Food File: Sweet success, Stein sets off again, a French fancy

Sarah Gough, who produces the Sarah's Wonderful Honey range in Piltown, Co Kilkenny, has just secured her first listing with Sainsbury's and will see her product on sale in 477 branches in the UK. The brand is part of her family business, Mileeven Fine Foods, which the 33-year-old runs with her mother, Éilis Gough.

The varieties picked up by the UK multiple are Sarah’s Zesty Honey with Ginger – which I’ve used in a multitude of ways, and which works extremely well when a bit of sweetness is required in Asian dishes – and a new product developed with the Sainsbury’s team, Sarah’s Fruity Acacia Honey with Mixed Berries. The latter will also be available at mileeven.com before the end of the year, and brings to 10 the number of varieties in the range, which also includes honey with ginger, cinnamon, lemon, orange, sour cherries, walnuts, blueberries, raspberries and mango.

Stein and more cities

Rick Stein has got his suitcase packed again and is off on his travels, with his recipe notebook in hand. You can follow his exploits in Copenhagen, Cadiz, Lisbon, Thessaloniki and Palermo as an armchair traveller, when the second half of his 10-part BBC series hits TV screens, or you can buy a copy of Rick Stein's Long Weekends (BBC Books, £25).

He’s already covered Bordeaux, Berlin, Reykjavik, Vienna and Palermo in the series, winkling out the best places to explore, eat and sleep, and the cookbook brings a flavour of them all back home with him.

La Bonne Patisserie

Ladurée, the French company that specialises in macarons, and sells the tiny meringue-like confections in rainbow colours, is expanding the selection of sweet treats available at its Dublin boutique on South William Street. Parisian-trained pastry chefs will be making a range of traditional French patisserie in-store, including Saint-Honoré (rose framboise variety, pictured, €5.95), Religieuse and fruit tarts. They will be on sale to take away, and as part of a new afternoon tea offering (€25).