It’s been a rather lovely day. The sun has been shining ... the sky blue ... and I have met some rather delightful people ...

SO – I am still here at the Casa Vehla do Palheiro ... which is just as lovely as it was yesterday.

We started off at breakfast – followed by a Madeira wine tasting. And I don’t mean “table wine” – I mean the fortified wine type. With the hotel “sommelier” Luis Emanuel, we tried a 5 year, 10 year and 34 year old ... By the way, the term fortified means addition of “distilled grape spirit”. The wine industry in Madeira has been around since the early 16th century.

I fell asleep for 10 minutes after this before running down to the kitchen to learn how to prepare a sea-bream dish ... which was prepared with sweet potato, green butternut, mango and passion fruit. It was rather tasty. The chef Francesco Quintal is a fabulous chef.

After a lovely lunch at Jardins da Lago (another lovely quinta) we ventured into central Funchal to a sugar cane factory. Honey cake is actually made of syrup ... which is made from sugar cane. So – the cane is harvested, then the juice is filtered three times, heated to 90 degrees, pushed through a vacuum chamber ... and finally it comes out as this deep, dark and VERY sweet ...

The factory – Fabrica do Ribeiro Seco ... it’s run by the Melim family ... who are just fabulous.

We then went off to an artisan baker to learn how to make “honey cake”. This is a normal cake – syrup, flour, spices and nuts ... it is delicious. My two lovely cake makers Maria Camancho and Lucia Govia.


Now a little bit about the hotel ... there are a total of 37 rooms and suites that vary in size from 28 to 60 square metres. Some of the guestrooms were built in 1804 ... which gives you a picture of just how historic some of the buildings in the hotel are!

The Casa Vehla do Palheiro was built as a hunting lodge in the 19th century for Count Carvalhal and once even hosted the King & Queen of Portugal . From the turn to the late 20th century though, the estate fell into disrepair until by Presidential command in 1987, it was restored. The property opened in 1997 – the island’s first 5-star country house hotel.

There are plenty of facilities and amenities on offer.

The hotel has a world famous 18 hole golf course attached ... there’s also a spa – opened in 2009 – complete with treatment rooms, steam & sauna, fitness centre and an indoor heated swimming pool.

There’s also a large outdoor swimming pool and an all-weather tennis court ...

The Palheiro Gardens are renowned for their beauty and diversity. Some of the rare trees that grace the Quinta date back to 1801 ...

By the way, a quinta is a house with a “walled garden” ...

 With my new pal Colombo

 The Casa

 The wonderful Luis

34 year old wine! Yum!

 Francesco

 San Francisco mocktail ...

 Sugar cane to syrup

Maria

 Lucia

 yumyum!

Madeira Cake!

Greetings from the Casa Velha do Palheiro ... a luxury country house hotel on the island of Madeira in Portugal.

My stay at The Ritz in London was all-too brief! I left there at 0430 and met with the boys and the PR of "quintas da madeira" - my old friend Laura - (please note - who was early) at Heathrow ...

The flight to Funchal was just over three hours and it was another twenty minutes drive to this lovely property. The weather is rather changeable ... let’s hope it’s good when we start filming here properly tomorrow.

Greetings from The Ritz Hotel in London!

I flew in from LA at around 4 pm and within two hours I was at the hotel, visited Davidoff for a couple of cigars with the Sahakians, met with our television distributors and had a drink with my dear friend James McBride and his delightful partner Brenna at the Corinthia Hotel ... before we retired to George on Mount Street for wine (Felton Road from NZ) and delicious meal followed by a cigar!

I have to be up at 0330 as I have a flight to catch to Portugal in the morning!

No internet access???? So am writing diary on my BlackBerry! It has its uses!

Suite at Ritz is superb - VERY romantic- overlooking Piccadilly - Claire de Lune on the radio - shame I am all alone!

I was VERY sad to be leaving the Beverly Wilshire today ... but this suite on the 6th floor has helped dull the pain!

The flight over was remarkable ... as I remember so little of it ... I slept all the way!

Brenna and James outside George - fabulous evening!

My Beverly Hills adventure is swiftly coming to a close ... in a just a few hours I will be on my way back to London - albeit for just 12 hours before I zoom off to Madeira!

My day has been spent shopping, eating and drinking ... I will so sleep on the flight tonight!

The "look back" show is now recorded ... marking the end of an era ... almost farewell James ...

Happy Birthday Baby Moo! Twelve years young and still as gorgeous as ever!

Just back from supper at CUT with Darling Jen. So full of food ...

So - first thing this morning, we headed down to North Canon to meet with Hasty Torres - Madame Chocolat. I learnt about chocolate ... and tried my hand at making Eiffel Towers - with strangely, great success. Hasty is fabulous!

From there it was off to Blvd at The Beverly Wilshire - a Four Seasons hotel. Today it was officially "Varun Day" and I had a dish named after me on the menu! I joke not - see photos below ...

To learn how to create the Varun Burger, I headed to the kitchen to meet and cook with the Executive Chef - Gilles Arzur ... what fun we had!

I have now left the Beverly Hills Hotel and am now at the Beverly Wilshire ... all good ...

Gemima! The adorable pooch ...

Hasty ... and me being greedy!

Happy Varun's Day!

With Gilles

Baby G

I first stayed at the Hotel Bel-Air, twenty years ago! I have great memories from there ... heehee ...

After a 24-month refurbishment & renovation, it reopened in October - part of Dorchester Collection. It has now 103 rooms & suites ... all very contemporary in design ... limestone floors, natural wood ceilings, state of the art technology ... private terraces & balconies ... Spa pools etc ...

There's a Wolfgang Puck signature restaurant ... a 4134 square feet Prairie spa ... a wonderful fitness centre ... and there's still the lovely swimming pool that opened in 1946 ...

The buildings are still Spanish colonial style ... and the colour is still Bel Air "pink" ... and the legendary swans are still swimming around ...

The weather was TERRIBLE this morning ... but has improved as the day has gone on ...

In the gym ...

in the Bar with Bobbie Pyle ... champagne at 0930!

With the lovely PR - Alisha Mahon

Greetings from The Beverly Hills hotel ... zip code 90210 ...!

The hotel was built in 1912 - two full years before the City of Beverly Hills was inaugurated. The property is known as the "Pink Palace" ...

There are 204 rooms, suites and bungalows. The design in quite old school ... the property is set in 12 acres of VERY expensive land!

The hotel has 4 main food & beverage outlets including the Polo Lounge. The area around the Beverly Hills used to be polo grounds so players used to pop into the hotel for food and drink.

First up today, I cooked with Head Chef Kaleo Adams, The first creation was a lovely summery fish dish ... and the second a yummy and healthy salad.

The day was not too tough ... I am tired though.

Have just eaten a Peruvian meal ... REALLY?

Gorgeous pool

Lovely PR - old & dear friend Leslie Lefkowitz

Greetings from Beverly Hills in Los Angeles ...

I am here to film for the 4 days ...

The BA flight over was easy and comfortable ...

I LOVE LA!!!!

LA = Darling Jen ... my lil' sis ... and one of the loves of my life!

The traditional start of show photograph ... I love the boys ... but Jen slightly more!

With my old buddy Timothy G ...

Greetings from the Sofitel Hotel at Heathrow Airport ... my current second home!

Tomorrow I am taking the early flight to Los Angeles. First stop - the Beverly Hills Hotel. The LA trip is just FOUR days long ... but it's a mighty long way to go for under 100 hours ... but it should be fun ... filming fun that is!

 The place

The people

Quite sadly checked out of the Jumeirah Carlton Tower this morning ... an excellent stay. Last night, I dined at Moti Mahal ... the best Indian cuisine in London by far ... none of this fusion stuff ... just great authentic food ... yum.

Home for 24 hours ... start my journey to Los Angeles tomorrow ... or maybe not ... watch this space ...

As - sadly - James is leaving us at the end of the year - we have been trying new "replacements" ... the candidates have varied from brilliant to fantastic! Watch this space ...

The last few days have been fun - The Rib Room at the Jumeirah Carlton Tower, Wilton's, CUT at 45 Park Lane,  Davidoff, Louis XIII, The Ritz, Roussillon, Salvatore at The Playboy Club ... champagne, red wine, white wine, cognac, cigars, whisky ... SO much food ... phew!

Tim is still in Bunnyland ...!

Oh noooo!!!

Bunny Bunny Bunny Bunny - Bunbun (the name of MY Bunny when I was a baby!) ...

Up early and we headed off to Roussillon - one of my favourite restaurants in London. Located in Pimlico (centre of the universe), it has a new chef -Shane Hughes ... and today we cooked two dishes with him - duck and a treacle tart. Both quite delicious. The paired wines were quite awesome ... sadly not a Trevallon ... my "home" wine ... (along with the Joseph Drouhin 2007 Pinot Noir) ... but still lovely. The sherry with the dessert ... fabulous!

Then we headed to Mayfair and The Maestro - Salvatore Calabrese ... the greatest cocktail maker in the world. His bar is in the Playboy Club ... he made me two cocktails - one with marmalade and the other with chilli ... it was HOT!

Dinner tonight in central London ... awesome Indian!

Shane

with Salvatore