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Apr 25, 2024
Desi or dépaysé - inventing comfort food
"Being the child of an immigrant has its own issues because your identity is so torn." Afreena Islam "Desi: a person of birth or descent...
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Apr 2, 2024
Nik Sharma - a new Ottolenghi?
"The goal with recipe writing – and I think this rings true for anyone who works in the food world – is to drive people to try new...
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Mar 16, 2024
A is for Alexanders, Z is for Zander - A-Z
"Every culinary endeavour begins with ingredients." Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall What a slightly creepy conjunction of names - Alexanders...
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Feb 17, 2024
Almost 50 years post Cuisine Minceur
"This was far and away the most influential cookery book of the latter half of the last century. It affected almost everything we eat...
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Jan 10, 2024
Questions arising - a cookbook present
"Emma Freud: Because you aren’t surrounded by an Indian community in the UK, has your cooking become more anglicised? Chetna Makan:...
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Nov 30, 2023
Tuscany doesn't really do pasta
"all'etrusco on a Tuscan menu is not mere whimsy. these dishes actually forge a solid link with the past and incorporate the three basic...
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Nov 27, 2023
Pictures, words, irritations and detours
“A picture is a poem without words.” Horace Today's post was going to be a riff on this painting, which turned up on my desk calendar...
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Nov 14, 2023
Take five - from maths to Jamie
I began this post yesterday, inspired by the painting on the left, but I didn't finish it and anyway I was very dissatisfied with what I...
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Oct 20, 2023
Looking for something new with Nigel
"The minute details of cooking continue to fascinate me, the quality of the time we spend in the kitchen, the little kitchen tasks that...
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Oct 18, 2023
A postscript on first recipes
As a self-taught cook, I learned through cookbooks and love them dearly. There's an evolution to learning to cook this way and choosing...
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Jul 25, 2023
Best - who says?
"Best - "of the most excellent type or quality"; "giving most pleasure, happiest"; "most suitable or appropriate" Oxford Advanced...
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Jun 26, 2023
White hot cool and rabbit stew
"A story is way more important than a recipe. A recipe can confuse you but a story ... a story can inspire you." Marco Pierre White...
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Apr 13, 2023
Professionally Californian - a blog
"Queen of California Cool Cooking, Patron Saint of Vegetables" Lauren Kodiak/Kitchn I have a list of blog sites I come across now that...
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Apr 12, 2023
They say I'm a good cook - but ...
"You have to eat to cook. You can't be a good cook and be a noneater. I think eating is the secret to good cooking." Julia Child...
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Mar 21, 2023
Middle-Eastern then and now
"Fusion is just a way of describing what we are doing today. When you think of the Ottoman Empire, that's exactly what they were doing –...
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Feb 14, 2023
Three good things on a plate
"It always feels less overwhelming when you remember that you're only 1-2-3 steps away from making a memorable meal." Alice Zaslavsky...
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Jan 30, 2023
Robert Carrier, tomatoes and indexes
"Cook dinner with Robert Carrier and you’ll need butter, cream, wine and quite a lot of cognac" Jay Rayner It's guru week - by which I...
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Dec 28, 2022
Reading recipes
"mistakes can sometimes have wonderful outcomes" Barbara Sweeney I think I have sort of done this a long, long, time ago, but a couple...
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Dec 21, 2022
Excess
"You can’t just push the door and walk in; no… here you ring a bell, and wait for the door to be opened and for you to be greeted. It...
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Nov 14, 2022
Weeding
"it’s not a matter of deciding which books you give away. It’s figuring out which books you absolutely need to keep." Russ...
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