Category: Food

I saw a recipe in the Sunday supplement last week that suggested you needed “hand-harvested organic shallots” and a specific type of aged balsamic to truly understand how to make chutney. Honestly, it made my blood boil. If you tell me I need a specialist importer just to balance a bit of vinegar and sugar, […]

I was standing in the larder of a lovely mid-Victorian detached in Chawton last Tuesday, looking at a pile of limp, greyish carrots that had clearly been forgotten in a plastic bag, and I couldn’t help but shake my head. There is a certain amount of nonsense being peddled these days—all these expensive, airtight gadgets […]

I remember standing in my kitchen back in ’84, trying to follow one of those fancy, overblown recipe books that insisted you needed a chilled marble slab and a specific type of imported flour just to get a decent crust. It was a load of nonsense, if you ask me. I spent forty minutes wrestling […]

You don’t need a dozen sprigs of rosemary or a kitchen full of expensive gadgets to master the art of the Sunday dinner. I spent thirty years looking at the structural integrity of Victorian terraces, and I can tell you that most of the advice you find online about how to roast a chicken is […]

I’ve seen enough “gourmet” cookbooks to know they’re mostly just expensive paper designed to make you feel like you’ve failed at a simple task. You don’t need a dozen exotic spices or a sous-chef to master how to make soup from leftovers; you just need a heavy pot and a bit of common sense. I […]

I was standing in the kitchen last Tuesday, staring at a single, lonely potato and a tin of beans, wondering how I’d let the week get away from me again. It’s a familiar feeling, isn’t it? You start Monday with the best of intentions, but by the time the evening chill sets in and the […]

I remember standing in my kitchen back in ’84, staring at a pot of raspberry preserves that had turned into something resembling industrial-grade glue. I’d followed a recipe from a glossy magazine that suggested I needed a specialized thermometer, three different types of pectin, and a level of patience usually reserved for saints. It was […]

I saw a advert in the local paper last week for one of those fancy, computerized bread makers—the sort that costs more than a decent set of masonry tools and promises to do all the thinking for you. Honestly, it’s a bit of a nonsense. People seem to think you need a gadget with a […]