Last week I spent a very enjoyable morning learning all about the sourcing, roasting and brewing of coffee at a session put on by Clerkenwell coffee house Workshop (previously St Ali). As well as putting on a mighty lovely all-day dining spread, Workshop also take their coffee very seriously, with an in-house roaster at the rear of the shop and a brisk takeaway trade.

Our host and coffee manager, Tim, started by telling us a load of fascinating stuff about coffee that I never knew. For example, did you know that the skins of the coffee cherries (the beans are the inner ‘pip’ of this fruit) are caffeinated because it’s a natural insect repellant, and the dried skins can be brewed into a tea called cascara? And that’s just the start – we discussed the different varieties of coffee and the effect that altitude, location, processing and volume have on its quality and flavour.

Tim then explained how they go about sourcing and selecting coffee for Workshop – often they only get a 100g sample which they have to carefully roast and brew in order to decide whether to spend £60,000 on an order. Workshop ensure that they pay a fair price for their premium beans and try to have as open and transparent a relationship with their importers and farmers as possible.

We then saw the roasting process: raw beans are tipped into the roaster and a laptop displays the ‘recipe’ that each variety is to be roasted to. The temperature is painstakingly monitored and data-entered each minute that they roast to ensure a completely consistent result – a variation of just two degrees means the batch is no good. Workshop roast their beans very lightly to just bring out the subtle natural flavours – a more typical coffee chain might over-roast to mask poorer quality beans.

After 14 minutes of roasting, the beans are cooled and then bagged. They have to rest for a week to release any trapped carbon dioxide that can make the coffee bitter. Workshop’s head roaster Richard spends two days roasting approximately 300kg of coffee per week, which is sold via drinks in their two London locations, and also a small proportion as wholesale and retail beans.

Finally, we experienced a sample ‘cupping’ session. Tim and Richard do this every week to ensure consistency in the newly roasted beans, and also when tasting new additions to decide how they should be roasted and brewed.

The cupping session is almost ritualistic, like a Japanese tea ceremony, but this is to make sure the coffee is tasted with as few variables as possible. Beans measured into precise 12 grams, ground and added to bowls; kettle boiled and cooled; water poured; coffee stirred; wait for brewing; skim the top and taste a teaspoonful with a slurp.

We finished with a lovely brunch in Workshop’s restaurant, washed down with yet more coffee. This was a ‘beta’ session to see if the concept worked, which I think it most certainly did. I left with an even greater understanding and appreciation of coffee, along with a long list of wonderful facts to bore people with – I didn’t even share half of what I learned here. Tim plans to schedule in more sessions for the public to book onto soon: keep an eye on their Twitter for news.

Ooh – really excited to see some snaps of my home in the latest edition of gorgeous e-magazine Dashing. They did a lovely job with the spread and somehow managed to make the house look much nicer than it really is (especially at the moment, since it’s depressingly half-buried under cat fur and dirty dishes). Pop over to dashingmag.com to read the feature – I’m on page 54 but the whole thing is a great read, which I will do with a cup of tea later. Thank you Charley for including me!

I don’t go to nearly as many gigs these days as I used to – must be getting old as it always seems like way too much effort. But I always make sure I go see Bowerbirds on their too-rare visits to London. They’re probably my consistent favourite band of the last 5 years, with three albums of folky songs inspired by their upbringing and lives in rural Midwest America – have a listen to a couple of tracks below. I took my new 45mm lens along to their show at Cargo last night and was pleased to find it’s a great gig lens – sharp, fast and the perfect focal length.

I was invited to try the Gilbert Scott, a new London restaurant from Marcus Wareing housed in the glorious St Pancras station. It was a treat just to visit place and have a peek at the adjoining Renaissance hotel – it’s breathtakingly grand, although sadly we couldn’t nose much as most of it is ‘for guests only’ and prowled by security. Instead we were ushered into the bar for a pre-dinner cocktail.

The bar is so decadent and ornate, you feel like you’ve stepped back to the Twenties. The cocktails are not the typical offerings – I had a concoction of green tea, ginger and lemon, with some smoked popcorn to nibble.

The dining room is equally grand, but comfortable and cosy. I’d describe the menu as refined comfort food – fish and chips, artichoke tart, sides of mash and homemade baked beans, that kind of thing. Vegetarians are very well catered for with several options for each course and a host of side dishes.

I found it tough to choose what to have, but went for courgette flower and tomatoes to start. The tomatoes were fresh and full of flavour but I wish the flower had been filled with some kind of cheese – those things beg to be stuffed!

For main, Josh had lamb neck with broad beans, asparagus and a rich sauce. I went for mushroom cobbler which was extremely flavoursome, rich and creamy, topped with melting cheese-infused pastry discs. Yorkshire puddings were a hit but the kale was gritty – big no no.

Prices at the Gilbert Scott are high (£16-20 for mains) but I think the wonderful setting, generous portions and charming service justifies them. I’d love to go back to the bar for a cocktail or afternoon tea!

I was a guest of the Gilbert Scott for my visit

Caravan is probably my favourite, though:

It’s an all-day Antipodean eatery in the vein of Workshop (previously St Ali), with those small sharing dishes of food that I can’t get enough of. The head chef is ex-Providores pedigree, and they take the coffee seriously too, with a roastery in the basement.

I’ve been here for dinner before with my parents (who are always wildly impressed with these trendy London eateries we take them to) and for their fabulous brunch a few times, but when they started tweeting some amazing-sounding new veggie dishes I knew it was time to head back again.

I love getting ‘freebies’ in restaurants and this aperitif of cold garlicky gazpacho went down very well indeed (fish eaters get miso soup instead).

We ordered aubergine and onion bhaji; asparagus and baked manouri cheese; spicy tofu; deep-fried duck egg with morcilla (black pudding, for Josh) and the standout dish of mushrooms with creamy cheesy polenta with a red wine sauce. I love when I don’t feel that I’m missing out as a vegetarian and you certainly don’t here – the little dishes give such a flavour punch and I love having a small taste of lots of different things in one meal.

It’d be rude not to finish with a freshly-roasted coffee!

After dinner, we went just over the road to the Exmouth Arms. Under new management since November and previously somewhere I hadn’t thought of stepping into, it now boasts tons of craft beers and a nice USA-inspired food menu of sliders (mini burgers) and sides like coleslaw and deep-fried pickles. Try the Odells if you go, it’s a classic American IPA. Happy Friday!

Amara got in touch recently, asking if I’d like to review one of their products. I hadn’t heard of the site before, but was happy to find it’s a very well-curated online home store, with brands such as Missoni, Orla Kiely, Emma Bridgewater and Rob Ryan amongst lots of others.

I was particularly excited to see Jonathan Adler listed, an American designer known for his elegant animal ceramics and cheerful patterns. I fell in love with his store in San Francisco so I’m pleased you can buy it over here now too. (He also has a store in London, but it’s way over in Kensington so I haven’t trundled across town to it yet.)

I couldn’t resist this gorgeous birdie spoon rest: beautiful yet functional!

She looks equally at home with my owls on the mantlepiece, non? Here’s some of my other Jonathan Adler favourites from Amara’s site:

*Product supplied for review by Amara

I booked this back in October as soon as it was announced, and finally the date of our Warner Bros Harry Potter tour arrived on Saturday! I’ll pop most of the photos and info under a cut, since there’s an awful lot and some people who are visiting in the future might not want spoilers…

The tour starts with a short movie, which ends on a shot of the iconic doors to the Great Hall – then lo, the screen rolls up and there are the REAL Great Hall doors – cue lots of oohs and aahs.

The Hall displays lots of the costumes from the school, like uniforms and the teachers’ outfits. It was a bit smaller than I was expecting, and lacking the iconic ceiling since that’s added with CG effects, but still wonderful to see all the details. A perky guide – or ‘interactor’ as they call themselves – talked us through this room, but then (somewhat thankfully) the rest of the tour is self-guided.

The next room is a huge area sectioned into various small sets and other miscellaneous items dotted about. You can spot the Mirror of Erised, the ice sculpture from the Yule Ball and lots of props from the Room of Requirement.

The Griffindor Common Room:

Dumbledore’s study:

The Potions Dungeon:

Hagrid’s Hut:

The Weasleys’ house, which had bonus fun interactive wand action to chop the veg and iron clothes.

A section dedicated to the Death Eaters, with spooky masks and costumes.

I loved the graphic design corner – what a dream job!

And of course evil Umbridge’s pink fluffy office, complete with kitten plates.

The next part of the tour is outside in the Back lot, where you can buy a Butterbeer (or um, a Starbucks) and admire the Knight Bus – at 3 stories high, it was bolted together from vintage buses and had to be weighted down so it doesn’t topple over.

You can hop on the back for a photo op, and also get into the flying Ford Anglia and onto Hagrid’s motorbike. There’s also the real 4 Privet Drive, Hogwarts Bridge and Wizards’ Chess pieces.

Back inside to the Creatures studio where all the magical beasts are crafted, from goblins to giant spiders and hippogriffs.

There’s also a full-scale animatronic Hagrid, and these life-size models, which are really realistic and a bit creepy.

Next, step through onto Diagon Alley! It was quite surreal being somewhere that looked so familiar from the films and being able to peep into the windows.

The penultimate room is dedicated to the art department, who come up with all the concept art to plan the sets, characters and buildings. A massive amount of work went into making real architectural drawings for every building in the films. It was fascinating to see the mini scale paper models and hear that some of the characters, like Dobby the elf and the Hungarian Horntail dragon, took 50-100 artist drafts to get right.

Perhaps the most stunning exhibit is purposefully left til last – a 1:24 scale model of the whole of Hogwarts. It took 74 man-years of work to complete, and evolved as the books revealed more details about the castle. The lights change to show it in day and night – it’s really quite mesmerising.

Even the gift shop was pretty spectacular, containing this Daily Prophet printing press where you could get your photo ‘shopped onto the front page.

I’m not a gigantic Potter superfan, but this was a wonderful exhibition that I think would even appeal to non-Potterheads. You can’t help but be enthralled by the details in the sets, props and costumes on display. The sensible timed booking slots and unlimited photo policy (hurrah!) make it relatively stress-free despite being obviously busy and full of children. You can book tickets here.

Loads more photos here!

I’ve had a sore tummy for the last couple of weeks so I’ve been trying to cut down my wheat intake, which (unfortunately) seems to be helping it to settle down. Sob – bye bye Pasta Sundays for now! To be veggie and wheat-free requires a bit of creative thinking – and shows how me often I default to pasta or pizza – so I’ve been trying things I haven’t done before.

After having a Japanese stir-fry the other night, I used the leftover tofu to replicate a lovely garden scramble I had for brunch in San Francisco. As well as being an Asian mainstay, firm tofu is really good as a more substantial (and vegan) substitute for scrambled egg, and its bland creaminess works well with all sorts of other flavours, from Mediterranean to Indian.

I teamed it with the contents of my veg drawer, some leftover pesto and a squeeze of lime to make a delicious dish that took under ten minutes. You could sub the green veg for whatever you have: I used my favourite, samphire, because I spotted it in Waitrose (on the fish counter instead of veg aisle, natch), but it’d also work great with broccoli, green beans or peas. I also used an amazing fiery chilli pesto from Romeo Jones at Broadway Market but normal red pesto would work, with a sprinkle of chilli if you like it hot. I served it on a wheat (whoops) tortilla to bulk it up a bit, but actually found it made quite a filling supper on its own.

We escaped to Bath at the weekend to celebrate Josh’s mum’s birthday. I’d never been before so it was great to have a little explore of this pocket-size city. We stayed at the Bath City Apartment, which was handily right in the middle of town (but noisy at night, both from revellers and seagulls!).

First stop, the Roman Baths: busy and touristy but contained an interesting museum alongside the Roman remains.

We sniffed out the best coffee in town at the Colonna & Smalls espresso room, who take their coffee very seriously indeed – no milk in your filter coffee or sugar allowed! You forgive the snootiness when you taste it, though.

Architecture porn on the Royal Crescent. I would have liked to visit the ‘showhome‘ done out in period decor, but didn’t realise it was there until too late. Had to suffice with peeking through the windows.

Old signage on the limestone townhouses. Bath is ever so picturesque: even the relatively chain-store-ridden high street looks sweet and understated and there are lovely views.

Cute galleries, cafes and shops in town, including lovely handmade boutique Charlie’s Boots. A really nice mix of independent shops, a proper old department store – Jolly’s – and higher-end high street shops, all in a very compact centre, made Bath very easy to feel at home in.

We had nice meals – and ales – at the Griffin and the Marlborough Tavern and some of our gang went for a swim and sauna at the Spa (Josh and I er, went to get more coffee instead). All in all a great relaxing weekend.

We had a great time last night learning how to make pasta properly at Fifteen restaurant, thanks to Google London. If you didn’t know, Fifteen is the restaurant set up by Jamie Oliver to train young apprentice chefs, and all profits are put back into training the next generation of chefs. Alumni of the scheme have gone on to open their own restaurants and work at other top kitchens in London, so the scheme’s definitely a success, and the flagship Fifteen is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year.

We started our class with chefs Alex and Nathan talking us through making the basic pasta dough. It’s just equal quantities of liquid (egg, water or flavourings like tomato, spinach or mushroom paste) to fine ’00′ flour, and a glug of olive oil. The dough is then kneaded to stretch out the gluten, then should be rested for up to 24 hours.

The rested dough is flattened by hand then fed into the pasta machine.

I picked up a top tip here that I’ve been missing out on at home: fold both edges of the dough back into itself on the first few goes to get a smooth ‘leathery’ texture and create a sharp straight edge. Genius.

When it’s long and thin, time to fill with a ravioli filling, in this case a mix of roasted squash, garlic, ricotta and chilli – yum.

Use a piping bag for pro results and make sure to leave plenty of space between each dollop for sealing.

Then ‘cup’ each little mound with your hands to seal and push out any air.

Finally, cut around each mound (a fancy ravioli cutter looks good but a pizza wheel or knife will do fine) and voila – perfect little raviolo. They just need boiling for 4-5 minutes and tossing in a butter sauce.

We got to take our proud creations with us to cook at home, along with some brilliant tips for making pasta at home. I learned loads that I hadn’t thought of while trying my own efforts, but it really is quick and easy when you know how.

We then headed down to the restaurant for a lovely meal of antipasti, the squash ravioli (properly prepared by Nathan!) and chocolate brownie, complete with a matching glass of wine for each course. Fab night, thanks Google and Fifteen.

Google are running loads of foody events at the moment due to acquiring respected restaurant reviewers Zagat, and lots of them are open to anyone who applies by reviewing some restaurants on Google Places, so keep an eye on their Twitter to see how you can get involved.