Mark Poynton, chef patron of Alimentum, will be hosting the third in a nationwide series of Dingley Dell Pork's 'Flying Visits' on 13 June 2012. A passionate Suffolk pig farmer, a friendly butcher, five chefs and a whole pig carcass will make for an evening of pig tales and trotters.

Supported by the RSPCA's Freedom Food scheme, the events are designed to showcase the splendour and versatility of the pig, from field to fork. Mark Hayward of Dingley Dell Pork will educate and entertain guests with anecdotes and facts about the animals, with master butcher John Kent, giving a demonstration.

Poynton will lead his team of five guest chefs to create a menu using different cuts of Dingley Dell meat. Russell Bateman from Colette's at the Grove; Eric Snaith from Titchwell Manor in Brancaster; Madalene Bonvini-Hemel and Ross Pike from the British Larder in Suffolk; and chocolatier Michelle Gillott will be cooking, while students from 'A Passion to Inspire' will create pork-based canapés.

Mark Poynton comments: "At Alimentum we are passionate about animal welfare and are only interested in the best quality produce and this comes from the happiest animals.We are proud to host five such talented chefs and work alongside them to produce fantastic food, celebrating an amazing animal."

Michelin-starred chef-restaurateurs Chris and Jeff Galvin are to open two restaurants in Edinburgh this summer, housed at the Scottish capital's famous Caledonian Hilton hotel.

The double Catey winners will open a fine dining restaurant called Pompadour by Galvin as well as a more casual Galvin Brasserie de Luxe at the 241-bedroom hotel on Princess Street, which is currently undergoing a £24m refurbishment.

Set to open in August, the two restaurants will mark the Galvin's first foray outside of London and will tie in with the Caledonian's relaunch as a luxury branded Waldorf Astoria hotel. Both restaurants will serve French inspired menus with a focus on seasonal Scottish ingredients.

The Galvins have appointed Craig Sandle as executive chef of both restaurants, who joins from the Michelin-starred Number One restaurant at the Balmoral hotel in Edinburgh, where he was head chef. General manager will be Dale Dewsbury, who previously spent 10 years at the two-Michelin-starred Restaurant Andrew Fairlie at Gleneagles.

"We have worked on this project for over three years and we're thrilled to be opening in Edinburgh," Chris Galvin told Caterer and Hotelkeeper. "The Pompadour is so engrained in Scottish history and we want to give it a renaissance. We've met with numerous Scottish suppliers and farmers and want to showcase the amazing regional produce and talent of the country. All the chefs up here from Andrew Fairlie to Martin Wishart have been really welcoming and offered their help, which has been great."

Located on the hotel's entresol level, the Pompadour by Galvin will be a 55-seat fine dining restaurant housed in the legendary dining room, which first opened in 1925. Named after Jeanne Antoinette, Marquise de Pompadour, the famous courtesan of Louis XV, its listed interiors will remain. Meanwhile the ground floor Brasserie Galvin de Luxe with a dedicated street-level entrance will offer seating for 140 diners, styled on a Parisian brasserie featuring a large circular bar as well as a crustacean counter at the centre.

James Glover, vice president, food and beverage, Europe, Hilton Worldwide, said: "After a fruitful partnership of working with the Galvins at the London Hilton Park Lane, Edinburgh seemed like a natural progression of our relationship. I love their approach to the whole experience of dining out and their lack of pretention."

Glover added that Hilton will also launch a Peacock Alley bar, modelled on the famous original at the Waldorf Astoria New York. "With the refurbishment we are bringing the Caledonian, that grand old lady of Edinburgh, back to its former majesty. There's a real story to be told and we want the restaurants, especially the brasserie, to be open and welcoming not just to hotel guests and tourists but to locals, too."

The Edinburgh restaurants will be the double-Michelin-starred Galvins' first ventures outside London where they operate Galvin Bistrot de Luxe, Galvin at Windows, Galvin La Chapelle and Café au Vin, and the recently launched Galvin Demoiselle at Harrods. In 2007, the brothers were forced to shelve plans to open a Brasserie de Luxe at the Waldorf Astoria in London after planning issues over the building scuppered the project.

The Good Food Guide has published the regional shortlist for its Restaurant of the Year awards.

More than 44,500 diners all over the UK nominated their favourite local restaurants, pubs and cafés. 

The 10 regional winners will now go head to head to become the overall winner of The Good Food Guide Readers' Restaurant of the Year at an awards ceremony on 20 June in London. 

All 10 restaurants will be included in the 2013 edition of The Good Food Guide, published on 10 September.

The shortlisted restaurants are:
East of England: Maison Bleue, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
London: Charlotte's Place, Ealing
Midlands: The Bluebell, Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire
North East: Van Zeller, Harrogate
North West: Grenache, Walkden, Manchester
Northern Ireland: Mourne Seafood Bar, Belfast
Scotland: Ubiquitous Chip, Glasgow
South East: Jeremy's Restaurant, Haywards Heath, W Sussex
South West: The Swan, Wedmore, Somerset
Wales: Y Polyn, Carmarthen

Ollie Dabbous has scored another perfect mark from a food critic, with the Sunday Times' AA Gill saying dining at Dabbous left him "properly, lovingly, unforgettably gobsmacked".

The first restaurant venture from the former Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons chef and his mixologist partner Oskar Kinberg, Dabbous has been a unanimous hit among the critics.

And Gill says in his review: "Every single dish, every plate made with such finesse, such a careful balance of flavour and texture, so much dexterous consideration for how it will be eaten, the most pleasing and simplest way to show off each ingredient to its best advantage."

Both the Guardian's John Lanchester and the Observer's Jay Rayner review new Russian restaurant Mari Vanna in Knightsbridge and agree that the food is good but not for those with a small appetite.

The Sunday Telegraph's Zoe Williams says that despite its name dinner at Cotidie, a super-chic restaurant run by former two-Michelin-starred Italian chef Bruno Barbieri in Marylebone, is far from the everyday.

There has to be good reason to traipse across town for a kebab but the secret sauce at FM Mangal in Camberwell might be it, according to the Independent on Sunday's Lisa Markwell.

Finally, Marina O'Loughlin can't resist the coffin-sized pizzas and sense of humour at Bunga Bunga in Battersea, south London.

Marina O'Loughlin says Hix Belgravia, set within the Thompson hotel Belgraves, is a restaurant lacking personality - the food is good but it's served in a restaurant with no real charm.

The Metro's food critic says that of all the Hix restaurants she's eaten in, this is the one where she liked the food best. "Sadly, it's being served in a restaurant with no perceptible appeal - I can't imagine wanting to go back," she says.

The Sunday Times' AA Gill has a very good lunch at the two-Michelin-starred Ledbury where he says Chef of the Year Catey winner Brett Graham's cooking is refined and calm; it doesn't test your palate or demand attention.

While the cooking at the Granville pub in Lower Hardres in Kent may not match that at its big brother, the Sportsman, there's still a lot to recommend it, according to the Guardian's John Lanchester.

Writing for the Independent on Sunday Amol Rajan says the Blacksmith & the Toffeemaker in the City of London is a place to go for a drink, not to eat as most of the food is dire.

More enthusiastic is Giles Coren in his review in the Times of Peruvian restaurant Ceviche in Soho, which he says is brilliant because the cooking is super-confident, rare and interesting and the look of the room is great.

Finally the Telegraph's Matthew Norman is blown away by the food at Queans Restaurant in Leamington Spa, which he scores a perfect five because it would be crazy to give it anything less.

Former two-Michelin-starred chef John Campbell is to cook at the Pass restaurant at South Lodge hotel near Horsham in Sussex for three days this June.

The double Catey winner is to join his former senior chef de partie, Matt Gillan, who won a Michelin star at the Pass last October.

"John Campbell's Pop Up" will serve lunch and dinner in the Pass from 21 June to 23 June, with Campbell set to be cooking and running masterclasses every day.

Lunch with paired wine will be priced £120 and dinner with wine will be £170 including a Champagne and canapé reception, seven-course tasting menu accompanied by four selected wines and a signed copy of the menu.

Meanwhile a dinner and accommodation package will be available for £250 per person (based on two sharing) including Champagne and canapé reception, seven-course tasting menu, cookery masterclass, a copy of Campbell's book Formulas for Flavour, a bottle of his exclusive oil and a signed copy of the evening's menu. Wine is not included in the package.

To book call 01403 891711.

Daniel Humm, executive chef and co-owner of the three-Michelin-starred Eleven Madison Park in New York, has been named the most outstanding chef in the USA in the country's coveted James Beard Awards.

Swiss-born Humm, who won the James Beard award for best chef in New York City in 2010, has been at the helm of Eleven Madison Park since 2006 after he was recruited to run the kitchen by restaurateur Danny Meyer.

He began his culinary training at the age of 14 as an apprentice and gained his first Michelin star at the age of 24 at Gasthaus zum Gupf in the Swiss Alps. In 2003, Humm became executive chef at Campton Place in San Francisco before moving to New York three years later to head up Eleven Madison Park.

The restaurant was awarded Michelin's top accolade last autumn, jumping from one to three stars, after which Humm and business partner Will Guidara took over the business. Humm's cooking combines classic flavour combinations with a mix of classic and modern techniques.

Meanwhile Boulevard in San Francisco picked up the James Beard Foundation's award for restaurant of the year, with Christina Tosi of David Chang's Momofuku Milk Bar in New York being named rising star chef of the year.

Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck, who last year opened his first European venture, Cut at the Dorchester Collection's 45 Park Lane in London, won the lifetime achievement award.

Michelin-starred chef Adam Simmonds' food may be delicious but there is a pale ghostliness about the Danesfield House dining experience, according to John Walsh.

The Independent's food critic says that although Hotel Chef of the Year Catey winner Simmonds' cooking is full of vivid flavours, its lack of colour combined with the monochrome décor and stiff service make the restaurant feel like some "absentee monarch's very pale kingdom".

Writing in the Times Giles Coren says you can eat very well at La Bodega Negra, a new Mexican from London restaurateur Will Ricker and New York nightclub operator and designer Serge Becker in Soho. But unlike its cousin in the Big Apple, the London outpost is not at all cool.

The food at Kitchen Joël Antunès is gorgeous according to Jay Rayner of the Observer, but the Mayfair prices leave a nasty aftertaste.

The Independent on Sunday's Lisa Markwell has a hit and miss meal with great steak and attention to provenance but much too big portions at Malmaison Manchester's spruced up brasserie, Smoak, while the Guardian's John Lanchester has lunch at celebrity farmer John Doherty's restaurant on Jimmy's Farm near Ipswich, Suffolk, and finds the food is not half bad.

In London, Andy Lynes says new Cinnamon Soho feels like a poor relation to its predecessors, the Cinnamon Club and Cinnamon Kitchen in his review for the Metro, while the Evening Standard's Fay Maschler says utterly reasonable prices make Briciole the sort of place you want within walking distance of where you live.

Rene Redzepi of the world famous Noma restaurant in Copenhagen is to run a two-week pop-up at London's Claridge's hotel this summer.

The two-Michelin-starred chef, whose restaurant has twice been named the best in the world, will run A Taste of Noma at Claridge's from 28 July to 6 August in celebration of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

From the Mayfair hotel's Ballroom, Redzepi, together with his team of chefs from Noma, will offer a five-course menu of signature dishes priced £195. The menu will reflect his signature style using seasonal British ingredients.

We are excited about the opportunity to be part of the celebration of the Olympic Games in London and to work closely with the team at Claridge's. it is a different set-up from our home field, but we look forward to exploring the bounty of a different part of the world."

Claridge's general manager Thomas Kochs added: "This unique dining experience will be the first time the legendary chef will create his ground-breaking vision outside Denmark. The arrival of René and his team marks a true milestone in Claridge's culinary history, especially during such an exciting time in the capital.

"As London welcomes the best of the best from around the globe this summer, we are proud to make our contribution by bringing the world's best restaurant to Claridge's."

Noma - a combination of Nordish (Nordic) and Mad (food) - is a partnership between Danish restaurateur and TV chef Claus Meyer and Redzepi, whose career has included stints at some of the world's finest restaurants, including Thomas Keller's French Laundry in California and Ferran Adrià's El Bulli in Spain.

The menu at Noma is a "personal rendition of Nordic gourmet cuisine" - a mix of costly and everyday ingredients, unusual foraged native foods, and home-made vinegars, beers, spirits and wines. Alongside modern cooking techniques, Redzepi has also revitalised age-old, curative and non-chemical methods of cooking such as smoking, salting, pickling, drying, grilling and baking on slabs of basalt.

Luxury hotel and restaurant consortium Relais & Chateaux this week hosted its second annual Grands Chefs dinner in New York, bringing together 45 top chefs from around the world.

The event, which took place at Manhattan's Gotham Hall on Monday evening, featured chefs from 10 countries from four continents, with the UK represented by two-Michelin-starred Grands Chefs Andrew Fairlie and Claude Bosi.

Other chefs included three-Michelin-starred chefs Daniel Boulud and Jean-Georges Vongerichten from the USA, Thomas Bühner from La Vie in Germany, and Emmanuel Renaut from Flocons de Sel in France. In addition iconic French chefs Marc Meneau and Annie Féolde as well as young chefs such as César Troisgros and Christopher Kostow were also cooking.

New York marked Relais & Chateaux's second annual Grands Chefs dinner after the inaugural event held at Versailles in France last year. Next year, the dinner will take place in London.

The Grands Chefs dinner, which raised funds for New York charity Citymeals on Wheels and was sponsored by Champagne Pommery, saw the chefs paired up in teams of three cooking for 20 or 30 covers. The menus featured a first course of lobster, a second course of either scallops or sea bass, and a third of either veal or lamb.

Andrew Fairlie, chef patron of Restaurant Andrew Fairlie at Gleneagles in Scotland, served seared Maine scallops with Scottish sea vegetables and seaweed broth. He was teamed up with US chef Mark Ladner from El Posto in New York, and Patrick Bertron, head chef at Le Relais Bernard Loiseau in France.

Meanwhile Claude Bosi, chef patron of Hibiscus in London, served roast tenderloin of veal with aubergine and miso caviar, roast baby gem lettuce and dried bonito. He cooked alongside Davy Tissot from Villa Florentine in France and and Stéphane Mazières Hôtel Le Toiny in Saint Barts.

Commenting on the event, Fairlie said it had been a great honour to have been involved. "Being among culinary greats such as Marc Meneau, Daniel Boulud and Thomas Keller was a fantastic and humbling experience," he said.

"While the cooking on the night was a challenge, the organisation of the event was impeccable and I had a great team in Mark and Patrick."

Fairlie added: "The room looked absolutely spectacular and I didn't realise until I got there just how big the event was going to be. It was an amazing and exhilarating experience and one of the best events of its kind that I have cooked at."