Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Jump to content
UK EditionAsia EditionEdición en Español
Sign up to our newslettersSubscribe: $6 for 6 months
More
Best
Climate
TV

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in

Samuel Muston

@SAMuston

Samuel Muston is deputy editor & food editor of The Independent Magazine. He also writes a weekly food column

Food & Drink

10 best whiskies

Tuck into tapas and cocktails at Experimental Beach
Europe

Ibiza closing parties: where to eat, drink, dance and sleep

Forest Side, Grasmere
Lake District

The Forest Side, Grasmere: hotel review

Light bites: Puffer fish can now breathe a sigh of relief
Features

Food and booze are fun: It's good to be exacting but bad to be pompous

Bed down: deluxe room
Hotels

Rosewood Beijing - hotel review: A luxurious refuge

Complaining in restaurants is a delicate and important business
Features

How to complain in restaurants: There's a right way and a wrong way

Faena Hotel, Miami Beach
Americas

Miami Beach: A new billion-dollar arts district

Pork pies: Must have jelly
Features

You can tell a lot about a person by the things they don't eat

The dream is over: Starbucks is throttling the very thing that inspired it
Features

Starbucks in Italy: The Italian espresso wasn't express enough?

Miami nice: the Driftwood is a restaurant for the person you want to be
Features

You are not just what you eat but where you eat

Booze buddies: what greater pleasure than a (mostly) liquid lunch with friends?
Features

The boozy lunch: Life can be about pleasure as well as obligation

Dark delights: beyond soy sauce's salty kick lies a more refined, palate pleasing quality
Features

Why we have to thank the Chinese taxman for soy sauce

The Cartshed's living room
UK

Wilderness Reserve, Suffolk - hotel review

UK

Wilderness Reserve, Suffolk - hotel review

The Cartshed's living room
Flipping delicious: whatever the story behind their name, crêpes Suzette are fit for a prince
Features

Crêpes Suzette: A sweet, sticky and boozy indulgence

Udon noodles in hot broth
Features

How udon noodles became the Next Big Thing

Mr Henderson presents: he showed us a new way to eat
Features

Nose to Tail by Fergus Henderson: The book that changed the way we eat

Modern Michelin style: at Matbaren, luxury hotel stuffiness gives way to bold colours and clean lines
Features

Matbaren: A Nobel prize for Stockholm's novel way of dining

Modern Michelin style: at Matbaren, luxury hotel stuffiness gives way to bold colours and clean lines
Features

Matbaren: A Nobel prize for Stockholm's novel way of dining

Food & Drink

10 best Scotch whisky alternatives

Table for none: some restaurants are closing on set days to allow staff to have more – welldeserved – time off
Features

Tipping for service could help tip the work-life balance too

Frying high
Features

Brace yourself for a large portion of Instagram sanctimony

Top table: Kate Moss at the launch party for Sexy Fish in Mayfair
Features

An 'it' restaurant can't survive on celebrity diners alone

Oldie but goldie: Joyeux Bordel in east London serves spirits that have matured for a decade or three
Features

Spirits aged in their bottles: The start of a new trend?

Liquid gold: does resting a spoon in an open bottle of champagne and refrigerating preserve the fizz? Sort of...
Features

Champagne myths: Spoons, storage and how to open a bottle properly

Crunch time: there are many rules that govern social interactions around food and the first is, never double-dip
Features

Christmas party food etiquette: From double dipping to canape hogging

Boiled dry: The Stockpot in Soho, now closed, once brought thrifty diners and underage drinkers together
Features

A sad farewell to The Stockpot restaurant in London

Liquid gold: does resting a spoon in an open bottle of champagne and refrigerating preserve the fizz? Sort of...
Features

Champagne myths: Spoons, storage and how to open a bottle properly

Crunch time: there are many rules that govern social interactions around food and the first is, never double-dip
Features

Christmas party food etiquette: From double dipping to canape hogging

Boiled dry: The Stockpot in Soho, now closed, once brought thrifty diners and underage drinkers together
Features

A sad farewell to The Stockpot restaurant in London

IndyBest

20 best food and drink gifts

IndyBest

20 best food and drink gifts

No sportswear, please: the bar at the German Gymnasium
Features

German Gymnasium restaurant is a sexy space in London's King's Cross

The much-maligned margherita: ingredients must meet a standard if they are to grace a Neapolitan pizza
Features

Is true Neapolitan pizza the leitmotif of Italian culture?

And a packet of crisps: calorie labels may have changed behaviour but not in the way expected
Features

Do calorie counts on menus make a difference?

A union of French chefs is up in arms over the spread of pop-up supper clubs
Features

Paris's supper-club scene vs the old French bistro

A union of French chefs is up in arms over the spread of pop-up supper clubs
Features

Paris's supper-club scene vs the old French bistro

Features

The Scotch egg revival is worth celebrating

Digging for victory: white truffles are sold at auction for about £1,500 per kilo
Features

On the hunt for culinary gold in Tuscany's white-truffle country

Nice and spicy: a fish taco with guacomole
Features

Sandwiches are just a poor relation to tasty Mexican tacos

The Pomario estate
Features

Villa Spalletti Trivelli is an Italian hotel with a difference

Veuve Clicquot's limestone cellars near Reims in France
Features

Veuve Clicquot Rich: Sweeter, softer champagnes for younger drinkers

Scores on the doors: you can't always judge an establishment on its online reviews
Features

Tradition vs TripAdvisor in the search for a pub

Hoi Polloi, where the themed menu heads to North Yorkshire next month
Features

Hoi Polloi: UK food culture in bite-sized chunks

Contest winner Fredrik Lindfors at work. Oysters must be presented with briny flesh
Features

The art of oyster shucking

Kyle MaClachlan and Michael Ontkean in Twin Peaks with those delicious cherry pies
Features

The Owls Are Not What They Seem: A Twin Peaks diner

The survey reveals the real reasons that people leave a tip
Features

The real reasons that people leave a tip in restaurants

Flight fantastic: Sam ate miso soup and inarizushi (white rice in a fried tofu pouch)
Features

Airport greed: A liberating form of gluttony

Features

Airport greed: A liberating form of gluttony

Flight fantastic: Sam ate miso soup and inarizushi (white rice in a fried tofu pouch)
Flight fantastic: Sam ate miso soup and inarizushi (white rice in a fried tofu pouch)
Features

Airport greed: A liberating form of gluttony

Jonathon Sawyer crowdfunded his latest restaurant
Features

If you love your local restaurant, then why not buy a share in it?

Fast fashion: stalls at Grand Central Market in LA, where food trends begin
Features

Hollywood's new diet: Is LA the ultimate foodie trend-setter?

French fancy: the Highgate branch of Côte, where Kate Moss was spotted
Features

We love Côte - and Kate Moss has made it cool

French fancy: the Highgate branch of Côte, where Kate Moss was spotted
Features

We love Côte - and Kate Moss has made it cool

Sweet success: a fruit cider paired with dessert
Features

A food and cider pairing? You don’t need a fat wallet to find a

My plaice or yours: the fish and chip supper is going upmarket
Features

Portuguese-Jewish exiles turned chips with fish into our national dish

Off the scale: can’t restaurateurs just call a fish a fish?
Features

Spare us the description: really good food can speak for itself

Bigger and better: Balthazar is serving le sandwich Américain to celebrate the Fourth of July at its Covent Garden restaurant
Features

American Independence Day: Balthazar serves up "le sandwich

Rich pickings: Jean-Luc Roncalli, the ‘Riviera Chef’ at work in a client’s villa on the Côte D’Azur
Features

Riviera Chef Jean-Luc Roncalli caters to the whims of Cannes' rich

On the menu: ostrich meat is low in fat, but it’s still not to everyone’s taste
Features

Ostrich, crocodile, bison... does that sound like dinner to you?

Everything in the garden’s lovely: a dish from the menu at Gravetye Manor, with ingredients from its own grounds
Features

Gravetye Manor is a bona fide example of that usually most faux of

A room at the New York Edition
Hotels

New York Edition: Ian Schrager, Studio 54 and the rise of boutique

A room at the New York Edition
Hotels

New York Edition: Ian Schrager, Studio 54 and the rise of boutique

Samuel Muston’s fridge, which shows that he’s busy, health-conscious – and looks good naked, according to an expert assessment
Features

How your fridge can help you to find the love of your life

The Italian job: at the House of Peroni, diners can watch the chefs at work
Features

La dolce vita dining at The House of Peroni

Features

La dolce vita dining at The House of Peroni

The Italian job: at the House of Peroni, diners can watch the chefs at work
High spirits: A barman pours a shot of tequila
Features

Tequila gold rush: The spirit has gone from a cheap shot to a

Melting moment: simple, yet delicious'
Features

There's pure poetry in a grilled cheese sandwich

Melting moment: simple, yet delicious'
Features

There's pure poetry in a grilled cheese sandwich

A lot of bottle: the Paris sommelier Xavier Thuizat
Features

Peninsula Hotel Paris's chief sommelier Xavier Thuizat shares his tips

A lot of bottle: the Paris sommelier Xavier Thuizat
Features

Peninsula Hotel Paris's chief sommelier Xavier Thuizat shares his tips

The avocado has grown into a world-girdling culinary colossus
Features

Our growing appetite for avocados is endangering their existence

The avocado has grown into a world-girdling culinary colossus
Features

Our growing appetite for avocados is endangering their existence

Top table: Brasserie Zédel evokes Paris in the 1920s
Features

Restaurateurs Chris Corbin and Jeremy King create venues that the

Cheap and cheerful: Spam sales rise when times are hard
Features

Is Spam about to have a fashion moment?

Bright idea: the club’s colourful interiors
Hotels

The Hospital Club, Covent Garden: Room service

Features

Airline food across the classes: Ever wondered what the other half are

Dom Pérignon will occupy a central London townhouse, with its three floors given over to three different maturities (the new 2005 vintage, along with 1998 and 1982)
Features

Champagne's history is as rich as the people who drink it

Here for the beer: the Carlsberg advertising stunt in Brick Lane, east London, drawing a crowd
Features

Carlsberg billboard on Brick Lane features built-in pump that

Here for the beer: the Carlsberg advertising stunt in Brick Lane, east London, drawing a crowd
Features

Carlsberg billboard on Brick Lane features built-in pump that

Breakfast of champions: Bloody Marys are a brunch staple
Features

Brunch is the Macaulay Culkin of food - the meal that never reached

Stallholders at Rosewood London Market
Features

London's first weekly Slow Food market: Live the good life at the

No other food has had such a whirligig history as the oyster
Features

Oysters are now affordable again thanks to restaurants like The

No other food has had such a whirligig history as the oyster
Features

Oysters are now affordable again thanks to restaurants like The

Ducasse says: 'There is an absolute necessity to go towards a better way of eating, in harmony with nature; healthier and more environmentally friendly'
Features

Chef Alain Ducasse has removed all meat from the menu at his eponymous

Anyone with a smartphone and a gripe can go to town on a restaurant
Features

When it comes to Yelp or TripAdvisor reviews - why trust a stranger

Nasher Sculpture Center hosts open-air concerts and screenings
Americas

Dallas reborn: The city's real growth industry is art

Ducasse says: 'There is an absolute necessity to go towards a better way of eating, in harmony with nature; healthier and more environmentally friendly'
Features

Chef Alain Ducasse has removed all meat from the menu at his eponymous

Anyone with a smartphone and a gripe can go to town on a restaurant
Features

When it comes to Yelp or TripAdvisor reviews - why trust a stranger

Nasher Sculpture Center hosts open-air concerts and screenings
Americas

Dallas reborn: The city's real growth industry is art

Taste maker: Joan Didion loved to cook for guests
Features

Joan Didion's recipe for parsley salad can tell us so much about her

Camden Brewery has a staff of 60 and a turnover of £9m
Features

Buy a pint... or why not even buy a piece of the whole pub?

Fashion & Beauty

10 best men’s face washes

Flavour factor: scallops have ‘kokumi’ in abundance
Features

After umami, here's another new taste sensation

A street food stall in Honk Kong
Asia

Where to eat in Hong Kong: Join the queue for a culinary

News & Advice

The Saturday Miscellany: How to fly; Chef Tong Chee Hwee; concept

10 best fizz
Food & Drink

Valentine's Day 2015: 10 best champagne and sparkling wine

Ring in the new: HKK restaurant in London
Features

Chinese New Year: Eat your way to a happy one at Tong Chee Hwee's HKK

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in