At 12.30 pm on 11th December 1999 we – four middle aged men and a stylishly dressed younger woman – walked up the steps to the door of  Le Gavroche in Upper Grosvenor Street in London, handed our coats to the smiling receptionist and made our way down the stairs inside to the dining room. […]

It’s sunny. It’s hot. It’s steamy. It’s time for chlodnik, a splendid soothing, cooling Polish summer soup. The basics were taught me by that passionate practitioner of  Polish cooking, Adam Gebel, aka Adam the Pole, the husband of my godmother, Pamela. I owe them an incalculable debt, not just for this soup. Serves 4 2 […]

Browsing on the web, something I don’t do often, I came across an interview with Harold McGee, that peerless explorer of the science of food. In it he said apropos of sauvignon blanc ‘ it is so difficult to connect particular flavours with their sources, it’s hard to really define what minerality is, or what […]

In this case Tom Parker Bowles, fabulous food writer, dedicated food explorer lover of horror films, Mexican dishes and chillies. And an old pal. In the last podcast in the present series Lois and Matthew hitch a ride on a conversation that’s fluent and funny and informative. They start with breakfast and finish with dinner, […]

A lot of people approach the business of cooking fish with a certain amount of trepidation. Not Lois and Matthew. They share tips on buying fish, preparing fish, cooking fish. They discuss the pros and cons of fish farming, and why we should never eat farmed salmon. They list the fish that you can eat […]

Lois & Matthew are in conversation with the wonderful, magical Andi Oliver, singer, performer, actor, restaurateur, author, tv judge and host. In mesmerising story after mesmerising  story she talks about – wait for it – how she  got started; her friendship Neneh Cherry; playing Titania in her school production of Midsummer’s Nights Dream; her punk […]

One of the incidental pleasures of leafing through my mother’s recipe cards has been the way they have triggered memories of Proustian intensity (although not, thankfully, of  Proustian prolixity. I was able to dwell upon the voluptuous beauties of her cold creamed rice pudding of which she never quite made enough (the secret lies in […]

The chef is dead. Long live the chef. There has been a certain amount of rather smug comment from various food writers following the news that Noma, Denmark’s world beating,  multi-award winning restaurant,  is closing later this year and René Redzepi, chef/proprietor/guiding spirit, and his team is going to concentrate on producing a range of […]