View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. News
November 9, 2018updated 30 Sep 2022 6:56am

Fleet Street hacks cook up blog sharing tales of adventures on assignment illustrated by gourmet meals eaten on expenses

By Michael Leidig

Two former Fleet Street journalists have cooked up a blog detailing some of their adventures while on assignment, illustrated by the gourmet meals they managed to get on newspaper expenses in the glory days.

Allan Hall and his photographer sidekick Roger Allen are The Hungry Hacks, giving readers the inside story on tabloid exclusives such as Michael Barrymore’s “drink and drugs hell” and tales of visiting war-torn Bosnia in 1993 and having tea with the Taliban in 2005.

I know from personal experience covering the German-speaking region that you need to get up early to beat Berlin-based Allan Hall on a job.

I also learned he was at his best before lunchtime, getting faster as the inevitable long lunch approached, and the afternoons were never as productive.

The Hungry Hacks is a project that Allan has been talking about for a long time, but it was only as freelance work dried up that he had the chance to turn to his passion for food.

I never shared his obsession with the menus when we were out on jobs together, but it was clear that he loves all aspects of the gastronomic experience.

As he puts it himself on The Hungry Hacks: “The Street of Shame is now home to mortgage brokers, banks and acupuncturists.

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

“Large living for its erstwhile denizens, now scattered in pot-plant strewn, neon-lit, no-smoking hutches across the capital, gone the way of the carriage horse and the match girl, the wheeltapper, the shunter and the lamplighter.

“The Michelin-starred Gault Millau cosmos we once navigated is now denied to all but a few cossetted, highly-paid columnists and editors.

“Most newspapers now will pay for little more than an industrial-grade cheeseburger and a soft drink for dinner for the hacks still toiling at the coalface. The licence to M&G – Misbehave and Gorge – in parts exotic has been withdrawn for most.

“After our gargantuan slap-up feeds and fermented grape-juice benders we would eke from proprietors, chefs, waiters and street food sellers the secrets of their recipes, those culinary twists and turns which transform food from mere nourishment into something ambrosial.

“Along the way we honed our kitchen skills with cooking courses and a collection of books from which one could create fine dining for 1,000 years.

“So this is it. High living in hard times, great food on a budget that won’t break the bank.

“This is our time-travel log, one where the Tardis of taste is guaranteed to always land somewhere gastronomically worthy, to bring you a smidgen of the table glories we once enjoyed.”

Picture: thehungryhacks.com

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network