After a small break over the holidays, the Making Lists series is back in full swing! This time with the lovely Rachel Phipps! I've been following Rachel's beautiful blog for a long while now, she loves food as much as I do & as it turns out she also reads cookbooks in bed (a favourite past time of mine)

I've had the chance to meet up with Rachel just before leaving London a few months ago. We had been tweeting each other every now & then, at the time she was spending a year abroad in LA, I was in rainy London incredibly jealous of all her beautiful sunny photos. She finally came back, that's when we met up for a rainy brunch at Jamie Oliver's restaurant Recipease in Notting Hill.

She told me all about her LA adventure, we also talked a lot about France because Rachel also has a place in this beautiful country where she often goes for weekend breaks, we bonded over our shared love for 'moule frites'. Rachel writes beautifully & passionately about food, she's always got some great easy recipes on her blog. It is a definite go-to of mine when I need lunch inspiration.

This list is making me miss London enormously. London really is the best city when it comes to discovering & writing about food. The list of restaurants & places I want to go visit in London is literally never ending..there are new places popping up every two seconds, it's hard to keep up! but I'll be back! In the mean time if you live in London & haven't been to any of the places mentioned below, promise me you'll go this weekend. If you're planning to visit, add them to your must-visit list (always make lists..!) you can thank Rachel later..!

10 reasons why it is amazing to be a food writer living in London :

1. Borough Market is only ever a tube journey away.

2. Or, you can leave the underground behind North of the river, cross Millennium (or as my American friends refer to it, the 'Harry Potter') Bridge and walk along South Bank with stunning views of St. Paul's Cathedral even on a cold and crisp January morning. 

3. Living in London means living in the same city as Yotam Ottolenghi, and therefore his restaurants and deli's.

4. All of London's famous department stores have fantastic food halls.

5. Somewhere in the city, there is always a fantastic farmers market going on.

6. You can used Nigel Slater's The Kitchen Diaries as an actual guide to where to go and get your groceries, rather than just a guide on what to make with them.

7. There is a restaurant in London serving cuisine from practically every country or culture you could possibly think of. 

8. Unlike Los Angeles, which is famous for its food trucks and street food where you have to hunt down your dinner, London gathered all of its best street food into one place at events such as Street Feast and Hawker House.

9. Pub food is almost always as good as you can find at any top restaurant. Head West, and those pubs are also likely to have Bloody Mary bars at the weekend.

10. You can get smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels at Beigel Bake on Brick Lane 24 hours a day. 

*All photographs are taken by Rachel Phipps.

// To check past Making Lists posts, click here //