South African straw wine
I meant to announce I was off to South Africa on a wine trip but was so busy before I went away and so rushed since that I haven’t had…
A wine called Darling
You remember that running gag in Blackadder Goes Forth about Captain Darling who Stephen Fry, who plays the general, keeps calling ‘Darling’? Well there seem to me to be plenty…
The curious craze for ‘coffee’ Pinotage
Let me ask you straight out – would you fancy a red wine that tasted of coffee? No? Me neither but could be we’re in a minority. As I discovered…
Emergency – and non-emergency – chocolate
Weird though it may sound to most of you I don’t spend a lot of time looking at or thinking about chocolate so I may well be passing on a…
Wild garlic pesto
One of the things I love about Twitter is that it puts you in touch with people who share your passion and creates the most unlikely and serendipitous opportunities to…
Bread by post
Now you can buy almost every other kind of food – and drink – online there seems no reason why you shouldn’t buy bread but it feels slightly counter-intuitive. Bread…
Love Food – a real community festival
One of the problems I have with food festivals is that they’ve ceased to celebrate local food. Too many are dominated by celebrity chef theatres and big tents, producers who…
Lancashire Eccles Cakes
I’m not a great one for pre-packed cakes and biscuits but I make an exception for Real Lancashire Eccles Cakes which I can miraculously buy in my local newsagent. It’s…
Cynical champagne ‘deals’
Having been to a champagne tasting this week I’ve been giving quite a bit of thought as to how good these headline-grabbing half-price champagne offers are. Initally I got quite…
My quest for the perfect Earl Grey
My favourite cuppa since I can’t remember when is Earl Grey. It’s the tea I start the day with and the tea, up to now, I’ve invariably enjoyed. But recently…
The discreet charm of Topsham
There aren’t many places you can go to these days which are unspoiled and I almost hesitate about telling you about this one. It’s a small historic town called Topsham…
Chestnut and fig couscous stuffing
I was agonising over the weekend what sort of stuffing to serve with roast guineafowl and remembered a dish I’d invented for veggies in my student cookbook Beyond Baked Beans…
Making tasteless tomatoes tasty
I know as a cookery writer I shouldn’t be advocating using produce out of season and by and large I don’t. I don’t want strawberries or broad beans in December…
Is this the greatest bread roll in New York?
As those of you who follow me on Twitter will know I’ve been in New York for the past six days with little time to breathe let alone blog but…
The croissant that thinks it's a pretzel
I don’t want you to think I’m fixated by carbs or anything (the truth is I am) but it’s hard to avoid them in New York. And my second great…
What kind of wine to mull
I’ve been looking out for a wine to mull and think I’ve found the perfect candidate. Not that it looks or sounds promising. It’s called La Maison de Michel and…
The perfect breadknife
I can’t say I’ve ever given a great deal of thought to bread knives. Occasionally I get frustrated because they’re not sharp enough to cut through a bigger than average…
Cooking with hay
One of the most appealing cookbooks I was sent just before Christmas was Pascal Aussignac’s Cuisinier Gascon so when I caught sight of his Christmas Goose stuffed with Hay (also…
Vacqueyras – our everyday red
Asking a winewriter what their favourite wine is usually results in a long explanation about how it depends on the mood, the food and the time of year and I’m…
Going To California (In A Food Truck)
This week I had lunch with a fat man called Boris. A few years ago I’d done a bit of freelance writing for a food mag and Boris was the…