Meet the food critic who eats with strangers (From Worcester News)

Meet the food critic who eats with strangers

6:00pm Tuesday 9th March 2010 in

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AN expert beekeeper and national restaurant critic will meet food lovers in Worcester later this week.

Worcestershire-based writer Charles Campion, a critic for national newspapers including The Independent and The Times, will visit the Lakeland store in St Swithins Street, Worcester, on Friday between noon and 2pm to sign copies of his new book Eat Up! He will be joined by Evesham bee keeper Lucy Harris, who is featured in the book.

Eat Up! pays tribute to the unsung heroes of British cooking. Campion, who travelled around the UK and dined with strangers to discover what people really eat in the comfort of their own homes, says he was inspired by the sheer number of “disconnected” celebrity chefs. He said: “There are all these television programmes and food experts – and I know I’m one of them – telling us what to eat and why. But they're coming from a completely disconnected point of view; looking back at food we ate years ago. So I decided to go around Britain and dine with strangers to find out what the people of Britain are eating today.”

Campion met with the Gourmets of London, a group of men – none of them professional chefs – who compete to create the best dishes; a man from Newcastle who grows his own food and lives off a microbiotic diet as well as Evesham beekeeper Lucy Harris, who champions the importance of bees in Britain.

“These are the real unsung heroes,” said Campion.

“Good British cooking is alive and well. It’s just hiding behind closed doors.”