from Wakefield and walked along the transpennine trail back to Leeds, stopping at a cricket club and @piglovebytheriver. At this rate I’ll need to cover 800km to get to 80 pubs - which pub should I walk to next? taken in Leeds, England, UK by @thomarcher

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2 months ago

Leeds Hospitality Collective Update:

Thanks to everybody who has signed up and showed their interest and support so far - the response from everybody has been bigger than we ever anticipated. All of the operators who have signed up so far should have received a Save The Date earlier this week (check your spam folders if not!) for our launch meeting on Monday 21st September. The responses to this will help us determine which venue we book for the meet-up, and we’ll be sending out invitations with details of the venue shortly.

If you haven’t signed up yet, you can do that via the link in our bio, and you’ll receive the invitation when it goes out to everybody. taken in Leeds, England, UK by @thomarcher

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2 months ago

Let’s use these Pickled Pineapples then! With all the spice and acidity that’s infused into them they make an almost ready-made base for some really quick salsa, which I’ve added some charred corn and a couple of other bits to. Perfect served with pork or, like here, duck tacos. Ignore the fact I mentioned putting red onion in but then didn’t. Let’s just say that was a “conscious decision”… by @thomarcher

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2 months ago

Some but not all of the bits that kept the ligaments around my funny bone well nourished at Edinburgh Fringe. I assume that’s what ligaments are

- Sweetcorn & Black Pepper and Orange & Poppy Seed from @marysmilkbar - last time I was up here I was immediately inspired to order a Ninja Creami with the hand that wasn’t holding an ice cream cone. If you see me at the tip next week with an Magimix Gelato Expert box mind your own business
- Thai Fried Chicken & Cumin Carrot from @bighotsandwiches
- Haul from the Philippine supermarket in Haymarket, more on this shortly
- Feels very “single tracking shot through the kitchen in Goodfellas” to walk off a dark street into a brightly lit kitchen in a mosque and walk back out with a plate of Fengreek Chicken while hardly breaking your stride
- @motherindiacafe.edinburgh just one of the highest hit rates in any curry house I’ve ever been to (been to four this week, so…)
- Impossible to leave the house without accidentally spending £150 during the festival so you might as well go for a tasting menu. The lunch one at @cardinal.scot is £69 which is crazy value in any city, this was clams, San marzano, and a lobster head Tom yum bisque. More on the whole place shortly
- Only sophisticated moment of the trip, pickled gimlet. Also from Cardinal
- ALSO from Cardinal, Their Gilda, which is tuna and watermelon compressed in (I think, there was a lot going on) Parmesan garum
- @civerinos_official - folded and inhaled between utterances of “it’s just really fucking good isn’t it” and “double marinara. double!” Ordered served and wolfed in the six minutes we had before having to get into Lorna Rose Treen. The real mvp of the festival
- A few missed Mary’s opportunities I will be beating myself up over.

Not pictured: Lonkero. The jury’s still out regarding whether I need Lonkero to have better distribution south of the border or whether one week of exposure per year is plenty (it’s the latter) taken in Edinburgh, Scotland by @thomarcher

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2 months ago

Right, I’ve signed up to do @peak.divide next year and the only way I can trick myself into training for it is walking to pubs outside of my usual rotation (Highland Laddie, Brudenell, Duck & Drake since you asked - all perfect pubs). Today though I walked to @knotfieldvines - a vineyard which I was SHOCKED to the core to find is growing Pinot noir just off Rawdon Road to make English sparkling wine. And it’s actually good. Really good. taken in Leeds, England, UK by @thomarcher

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2 months ago