Monday 2 November 2015

DDM Rough Layout


Homeware from Home-Dorcas de Marco Ceramics
  

In the Corn Hall
With all products fired in the Cotswolds, Dorcas de Marco’s handiwork has led to the creation of a variety of tasteful ceramic items. It’s highly likely one of these would make a perfect Christmas present for someone you know. With cups for Japanese Sake, oil pourers and delicately designed bowls, perhaps what counts this Christmas is not so much the contents but the vessel. A box of chocolates might make it to Boxing Day, whereas an enchanting piece by Dorcas could ignite fond memories every morning as the kettle boils.
Ceramics for memories... or to forget!


Food, drink and flowers can be enhanced by Dorcas’ naturally toned pottery. The colour palette is charming as it is authentic. And if you have enough mugs, have no fear, ceramic bunting can liven up a party or occasion with elegantly precise shapes on gratifyingly rugged twine.


How many creative ways can you use your vessels?
Alluring yet simple aesthetics are the yield of a somewhat rustic design. These visuals are right at home in the Barnsley based designer’s stall in the Corn Hall during the craft market. The texture of the pottery holds a hearty combination of rough and smooth grains that delights the fingers as well as eyes. There is a sincerity to the pieces that you won’t easily find in mass produced home or kitchen ware. Dorcas’s work is found most easily on the first and fourth Saturday of the month in the Corn Hall, so be quick to grab items before stocks run out before Christmas.


Available for commissions, it is possible to contact Dorcas via her Facebook page here or e-mail her here.

Friday 12 June 2015

Prezzo



Prezzo Cheltenham Brewery Review
On a warm summer night with lilting breezes the dusk crept in. After a longer than usual trip to Cheltenham caused by the rush hour, the smells and sounds of the Brewery cordially greeted my accomplice in food tasting and I. Famished, we made our way into the nicely decorated Prezzo adjacent to Cineworld. Upon entrance the smell of a stone oven rewarded our journey.
It was easy to get a table. It was different though when we looked through the menu. It was clear that choosing something wouldn’t be easy as there was such an array of delights. I was able to decide my main meal before the starter. The starters are full of surprises but in the end it was possible to go for baked mushrooms and bruschetta.
Enjoying a glass of house red, it was easy to choose the light option and go for a goats’ cheese salad. My friend was flummoxed. “How am I supposed to choose when it’s all so good? I haven’t had a pizza in weeks so that should be what I want, but...” then a list of nicely put together meals was recounted. The portions at Prezzo are as sizable as they are delicious, so the prospect of ordering more than one meal was an impossibility. In the end a chicken pasta was the antidote to a well earned appetite.
The starters didn’t take too long to arrive and were easily divisible between us. Quite filling in themselves, the mushrooms were so well made it felt like a taste of heaven. Possible to savour for minutes at a time, getting onto the bruschetta took a short while. It was worth the wait, as the presentation and flavour were in synergy.
My salad arrived with a