Category Archives: Food for Fort

She can’t have been more than five or six. With single-minded determination she lugged what looked to be a wrought-iron holder for a vase or wine bucket almost as tall as herself, up to the top of the short flight … Continue reading →

I’ve known Shaun Hill for – what? – over 25 years. He has just passed the 65 mark. It seems scarcely credible. His curly hair, which looks like a barrister’s wig, is whiter, and his tummy a little rounder than … Continue reading →

I started cooking at 9.15 am. The last course went off at 10.25pm. I got to bed at 2.30am. And aside from a bit of a nerve tonic at about midday, I was preparing my Sicilian dinner in the kitchens … Continue reading →

Have you ever got half-way through a plate of something, and thought ‘I’m not sure that that this is such a good idea?’ I don’t mean because it tastes vile, but because the collateral damage it’s causing to your companions, … Continue reading →

Joanna Blythman is a national treasure, and I don’t care which nation we’re talking about. Technically she may be Scottish, but we should all cherish her. She is the keeper of the nation’s food conscience, and has been for a … Continue reading →

Battle of Plassey. 27th June 1757. As every school child used to know. Robert Clive (aka Clive of India) biffs the Nabob of Bengal, and his French backers. Result: the effective end of French influence in India. We give the … Continue reading →

The evening before her 90th birthday, my mother cooked dinner for 12 of us. There was full-bodied venison and chestnut stew followed her incomparable crème caramel and an orange salad, and a good deal to drink and the usual wall … Continue reading →

Perhaps it’s a bit late in the day to draw anyone’s attention to it, but at last a tv series about food that manages to be perceptive, informative and diverting (aside from the Great British Menu, of course). Sicily Unpacked … Continue reading →

Yesterday the Government ushered in the New Year with another splendid initiative. Four million recipe leaflets will be mailed to families already signed up to the government’s Change 4 Life public health campaign. Change 4 Life, in case you’ve forgotten … Continue reading →

My final regular contribution to The Guardian appeared last Saturday. My first appeared in October 1988. When Alan Rusbridger rescued me from the slough of advertising,, and, on a whim and a prayer, so it seemed to me, offered me … Continue reading →