Virtually everyone I know has an Ottolenghi book or two in their kitchen. My favourite is the first – the eponymous Ottolenghi: The Cookbook, a gorgeous tome with recipes that are surprisingly straightforward and page after page of stunning images. A new Ottolenghi deli has just opened in Spitalfields and I popped in last week, planning to buy some treats. But when I spotted an empty table in the corner ...keep reading
Ross McGinnes is a man after my own heart. He is so aerated by restaurants that serve their culinary creations on wooden boards that he’s decided to fight back. Just three weeks after launching his @WeWantPlates Twitter account he already has 20,500 followers. I’ve been puzzled by the trend for ages. Even my favourite restaurants and cafes – like Bill’s, The Pig and Le Petit Prince – do it and ...keep reading
It’s a bit ridiculous to be raving about a gorgeous new cookery book when you haven’t actually got a kitchen to cook in but I’m going to anyway. I pre-ordered Ella Woodward’s debut book, Deliciously Ella, after discovering her eponymous blog of the same name last year. Since then she’s turned into one of the best-known cookery writers around. She’s only 23 but her blog gets 150,000 hits a day, ...keep reading
“Though I cook for a living, I am also pretty impatient and want my dinner on the table in less than half an hour most nights.” Those are Anna Jones’s refreshing words at the start of her gorgeous new vegetarian cookery book, A Modern Way to Eat. I’ve got a million cookbooks already (I’m addicted to them in the same way I loved comics as a child) and as soon as ...keep reading
After reading scores of tributes to the wonderful Clarissa Dickson Wright, who died last week, I was stunned to discover that my daughter and her friends had never heard of her. It seems like no time at all since former barrister Clarissa and her trusty sidekick Jennifer Paterson were entertaining us all with their brilliant Two Fat Ladies TV series. When I checked though, I discovered that 20 years have ...keep reading
The rain was almost horizontal, the sky was pitch black and despite his satnav he’d struggled to find our house. But none of this dampened the supermarket delivery man’s spirits. He cheerfully deposited five bags of groceries in the kitchen, apologised for the missing Rachel’s yoghurt and promised to put a note on the system so the journey would be easier for the next driver. I’ve rarely bothered with online ...keep reading
With less than a month to go, I’m worrying about the Christmas turkey. I know I should have cracked it by now but the truth is that I’m useless at whizzing up traditional lunches. I love cooking but can’t do gravy or stuffing. As for bread sauce, well it just sounds horrible to me. In fact most of the recipes I cook are the ones my mum taught me when ...keep reading