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John Porter |
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 John is the food editor at The Publican.
TH: What is the best Christmas present you ever remember getting?
JP: Major Matt Mason, who was a 1960s spaceman action figure.
TH: What was the present you coveted most but never received?
JP: The baddy who was Major Matt Mason’s arch-enemy. I think he was called Captain Laser, but the memory does play tricks.
TH: What is your favourite pub?
JP: The Royal Standard, a Fuller’s pub in Croydon. Just a local (although its garden is under the Croydon flyover, which probably makes it unique). It was the favourite pub for two magazines I’ve worked on, Retail Week and The Publican, neither of which is based in Croydon any more.
TH: Who would you most like to go for a drink with? (dead or alive).
JP: It would have to be someone with loads of good stories to tell. Maybe an explorer, like Sir Richard Burton, the Victorian who translated the Arabian Knights from Arabic.
TH: What is your favourite drink?
JP: A decent pint of traditional cask beer – not too hoppy, which is sadly the popular style at the moment.
TH: What were the pub sector's highlights for 2008?
JP: I think any pub that’s still in business deserves a pat on the back – it’s a tough market. But I was very pleased with the shortlists for The Publican Food & Drink Awards in November – it showed that there are still plenty of good operators out there.
TH: Prediction for the pub sector in 2009?
JP: Another tough one, I’m afraid. There’s still some capacity to come out of the market.
TH: How did you spend Christmas 2008?
JP: At home, with the family. I practiced my cocktail-making, and came up with an apple-flavoured version of a Moscow Mule I’m quite proud of.
TH: Outstanding memory of 2008?
JP: I went on a press trip to Greenland – a very different place to anywhere else in the world. It was a balmy -25 when we arrived.
TH: Tell us something unusual about yourself that we probably don’t know?
JP: I used to harbour ambitions to be a TV scriptwriter – but the sum total of my success was one sketch which appeared on Spitting Image. (TH: Keep checking back readers, we will be doing our utmost to get hold of this video and post it on the site!)
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