We pre-booked a table and arrived on time. At the entrance were 3 25+ stone bouncers – which was a bit odd and not very welcoming. We were immediately greeted by a waitress who took us upstairs to our table.

The restaurant itself looks okay – nothing ‘special’, but nice.

Once we were seated, we were given menus. After a few minutes, a waiter took our drinks order and shortly returned with our drinks (he had forgotten who ordered which drink, so we had to remind him).

Then we ordered the food. I ordered French Onion soup as a starter, a venison pie (a ‘chef’s plate’ speciality dish – made with local ingredients) as a main meal and mashed potato as a side dish.

The 4 starters we ordered were brought by 4 waiters, which was unusual, but kind of good I guess. They had to ask who had ordered which starter…

The French Onion Soup I had was basically:

• A bowl full of cut up onion (by the even cuttings it was obvious that the onions were cut by a machine and not by hand). There was a lot of onion in there – excessive if anything
• A liquid substance that was supposed to be soup but had virtually no flavour
• 4 squares of bread (larger than croutons) with melted cheese on top

Once we had finished, our plates were cleared and the main meal was delivered in a good time-frame. The main meal was brought by just 2 waiters this time instead of 4 (and they managed okay). Again we were asked who had ordered what (and a waiter gave my dish to my mother before I corrected him).

The Venison Pie:

• The pastry was very thin, plain, looked ready-made and just not great
• The pie filling was pretty flavourless and the consistency was too runny
• It only came with runner beans – and nothing else

I’m not a trained chef and I’ve only ever made 1 pie before, but my chicken and mushroom pie was a hundred times better than theirs.

The Mashed Potato:

• Was very small for the price
• It was smooth (which is a good thing)
• I could taste that it was buttery, but it was plain and boring. How about adding some herbs to make I a bit more interesting? Plus it needed some seasoning (I doubt it had any salt in it, let alone pepper)

The food that my parents and my brother had were all just as disappointing, with the possible exception of my brothers cheeseburger which was apparently quite nice.

Once they took away the main courses, they simply handed us the dessert menu’s. We had a quick look but we didn’t want to experience any more food there, so we decided to pop over to Sainsbury’s on the way home and get something from there instead.

Other things to note are:

Some of the meals were very over-priced. For example, my brother had the Teriyaki chicken Skewers with a Satay sauce for a starter. This was £5.95 and comprised of just 3 thin strips of chicken, a small pot of satay sauce and a small portion of greens. This was a rip off!

The music throughout the night was loud, making it difficult to talk to the person opposite. At around 8.30pm/9pm they had a pianist play the piano and sing. This was even louder than the recorded music, the audio equipment used was of poor quality so the sound was slightly distorted and sounded bad and he was downstairs (so people eating couldn’t see him) and in the corner (so most people in the bar downstairs couldn’t see him either!).

On the way out we again had to squeeze part the three 25+ stone bouncers – which made it feel like a nightclub, not an up-market bar/restaurant.

Summary:

• Poor service (in terms of they had to ask which of us had ordered which dish at every course)
• Very poor quality food
• Overpriced food
• Noisy atmosphere (and poor quality audio equipment for the pianist)
• Intimidating bouncers

I will not be going back.

My 2 favourite restaurants in the Hub, Milton Keynes remain as:

• Ha Ha Bar and Grill
• Las Iguanas

2 bonuses of this course are:

• I haven’t been to Italy before and I have always wanted to go
• It also has a strong food bias. I like to learn about (and eat) good food and am the co-owner of the cooking site GetMeCooking.com

Before booking the course, I e-mailed the company to find out a bit more about it. Here is my e-mail and their reply:

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On 4 Sep 2009, at 14:57, Paul Richardson wrote:

Hello,

Please can you tell me roughly how much time per day is spent doing/talking photography on the ‘photography trip to Abruzzo, 30th of September – 4th of October 2009′ holiday? It isn’t clear from the Itinerary and it sounds like it is also somewhat biased towards food (which is not a bad thing!), I see that you also have culinary holidays.

Would taking photographs of food be demonstrated? It would be useful for me as I own a cooking website http://www.getmecooking.com

How much storage (in terms of memory cards for the camera) would be good to bring? I assume the cards would get uploaded to a computer each night?

I have a Canon 40D camera, 2 image established lenses (18-85 and 70-300mm), x2 converter, flash, monopod, mini-tripod and a camera bag. Would it be beneficial if I have anything else?

I am 31, male. What is the average age of people on the groups? Will there be other single people on this group?

Thanks.

Paul Richardson

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From: Henry Carroll | Frui
Sent: 06 September 2009 11:04
To: Paul Richardson
Subject: Re: Photography trip to Abruzzo

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your email. I’d be happy to answer all your questions.

The way the holiday is set up is that after breakfast (9am ish) we have a 45 min talk of one particular aspect of photography by the pool. This will either be on composition, exposure or visual effects such as depth of field. Afterwards we will drive to a location to take photographs and practice what we spoke about in the morning (if it’s new to you). We will usually set you a theme to focus your shooting. In the afternoon, we sometimes go to another location or have one on one tutorials where you will be able to discuss your photographs with a tutor. It’s worth mentioning that we tend to concentrate on the more creative aspects of photography rather than the purely technical. We try to push people to see the world through more photographic eyes and notice things that one might normally ignore. In the evening, over dinner, we will have a presentation of the images taken that day.

We do like to eat a lot on these Italian holidays! The food out there is all local and we eat at argitourismos, where the food, wine and cheese are all made on site. It’s so fresh and really delicious. The holiday does offer more than purely photography as we get involved with the local community and meet some locals. We also go honey tasting, learn how to make pasta and go truffle hunting (which is a great photo opportunity).

Although we don’t have any specific classes on food photography, I’m sure you could spend time with a tutor, who would happily show you how to photograph food and also look at some contemporary techniques that are used in that genre.

We do upload the pictures every night, however, it’s a good idea to look after your own pictures. Depending on your file sizes, usually 2gb – 4gb is fine. We are also able to burn CDs on the holiday if you need to make more space.

Your equipment would be fine for this holiday. The mini tripod would be particularly useful for food photography.

We usually get a mix of ages on these italian holidays. For instance on our last holiday in July we had an age range of 25 – 58 ish. Most people tend to be in their mid to late 30s. Most people come on their own or with a friend. It does vary, but we usually get about 50/50 ratio of men to women.

Please do get in touch if you have any further questions or would like to book. We only have 7 places on this holiday and it’s filling up quite fast. I will be in the office tomorrow (monday) if you would like to call me directly on 020 7241 5006. I am in Italy from next Tuesday.

Great website by the way. Will be using some of those recipes myself!

All the best,

Henry

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So it sounds like an ideal course and holiday for me.

I have just booked the flights and the course, so I am all set!

Yesterday I had the Coconut and Lime cake. This was really nice and had a balanced flavour.

I might have to get their Carrot cake to see how it compares to the one that Kevin made.

If you haven’t ordered from Abel and Cole before, I highly reccomend that you try them. Plus if you:

• Register with them
• Order something this July
• Tell them that I (Paul Richardson from Milton Keynes) referred you

you will get a free Abel and Cole cookbook worth £8.99.