* The owner of Lebanese restaurant Pomegranate on Cowley Road, Ahmad Mohammed, has just opened his second venue, Beetroot, which is doubling as a cafe and delicatessen.

Beetroot’s aim is to provide delicious nutritious food, locally sourced and organic where possible.

“The simple and clean environment gives you a space to savour our fresh food and we will also be providing takeaways for those looking for an healthier option,” Ahmad told us.

Beetroot is open early morning for decent coffee and energy-boosting juices. Throughout the day, you can get a ‘pick your own breakfast’ with organic sausages and bacon and a ‘5+ a day lunch’. You could also treat yourself with a range of delicious cakes and treats... and while you are at Beetroot, you can pick up some of your favourite organic products. All in all, a hub for good food, nattering and grabbing your favourite supplies.

* The Thame Food Festival is asking you to save the date Saturday, September 27, for its annual day-long celebration of good food and drink. This fantastic free foodie day out, now a landmark event in the food calendar, sees celebrity and local chefs wowing visitors with cookery demonstrations, a wide selection of local and artisan food and drink to try and to buy, amazing street food and live entertainment.

Among the chefs on stage this year include Raymond Blanc OBE, festival ambassador and local food writer and broadcaster Sophie Grigson who will also be taking centre stage in the cookery theatre.

* Sophie Grigson also pops up on Cowley Road this weekend when her cookery school goes walkabout on Saturday from 5-8pm. In this extended session, Sophie take you shopping in some of her favourite foodie haunts, to buy the latest, on-trend ingredients from black cardamom pods, giant couscous, preserved lemons, amchur powder, apricot leather, and fragrant ripe guavas. You will then head back to Cowley’s best kept secret, the Restore Garden Café, to create a feast for all the senses.

The menu will depend on what’s available on the day, but may include dishes such as barbecued cinnamon chicken with Tunisian zhug, or Sri-lankan beetroot curry with lemon and cardamom rice, and a sweet morsel of carrot halva to finish, at a cost of £60. See sophiescookeryschool.com n Community cookbook Eat Me!, (see recipe, left) is going great guns, having secured sponsorship from Pembroke College, Mamma Mia, Four Pillars Hotel, Oxford City Council and Oxford City School of Dance.

The funding gap is now around £1,500, so there are still opportunities for local businesses to connect with the South Oxford community by supporting this project.

Proceeds from the community cookbook, crammed with unpublished and much cherished family recipes, as seen in this week’s recipe column, will fund food education projects at Lake Street Playgroup; Grandpont Nursery School; New Hinksey and St Ebbe’s Primary Schools through selling the 750 cookbooks due to be printed this month. To find out more about the project and sponsorship, contact Phoebe Hart or Fiona Tucker at eatmeoxford@gmail.com