About The Rhubarb Fool
The Rhubarb Fool is in fact me, Jennifer Raffle. I live in Manchester in the north of England with my husband Tim and 2 sons George and Arthur. I decided to start my blog in July 2009 after leaving my investment management job to set up my own consulting business helping small technology companies run their finances more smoothly. This was meant to leave me with more time to pursue other interests but I’m still waiting for that to happen!
I enjoy shopping for, preparing and eating food and always need to know where my next meal is coming from. This is a picture of me in my usual guise:
And here is a picture of what I suppose I’ll have to call my signature dish from now on – rhubarb fool.
The Rhubarb Fool 
Hi Jennifer, I love it! Many thanks for the fabulous lunch yesterday! Marian x
Marian many thanks for logging on – come back soon and share a recipe!
Just saw your piece on Fenella’s cheese. Great – thanks. Hope you are all well.
Derek
Hey Derek really pleased you found me and many congratulations to Fenella – hope all is going well with her cheesemaking. We are not too far from Nantwich if she exhibits again…
Jennifer, Thanks for sending me the link via your Xmas card. I need to set-aside some time to read more of your posts but was a bit surprised when I searched “fondue” that there is nothing! How can that be? Should I try “raclette?” Channing
Watch this space. Fondue is on the menu for new year’s day 2010 and I snuck in a mention in a recent post too. Forgive me – after all I did start writing in the summer!
Hello Jenny!
We just got your Christmas card and I wanted to have a look at your site. I very much like what I see so far – including the picture of you looking gorgeous as usual. I thought of you guiltily as I tried to think of creative things to do with the leftovers from our Thanksgiving turkey, thinking back to the lovely Christmas dinner you cooked us all at Girton years ago. Somehow you managed to cook a big enough bird that there were leftovers even after the animals had eaten, and I’m sure you had all sorts of creative ideas about what to do with them. It still saddens me to think of the dismayed look on your face when you found that we’d picked the carcass bare overnight. Back to the present, you’d be proud of me for having made turkey stock this year. What am I supposed to do with it now?
Love, Patrick
Patrick, great to hear from you! I would probably turn my turkey stock into a risotto, perhaps with the addition of leek and bacon…we’re on goose this year so a different kind of leftover. Will be turning to Mai for advice when we get on to our planned Danish breakfast in the new year. x
Hello Jennifer,
Funny we are up in Klosters every weekend, good tips.
How is life?
Cheers,
Alberto
Alberto, wonderful to hear from you sorry we missed you in Klosters. Was thinking about your Tirami Su only the other day!
Hello Jenny,
This is my first Sunday free for weeks (months?) and I have spent the morning reading your blog. I am VERY impressed – the number and variety of recipes ( delicious all I am sure), the photos (gosh, there’s even one of me!) and all the interesting notes and extra pieces of information you give.
Have you thought of turning it into a book?
love,
Aunty Madge
Finally got around to looking at the site – very inspiring….where are you headed for breakfast next? Hope you are all well.
Clarinda, thanks for visiting the site! Argentina will be our next breakfast as we’re working through the alphabet…I was hoping for steak and eggs but apparently it’s just croissants and coffee..
I’m a fool for rhubarb! The blog looks great and is an inspiration. I love it.
Excellent websitey bloggy thing, and I’ve never thought of just focussing on one aspect of a tour like that – oh yes I’ve read all about the food of the parc de Vanoise – and it opened my eyes, and I even ate rhubarb fool – rhubarb grown by my Mum – last night (ate not grown last night)! Video available on Vimeo, like Bruce’s, now. Just pop http://vimeo.com/11662706 into the browser and it should be good to go. I hope.
Lovely lovely blog!! Are you on twitter?
Jennifer, we would love to feature your blog and Rhubarb martini as Foodista\’s Drink Blog of the Day. We love what you have here and I hope you will say yes. I\’d love to tell you more about it but I cant find your email address here. Hope you can send me an email so I can tell you more about it. Thanks! alisa[at]foodista[dot]com
Hi Jennifer,
Love your blog. We’d love to chat to you some more about Le Parfait and preserving. If you’d like to hear more please drop me an email on ailsa at spoon-pr.com
Dear Jennifer,
You’ll enjoy the opening line of this review… ‘proud and willful cooks’!
Rhubarb Fool is wonderful & astounding. German new year, making one’s own bratwurst; Awe-struck bravos!
v best, -rsb.
Hi Jennifer, just wondering how you came about Akara recipe?
http://www.congocookbook.com/snack_recipes/akara.html
Hi Jerry thanks for reading. I found it trawling through the web on the link above.
Ok thanks
Wow! Not seen you for probably 30 years, and you don’t appear to have aged at all! I found this by accident and recognised you of course – I am still enthusiastic about food, and you have retained and cultivated a lovely writing style. It would be lovely to chat. Keep it up, Nick Hesketh (Lytham)
Dear Rhubarb Fool, I’m going to Paris this weekend and wondered if you had any hot restaurant tips for me. Our hotel is near the Eiffel Tower. And the sewers. So somewhere near there would be perfect: not too up itself, as it were, and preferably with fish on the menu (as I don’t eat meat).
Your eternal fan,
Huzzaaah
Dear Huzzaah
May I direct you to the list of Paris restaurants that American Francophile David Lebovitz maintains on his site? I have visited J’Go and Cuisine de Bar myself without realising they were on his list so I have respect for his opinions now! J’Go is too meaty for you and Cuisine de Bar too snacky so I’m afraid they won’t do for your romantic rendezvous.
We spent a jolly evening at La Coupole down in the deep South- huge bustling old fashioned bistro with wonderful platters of fruits de mer – maybe that would suit?
I thought your web site looked great so I signed up but never heard anything more. Are you still operating as The Rhubarb Fool?
Yes! and thank you for your kind words and the reminder that’s made me post for the first time since August last year. It’s been a busy time for all sorts of reasons and although plenty of cooking has been going on in the Rhubarb Fool kitchen I didn’t allow myself the luxury of taking the time to write about it. Things seem to have turned the corner now and I expect to be back posting more regularly.