​Six years ago, David Selves and his friend Harold Goodwin, a professor of sustainable tourism, had lunch together in which they sampled pies for David’s award winning pub, the Phoenix Tavern in Faversham. There were 8 pies to sample, so they set off to pace themselves starting at noon. After deciding that pies should be washed down, they treated themselves to the Timothy Taylor Landlord Ale (with Harold being President of the Timothy Taylor Appreciation Society, this has become a popular beverage!).The pies went down well, and had spent years on sale in the pub until David decided to sell. Just after 6 o’clock, a plan had been hatched to form the Faversham food festival – by which time, David’s wife Tracy had already arrived at the pub to ask if he wanted supper!

The original one-day events, which included Town Mayors being tickled with asparagus and slapped with fish, had soon grown to a full two-and-a-half day event with masses of exhibitors and stalls.
 
As always, last Friday night was Fish Night on Town Quay, which is adjacent to the 600 year old former town warehouse – now home to local Sea Cadets T S Hazzard. Louise from Hollowshore Fisheries had a great success with the local fishing boat, after plying up the Creek for the annual landing of fish followed by gutting displays, as well as the sale of fresh fish and a fish BBQ and eating and drinking from the stalls – with most stalls selling out.
 
Saturday saw a new development with a Medieval Encampment on the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School playing fields, which featured the Hartley Company who gave medieval cooking displays and archery exhibitions. St Mary’s Church also featured a fascinating pie display. Meanwhile, stall holders plied their food and drinks and families enjoyed picnics. The Ale Trail – in which 8 pubs competed to win the best beer prize, as well as the Abbey Physic Community Garden – started at noon.  

​On Saturday evening, David hosted the annual Faversham Food Hero Awards which, this year, saw the victory of Peter Vinson from the local strawberry specialists Edward Vinson - who were founded in the 19th century. The award was presented by local MP Helen Whately. Faversham Life also celebrated its second birthday on Sunday, and so the large crowd sang happy birthday to them.
 
On Sunday, the town was full of food and drinks stalls, with many selling out. Punch and Judy, Devilstick Pete, a juggler and medieval cooking also took place outside the Alexander Centre, which was home to local gin distillers and microbreweries peddling their wares. Many local events occurred here, such as the start of the Sausage Trail and the Oyster Cooking Competition. Again, David was MC for the prize giving and commenting on the oyster cooking display which was won by the Hartley Company with a cooked oyster, cooked in its shell on hot logs, and a cheese topping. Sympathy was given to the three judges who each had to taste and eat 12 oysters in ten minutes!
 
In the Sausage Trail, Macknade Butchers were the winners in the eyes (and mouths!) of the public, but the experts’ choice was won by Scott Pendry, who had been David and Tracy’s Head Chef at the Red Sails Restaurant – until they left at the end of July before moving on to a new job in October.

What a truly wonderful weekend. The Ironman event in Weymouth was exhilarating and that was merely as a spectator! Swimming, cycling and running, there were over 2,750 entrants and whilst it was a bit damp at the beginning...it didn’t matter because that coincided with the swimming!

​The final stage along the esplanade and harbour involved several laps of the course, with the large crowds cheering everyone continuously in the pleasant sunshine of this wonderful Indian Summer we’re enjoying. A great family day and just another reason why, almost 20 years ago and having already been coming to Weymouth for over 20 years at that point, I decided to put down roots for later in life. This doesn’t mean any form of retirement by the way, just a lifestyle change! Competitors came from all over, but the Welsh lilt of my paternal grandmother was very much in earshot.
 
Coming back to the domestic agenda, it was also a great weekend for common sense.
 
Having owned pub, hotel, restaurant and catering outlets for the last ten years, I am well aware of the benefits and disadvantages of Trip Advisor and, on balance, I think it’s a bad thing.
 
In Saturday’s The Times, Andrew Ellson exposed some of its faults, while also touching on the way customers can seek to hold outlets to ransom. It can be far worse than that. In the hospitality business you do get to meet some wonderful people and make great friends, but, as in so much of life, the minority spoil it for the majority.
 
Andrew’s article talked rightly about the way the unscrupulous operators pile praise on themselves and slag off their competitors. I met a young man at a reception some years ago who proudly told me about “his people in the East” who worked tirelessly on fake reviews for anything and everything. We never indulged in such things but did suffer from it. We always knew who was doing it, but never bothered to challenge it. We were better than that, better than them in what we did and I looked at it as a form of flattery, but I know how damaging it can be.

​However, there was one source of bad reviews that Andrew didn’t mention and that was of disgruntled staff and, in particular, disgruntled ex-staff. You can pick them out a mile off. Sometimes a new contributor does a few reviews close together, even one of your establishment and often saying how good that particular member of staff is/was, and then…the killer punch! In a later review, they’ll then say how bad it’s become since that person left! These type of reviews can grind on for months.
 
The worst kind though, are those customers who come in with the express intention of not paying. The threat of bad reviews is always part of that. I remember one instance when two couples were eating and one of the ladies didn’t like her starter. Nothing wrong with it, just didn’t like it. When I visited the table, she complained bitterly about the way the Restaurant Manager had handled it. “But we changed it without charge?” I responded and, seeing the dirty plates, knew one of the others had had the same starter and so I asked him how it was, “Lovely!” he replied.
​
Recognising the type and speaking to the Restaurant Manager, I told him to be careful and – sure enough – later the same complainant told him how wonderful he was and that, this time, “his boss” needed to learn how to treat people! The whole story is too long for here but the lady later offered to tell me how to run a “really good catering establishment” (all while stroking my hand) as she had “experience” and had “won a lot prizes”.
 
I had to leave about 9.30pm that evening as my wife had just come out of hospital, but people who knew us and who had happened to be sitting at the next table that night, later told me that the table of 4 who had been complaining had said to each other, “We’re not going to get away with it here” – so it was clearly a regular trick of theirs, but one that wasn’t working with us.
 
All small business is tough, but when customers set out to steal from you – because that’s what it is – it just makes it that much harder.
 
And it’s not just restaurants, either. I’ve owned a dry cleaners as well, where some people (again, a minority) try to blame the cleaners for damage which was missed when the garments were brought in. Sathnam Sanghera delved into dry cleaners in The Times on Saturday as well, but the bit I liked best in his Notebook referred to sell-by dates and cavemen! The tide is, thankfully, turning towards doing what my old Nan did; if it smells alright, eat it!

It was a lovely afternoon on Thursday, 6th September as we left behind the charm of the Jurassic Coast to head to the Ludlow Food Festival in Shropshire. It’s in its 24th year and so, as a co-founder of the Faversham Food Festival five years ago, I was keen to see what else we could learn. With the sun shining, the roof off the car and a gentle breeze, excitement levels were high. We’d already lifted the Ale Trail and Sausage Trail concept from Ludlow which were great successes in Faversham - although in truth, they had offered the concept and advised us! I was also keen to broaden my experience of hotels and eating, as I embarked on part of my latest reinvention of myself as a hotel, pub, restaurant and hospitality adviser and consultant. Given that I had earned a Pub of the Year award, 4 stars and 2 rosettes in a boutique hotel and restaurant, I was asked to dinner on Thursday evening at the Pheasant in Neenton – a lovely little place with just three bedrooms and wonderful food and staff, from which I gained inspiration. In my opinion, you can never stop learning!
 
Ludlow is a beautiful town with many hills - it reminded me of Dartmouth in that respect! The festival takes place inside the ruins of Ludlow Castle, a medieval fortification in the town standing on a promontory which overlooks the River Teme. The castle was probably founded by Walter de Lacy after the Norman Conquest and was one of the first stone castles to be built in England, dating from between 1066 and 1085.

The organisation to cope with the tens of thousands of visitors had to be good, and it was. It was faultless and worked like a highly engineered Swiss time piece. Silent and efficient.
 
A range of stalls covered anything and everything to do with eating, drinking and cooking. Local ales and ciders, a range of meats served in a variety of ways – but no fish or poultry. Country clothes and very swish leather aprons were worn, whilst cooking utensils were used to illustrate almost obligatory knife demonstrations. All exhibitors were of a local nature, thus maintaining one of the fundamental aims of the festival. The Black Welsh beef burger and Black Welsh ale, in my opinion, were great - there were no complaints from me! The talks were both entertaining and informative - although, over dinner on Saturday, we wondered why there were so many celebrity chefs! The answer of course is simple, they bring the crowds - creating an audience for younger local chefs like Mark Harris from the Pheasant (where we were staying), who gave a great talk and demonstration.
 
I know the Weymouth Food Festival well – but, I believe it’s becoming more fast food orientated (as was Ludlow), and didn’t include enough demonstrations for my liking. Weymouth still features fish gutting, as does Faversham and the Fish Festival in Hay’s Galleria at London Bridge, but I’d like to see animals butchered and understand more about the cuts whilst finding out why they are cut in a certain way.

The two trails, Ale and Sausage, take place around the town. I found it difficult to decide on either a sausage or beer winner! The Sausage Trail winner in both categories (People’s Choice and Experts’ Choice) was D W Wall of Ludlow with their pork, red onion and sage sausage. Unlike Faversham, where it has happened twice, that has never happened before and it was my second choice. I suppose that was because I found a more unusual sausage of distinctive flavour that might not have been to everybody’s taste. Well, clearly it wasn’t! The D W Wall sausage will now be on offer in Faversham next weekend, 14th – 16th September, as a reciprocal agreement has been reached to include each other’s winner in the next festival.
 
I had the Ale winner third on my list. However, they were both all too similar and all too blonde for me. There is a fashion for blonde beers at the moment, which is stealing lager sales – personally, I prefer slightly darker ales and porters. The winner of the Ale Trail was the Rose and Crown with a 5% IPA, which was pleasant enough. The Blood Bay had a 2.6% very drinkable blonde in the competition but also served a lovely stout which would have had my vote over everything else! I completed the Ale Trail (which has 16 pubs!) in 2 days - the inner town ones on Friday and the others on Saturday. It was quite a march out to the Nelson Inn, which got my vote, but that was nothing compared to the need for brakes in my heels going down to the Wheatsheaf Inn near the river, followed by the Charlton Arms and then a hike up to the Cliffe Hotel. I’d had the beer inside the festival, which I knew I wouldn’t vote for, but had to get the stamp on my card!

​By the time I got back to the Market Square my shirt was sticking to my back, so, I enjoyed a pint (which turned out to be the winning ale) in the Rose and Crown before meeting my friends for dinner. I was pleased to have walked off the excesses of the two days, and I should perhaps say now (in case you are wondering just how much beer I had drunk) that the tasting glasses are just a quarter of a pint each!
 
Having absorbed the beautiful Shropshire countryside and visited Shrewsbury, Bridgnorth and Much Wenlock, I had three very enjoyable days and learned a lot. Even the motorways on Sunday evening were trouble free – and it was a very pleasant journey at 23 degrees and 70 miles an hour with the roof down! 

​Alas, football didn’t come home this summer, but the London Press Club went home in style on 11th September with the reincarnated networking nights at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese in Fleet Street. LPC Deputy Chairman David Selves, who organised the evening in conjunction with the landlord of the Cheese, Tim Rider, said “It was a great homecoming! About 60 members and friends of the LPC passed through with some staying longer than others and it was good to see not just the old stagers but new younger folk, including students, studying journalism at City University. Those who had to go on to other events were wishing otherwise!
 
“We’ll be meeting on the second Tuesday of every month at 6pm in the Johnson Bar on the first floor. The beer is only £3.40 a pint! On 9th October our guest will be Rebecca Ley whose book ‘Sweet Fruit, Sour Land’ has enjoyed good reviews and has been shortlisted from over 140 books for The Guardian’s Not the Booker Prize award. On 13th November, Paul Thomas will be our guest. Paul has had an interesting career which started in journalism before becoming a global publicist and film maker. His book, titled ‘Changing Colours’, features Dracula’s legacy that haunts the 21st Century. Will good triumph over evil? We shall see!
 
“We all had such old-fashioned fun swapping stories of the past and present and even a few of the future in such a great venue, and look forward to seeing everyone again next month.”