Jamie Oliver's Childhood Home

The Cricketers, Clavering. A delightful 16th century English Country Inn with award winning food and accommodation, roaring log fires, beamed ceilings and a friendly relaxed atmosphere.

On our way home from Saffron Walden recently we decided to stop for afternoon tea at Jamie Oliver's parents pub which was only 3 miles off the road we were travelling on. It was late afternoon and very quiet as lunches had finished and evening dinner not for a few hours.

Remember, this is a pub and restaurant not a tearoom.

They obliged us with tea and delicious home made fruit cake

and we had the place to ourselves.

Certainly good food. A paragraph from the advertising flyer.

"Here at the Cricketers, we take the sourcing of really good produce and ingredients very seriously; the meat is properly hung and the fish is always fresh, using local, seasonal and organic where possible. The entire menus are expertly prepared on the premises by our team of creative and talented chefs, led by our Head Chef, Justin Greig, who is passionate about using excellent produce. We make fresh bread for our guests each day and our son, Jamie Oliver, supplies the wonderful seasonal vegetables, herbs and leaves from his certified organic garden nearby, which are an absolute delight"

One can see where Jamie gets his love of good food and cooking from.

While in Cambridge recently we had lunch at one of Jamie's Italian Restaurants and that was a treat. I need to get my photos from that day out sorted but I will post on his Cambridge restaurant in the next post.

It has turned cold here and I have almost finished the work I need to do on the garden for this year. It has been a busy week with meals out with folks, folks to a meal here and the continuing medical appointments. My son is again in Brazil where the temperature is 38C but I think I prefer our cold to that, especially as he is covered in mosquito bites.

Just a note on English Pubs for any in other countries who do not know their origin. Pub is short for Public House. In centuries gone by they were mostly Inns for travellers where they could find food and rest and a place to rest their horses or change them if need be. Later many where places where people came to meet together to socialise as generally ordinary people did not entertain in their homes as they do now. In recent decades pubs were known for excellent reasonably priced hearty meals or Ploughman's lunches in the bar but in more recent times most now have restaurants too.