Author Chrissie Walker, Member of the Guild of Food Writers and founder of leading UK food portal www.mostlyfood.co.uk recently visited Malta and featured Hotel Phoenicia on Chef Radio, the UK's professional hospitality broadcaster, as well as reviewing on Mostly Food the hotel's flagship eatery Pegasus which has just been awarded its second TripAdvisor Excellence Award.

Mrs. Walker is the author of the best-selling book 'Capital Spice' and been writing about food and restaurants for many years, eating her way across the length and width of many of the world's best restaurants. She won the Dutch Tourist Board's prestigious award Dutch Icon Food 2013 and lists travel writer, restaurant reviewer, hotel reviewer, cookbook and travel book reviewer, food product reviewer, food-travel writer and Sake Sommelier amongst her occupations. She is also a Dame d ‘Escoffier and a judge of the Great Taste Awards and the Quality Food Awards, as well as the recipe developer for The East India Company.

Mostly Food & Travel Journal's audience is a community of more than 500,000 influential readers who were regaled by Mrs. Walker's account of recent developments at Malta's iconic Hotel Phoenicia. In her article, entitled 'A Phoenician Kitchen Garden', she reviews the expansion of the Phoenicia's unique kitchen gardens project covering an area more than 5 tumoli and posits that freshness is key to good dishes. She says that the hotel management and award-winning brigade of chefs are passionate about fresh local produce and explains the lengths that all members of the team go to in order to have the optimum quality of fresh ingredients to cook with, including exclusive contracts with the local fishing fleet to get what Executive Chef Saul Halevi describes as "world-class seafood".

She continues, "The guests at the Phoenicia will be spoilt for food and indeed styles of food... cooked with thought and inspiration...The desserts and baked goods here; might not come from the garden but they are for which to die."

Turning to the flagship Pegasus she says, "The dishes here are unique. We were offered a veritable extravaganza of vegetables, steamed fish, and pasta... Maltese restaurants have The Phoenicia as a benchmark for excellence. It has cultivated that reputation over decades... It seems that quality never goes out of fashion."

Hotel Phoenicia's Food & Beverage Manager Francesco Perricone said, “Our Executive Chef is a true mentor to his team, raising the bar in terms of creativity and presentation, while helping our award-wining team to develop their skills further. We are delighted that such a respected food critic as Mrs. Walker was able to enjoy her visit to Pegasus, it's a great boost for our whole team. Every one of our kitchen brigade’s cutting edge presentations is meant for pleasure; this helps to set the bar in the “Food is art” concept underpinned by freshness embraced by Hotel Phoenicia. We are very proud of the entire team.”