Photo Credit: Stephanie Hartop

Take to the sky come dinnertime with London’s latest pop-up craze, and join the Dine Mine High club. 

Gone are the days you actually have to go abroad to actually be, well, abroad. Last night StyleNest were whisked to the Italian isle of Sicily and back, in a matter of hours without even leaving Central London.

We’re talking about the Capital’s latest pop-up craze, Dine Mile High – a new foodie concept dreamt up by four cousins who’s shared love and passion for food and design who have created something truly unique.

The pop-up experience is built around the idea of a 1950s plane journey; the departure gate swapped for a chic bar, a Boeing 747 swapped for an exotic location – on this occasion sizzling Sicily, and abhorrent plane food swapped for a four-course delicious dining experience.

We arrive at ‘check-in’ and greeted by some very glamourous Pan Am-style hostesses, all pearly whites, immaculate makeup and white gloves. With our boarding cards and passports ready we head to the ‘departure gate’, which turns out to be a pop-up 50s style bar, complete with low lighting, leather seats and an array of retro tipples.

The Dine Mile High passports entitle passengers to two cocktails, so far, our kind of flight. So we stick to the retro Italiana theme and opt for a Campari soaked Negroni and a classic Aperol and prossecco fizz. In the corner a live duo are singing and strumming the likes of Mambo Italiano and various other toe-tappers.

Whilst we wait to board, the glamourous air hostesses and a rather dashing Italian pilot mingle with guests and ensure we soak up the heady cocktails with fried zucchini and some of the best arancini we’ve ever tasted.

Finally it’s on to the plane through a retro beaded curtain and we’ve arrived in Sicily. 1950s movie posters hang from the terracotta walls, washing lines run round the room and we sit at Italian style long tables. It’s rustic and retro, and in a way makes you feel like you really have arrived in Sicily on a balmy Italian evening.

Photo Credit: Stephanie Hartop

Whist the air hostesses bring round ‘duty free’ – a trolley of wine, we tuck into our first course of marinated orange and cinnamon swordfish with fennel and pine nuts. Fresh and zesty with a retro edge, it fits the theme perfectly. The food is dreamt up and prepared by ex-Moro chef, Oliver Templeton and his team – and showcases a balanced mix of imagination and skill.

In true Sicilian style we move on to a small dish of pasta before the main course. It comes served on mama’s kitchen style sharing plates with a mound of cheese on top. Rich and full of flavour, it was without a doubt our favourite course of the evening.

For main we had a hefty portion of pork belly served up with braised hispi cabbage, white beans and Sicilian lemon. Much like an Italian version of a Sunday roast, it left us belly-full and satisfied.

And to top it all off, burnt peach geleto, pistachio praline and amarreto biscotto was served for dessert.

After dinner it’s back to the bar, this time with a little tipsy pilot, for more cocktails and music. The departure gate bar is open to non-dinners too, for a ‘boarding pass’ price of £5, so by this time it’s in full swing and full of guests.

With a foodie pop-up, popping up almost every day in London it’s hard to know which ones will be a success and which are just gimmicks spruced up with some tasty nosh. Thankfully Dine Mile High is not, it’s simply good fun with good food to match.

Where the pilot and his Pan Am girls go next, who knows? The sky’s the limit.

Dine Mile High is priced at £65 per person, which includes two classic cocktails, departure lounge snacks and a four-course meal. For more information and to see when the next flight departs visit www.dinemilehigh.com. 

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StyleNest take five minutes with the lovely Tom Sellers to talk food, food and more food. Having recently opened his first restaurant, Restaurant Story, new to the food scene Sellers has certainly made an impact on us all already. 

Having worked with some of the best names in food from Tom Aikens and Thomas Keller, Tom Sellers seems to be taking lead from the famous Tom’s in food. Fuelled by his team, Tom aims to make dining an experience and with a menu of tasting dishes to choose from, you are certainly in for an experience at Restaurant Story.

We hear you are involved with the new site tothetops.com. Can you tell us a bit more about your decision to get involved and what it’s all about?

tothetops.com is an online shopping platform, but, unlike most sites, it has a team of ‘experts’ from various fields recommending products that we truly believe in. It was flattering to be offered to be a part of tothetops.com. I personally don’t get much time to shop, so something like this has the potential to be really handy to busy digital consumers. I have been keeping a mental list of my favourite cooking gear throughout my international career so it is great to be able to share it and allow others to benefit from my expertise. Soon my page will be filled with lots of product ideas and suggestions. There will be product from all over the world, which most people who haven’t worked in professional kitchens may not know about and are great to use at home.

Can you give StyleNest any exciting inside news on any current or future projects you might be working on? 

Restaurant Story is my main focus at the moment, but I’m always open to being involved with other creative projects such as tothetops.com – it’s just a matter of having the time. We haven’t been open long, so it’s full-steam ahead in the kitchen. The dishes are changing regularly as new ingredients come into season. We only run tasting menus, so we want to keep the content fresh and varied to keep things exciting.

You have a very interesting story about how you got into the industry. Turning up at Tom Aikens door, can you tell our readers about how it all came about?

I’d left school early and started working in a local pub. Just washing dishes and helping out. I realised quickly that being in the kitchen was something that I could really love. After a short while I decided I was going to London – all the best restaurants at that time were in London so it was where you had to be to learn from the best. I turned up at Tom Aikens’ door and asked for a job. He put me to work in the kitchen for a day to see how I got on. I worked my ass off that day wanting to make the right impression and it worked. He offered me a job and I stayed for two years. In that time I tried to learn everything that was on offer. Tom Aikens was and still is on one of the greatest chefs to come from this country.

What was the inspiration behind Restaurant Story? From the name to the menu and location?

I always knew I wanted to call my own restaurant Restaurant Story. To me food and dining tells a story. Certain tastes invoke memories or a great meal out creates a story of its own to tell friends. I try to think about this with my dishes and use my memories of flavours and smells when putting a dish together.

We have a burnt onion dish on the menu at the moment, which makes me think of when I was a kid going to the fairground with my dad and eating hot dogs with burnt onions on. The location of Restaurant Story chose me in some ways. I’d been looking and looking for the right site when we came across Tooley Street. It was a derelict Victorian toilet block just sitting there in the middle of this intersection. It just felt right.

The area is cool, a mix of business and residential, and the Bermondsey crowd already have some good eateries to go to. We knocked down the toilet block and built Restaurant Story from scratch. There are still some stones from the original building in the restaurant though, we saved them and built the wall around the open kitchen with them. You can stand in the restaurant and look one way to see the Shard and then go out onto the terrace and see Tower Bridge, two of the most iconic structures in London – one new, one old.

What helps to inspire you to create new dishes? Is it places? People?

The team I work with inspires me. We are a family and work together in a tight space for 16 hours a day. I have my notebook in which I write and draw my ideas, then I try them out on the team and we work on ways of finessing them together.

Any top tips for mums who aren’t confident cooks? Any secrets how to get little ones to get excited about veggies?

Well, as I’m not a parent myself I wouldn’t presume to know anything about how to get kids to do things they don’t want to do. All I’d suggest is get them involved in the preparing and cooking of the food if you can. Get them excited and interested in what they are eating and keep it varied. The same goes for people who aren’t so confident, just get involved and try different things. What’s the worst that can happen? If it goes badly there is always tomorrow to try again.

What advice would you give parents to help prepare time efficient, nutritious and tasty meals for the family?

Plan your menu for the week. Use fresh ingredients and cook in bulk if you know you don’t have time later in the week. Portion out and freeze the food that you have cooked, that way you know what’s in it and it won’t be full of preservatives and mystery E numbers.

As a chef you spend hours in the kitchen, do you still get pleasure cooking at home or would you prefer to go out to dinner?

Of course I get pleasure cooking at home. Food is the biggest thing in my life and cooking for friends and family gives me a lot of satisfaction. My parents are my biggest critics and my biggest supporters, I enjoy nothing more than cooking a big roast for my folks and then taking our time over eating it together. Cooking at home has a totally different feel to cooking at work.

What inspirational chefs do you admire?

I admire any chef who is running a restaurant at the moment and keeping in business. It’s a tough market to be in and people are always looking for something different. I admire the chefs I’ve been fortunate enough to work with. Tom Aikens gave me the skills and exposure to move into this career, Thomas Keller taught me the kind of leader I wanted to be and about treating the team as family. Adam Byatt has given me the business acumen. And Rene Redzepi encouraged the respect for ingredients.

Do you have a motto in life?

#hardworkdedication

For more information visit www.tothetops.com or to visit Tom’s restaurant visit www.restaurantstory.co.uk.

Click here to read about more food news from StyleNest.

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If you have some free time this weekend check out All Saints Road Shopping Event.

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To celebrate the release of the West End’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory musical, the Churchill Hotel London have created an imaginative dessert menu inspired by the iconic children’s tale. 

As Roald Dahl once said, “a little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest man.” And that’s exactly the approach the Hyatt Regency London – The Churchill have taken this summer.

Celebrating what is sure to be London’s musical hit of the summer, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the hotel’s Montagu restaurant have delved deep inside the imagination of the famous Roald Dahl book, and dreamt up a dessert menu of confectionary delights.

From Willy Wonka’s Crazy Brownie to Augustus’ Spicy Chocolate Soup, prepare to be wowed by a sugary feast not only impressive on the tongue, but on the eyes too.

The menu is available for one month from 18 June, and is sure to make every guest feel like a kid again. The Montagu’s skilled pastry chefs, who have been awarded two AA rosettes, bring one of Dahl’s most iconic stories to life, through six brand new, tantalising desserts inspired by the book.

A must-visit for self-confessed chocoholics, expect to see wonders such as Mike Teavee’s Chocoalte Cake – little squares of rich dark chocolate topped with an edible TV screen and remote control, in reference to Mike’s TV loving character.  Or Augustus’ Spicy Chocolate Soup – liquid chocolate served up in a cup and saucer and infused with flavours of cinnamon, chilli and star anise.

Or, why not tuck into the whimsical Violet’s Blueberry Mousse, which has Violet’s head and feet popping out of a chocolaty, fruity swirling mousse.

Each guest will get to experience their very own ‘Golden Ticket’ moment too as anyone who orders a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory dessert will automatically be entered into The Montagu prize draw. Prizes range from a glass of champagne to an overnight stay at the hotel, plus each week a lucky guest will win too prize of two top-priced tickets to the musical.

Whether you’re seeing the musical or not this summer, be sure to stop in at the Hyatt Regency London – The Churchill for your very own Charlie and the Chocolate Factory moment.

The Charlie and the Chocolate Factory inspired dessert menu is available from 18 June 2013 at The Montagu Restaurant, Hyatt Regency London – The Churchill. For reservations call 020 7299 2037, email montagu.hrlondon@hyatt.com, or visit london.churchill.hyatt.com.

Find our more about London’s new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory musical here.

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Serves 4

Cooking time: 20 mins

What You’ll Need:

• 300g raw king prawns, head and shells removed, deveined
• 2 tbsp Rapeseed oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed or finely chopped
• 1 red chilli, de-seeded and finely chopped
• 2.5cm piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
• 4 Spring onions, sliced
• 200g bag of curly kale, roughly chopped
• 1tbsp Soy sauce
• 25g Cashew nuts

What To Do:

• Heat the oil in a large wok, add prawns, garlic, ginger, chilli and spring onions. Stir-fry until the prawns turn pink

• Add the kale, 2 tbsp of water and the Soy sauce and stir fry for 3-4 minutes or until the kale is tender

• Sprinkle over the cashew nuts and serve immediately

Recipe from Simple Nutritionist Fiona Hunter. 

If you are looking to eat outside at some point this summer then you may want to try the Ritz. 

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Jonathan has obviously been taking style tips from one of SS13’s biggest menswear trends, double denim, as seen in the collections of Saint Laurent and Dolce & Gabbana.

He’s smartened up a rugged denim jacket and jeans look, with a classic navy blazer to nail that smart/casual look perfect. Whilst his miniature Schnauzer duo, Chilli and Pepper steal the show with their ruffed up coats and scruffy beards.

For more two-legged style, visit the StyleNest Fashion channel here. 

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Because nothing looks prettier than a slick of summery lip colour against glowing skin. And it also shows that you understand the difference between a serious berry shade, which works a treat in January, and something much more playful. Here are my five favourites for this summer.

First up is the utterly gorgeous Instant Light Natural Lip Perfector (£16) from Clarins. When I first saw this, I thought the light shades wouldn’t be for me, but this is not really a lip colour as such. It’s almost like a balm meets highlighter: creamy, iridescent and flattering. This one is ‘Rose Shimmer’, a gorgeous pinky sheen.

Next is something from a brand called Lily Lolo, who I’m rather taken with. All their makeup is made in the UK, and they steer clear of harmful chemicals found in a lot of cosmetics. Their Lip Slick (£7.29) is another super-sheer summer choice. I like ‘Scandalips’, a zingy pink. It tastes like chocolate and is not remotely sticky, either.

Revlon’s Babystick (in ‘Tahitian’, £6.99) is probably the only lip colour I’ll take on holiday this year – and the only blusher. It’s one of those genius ‘multiples’, and I can’t decide which I like best, the oh-so-subtle cheek glow it gives you or the fab, semi-matte lip tint. Delish.

When I need a bit more oomph on a summer evening, my new go-to is the Lip 4 Palette in ‘Ballet’ (£8.99) from Sleek MakeUP. It’s very clever, containing not just four shades that you can wear individually or mix up, but three finishes: matte, satin and gloss. The colours are all pigment-packed too, so really last. And all in a cute little mirror palette, for under a tenner? Ace.

Summer isn’t just a time for pale pinks and sheer shimmers. Nothing looks hotter with a bit of a glow than a crimson pair of smackers. My new red is from bareMinerals: Marvelous Moxie Lipstick (£16) in ‘Live it up’. This has made red lips do-able for me, because it doesn’t go on your teeth, feather or smudge and yet it’s silky not dry. Smile, it’s summer at last…

If you are planning to jet off anytime soon ensure you take these holiday hair essentials with you… 

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It may not be the balmy summer that we’d hoped for, but us Brit’s won’t be deterred by a bit of wind, rain and cold so embrace summer with All Saints Road shopping event.

Between 21 and 22 June, one of London’s most historic streets in London will transform into a festival of activities, offers, classes, street food, entertainment and of course…shopping.

As one of the last independent retail streets in London, All Saints Road are celebrating and inviting the whole of London to stop by with friends and family to share the history of one of the city’s most iconic streets.

From rum tasting and cocktails at the Rum Kitchen to guitar stringing lessons at iconic Portobello Music, you can indulge in a range of activities. For fashion and jewellery, The Jacksons, Lime Green Bow and Venusrox will be offering special discounts over the two day event, allowing you to buy one of a kind treasures for less.

The perfect way to welcome the weekend, the two day event will start at 6pm on Friday 21 June with a festival of live music, street food and venue events. Continuing the following day, the event will kick off at 10am until 6pm, offering children’s activities from Candy Miliner and Bicycle Workshop as well as master classes for the adults on how to dress your windows from Prêt á Vivre and a talk from the Abras Gallery on how to look after your heirlooms.

For more information visit www.allsaintsroad.co.uk.

Click here to see StyleNest’s roundup of the best balance bikes for kids. 

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Katie Hillier Whisker Bunny Hair Band, £35 at giftlab.com

Searching for the perfect present for the man or woman that has everything just got easier, with online store Gift Lab.

We’re strong campaigners of shopping from the sofa here at StyleNest, but when it comes to gifts, shopping online can sometimes be tricky. Thanks to online gifting site, Gift Lab, searching for the perfect pressie for a friend or family member just got easier.

Stocking a wealth of lust-after labels from Anya Hindmarch to Alexander McQueen, gorgeous children’s brands from Tartine et Chocolat to Li Design, Gift Lab is a one-stop shop for all your present dilemmas.

The site is easy to use, separating gifts for him and her, little ones, gifts for the home, accessories and more. The price points are quite high thanks to Gift Lab’s great buying taste, so head here if you’re after a special birthday, Christmas or anniversary gift.

We’ve got our eye on the quirky humour of Hillier jewellery, one of Gift Lab’s hottest brands. Accessories designer Katie Hillier, who has worked for the likes of Luella and Marc Jacobs and has her own eponymous label, offers cute and kitsch hair accessories and jewellery emblazoned with adorable bunnies and rainbow details. The bunny hair clips would make the perfect gift for a discerning fashion fan.

For him, Gift Lab has a keen eye for a stylish man bag, with dapper leather styles from the likes of Dunhill and Travel Teq, as well as sportier options from British label, Harry’s of London.

And for even the smallest member of the family, there’s plenty of pressie ideas on offer. The Conran Shop’s wooden car spoons will make mealtimes more fun for toddlers, whilst quirky brand Toto Knits make adorable knitted animal sweaters for girls and boys complete with cute little woollen ears.

Whoever you’re buying for this season, you’ll never need to leave the sofa again, as Gift Lab brings the best presents straight to your door.

www.giftlab.com

For more fashion roundups, trends and news visit the StyleNest Fashion channel here.

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To celebrate the launch of brand new swimwear brand Nikki Cooke, we’re giving away three of their gorgeous retro inspired, red Eliza one-pieces.

Nikki Cooke’s designs celebrate real women with curves (sizes 10-14), so embrace your hourglass hips, your full bust and take to the beach or pool with confidence and style.

Pushing the boundaries of design and technology, Nikki Cooke’s swimwear collection is crafted here in the UK using skilled lingerie producers, so each piece fits perfectly. Unlike most swimwear designs for girls with curves, Nikki Cooke uses no underwire to support, rather the designs offer structure and comfort with a soft cup and clever design tricks. This not only holds everything in the right place, but ensures you feel comfortable whether swimming in the pool or strolling down the beach.

The 50s style Eliza swimsuit from Nikki Cooke’s SS13 collection is perfectly on trend for this season’s beach style. The cleverly designed drop-down straps are great for achieving an over all tan, whilst the built-in Xtra Life LYCRAÒ gives optimal resistance to chlorine so the colour won’t fade.

Beachwear has never come with such confidence.

www.nikkicookedesign.co.uk

To be in with a chance of winning one of three Nikki Cooke Eliza Swimsuits worth £99 each, simply enter your details below.

Terms & Conditions

• Please click here for full StyleNest Terms & Conditions.
• Competition opens 19.06.2013 and closes 17.07.2013
• Automated entries are not allowed and will be disqualified
• The winners will be the first correct entry drawn after the closing date
• The prize is non-transferrable and there is no cash alternative
• Prize may be subject to size and availability
• Entrants may be contacted by StyleNest and Nikki Cooke once the competition has closed

 For more inspirations on what to wear on the beach or by the pool, check out our Get the Look: Vintage Beach Style piece here. 

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