FLAVOUR TO SAVOUR

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 […]

HARD CHEESE

The other day I heard someone reprehending someone else for ‘cutting cheese the wrong way’. Of all the pointless bits of gastro-snobbery, this pretty much takes the biscuit. Go on-line, and of course, there’s all kinds of sites proclaiming that there’s a right way to cut cheese. https://www.paxtonandwhitfield.co.uk/how-to-cut-cheese gives instructions for seven different kinds of cheese. […]

SNAPSHOTS FROM THE VIA MARENCA (3) – ON THE UP

It was raining when I woke the following morning in the Rifugio Ca’ Da Cardella, tucked away on one of Mendatica’s precipitous cobbled streets. The village was eerily quiet. As refuges go, the Rifugio Ca’ Da Cardella, was of the Ritz or Connaught variety, with comfortable bunk beds, duvets, wifi, ensuite bathrooms, wide-screen tv, capsule […]

SNAPSHOTS FROM THE VIA MARENCA (2)- LA CUCINA BIANCA

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been gradually putting together the story of the walk that my friend, Rory Gibson, and I made in Liguria back in June. It’s given me the chance to relive that splendid perambulation, so much easier than actually doing it, of course. I’ve already posted a short blog about the […]

PLUPERFECT PEAR

In one direction my office looks out of my pear tree.It is not a thing of beauty in itself, but its fruits are. It’s quiet bowed down by them. Doyenne du Comice, universally acknowledged by right thinking people as the finest of all pears. Their flesh is like ivory. Peeled, it glistens with juices that […]

A PROUD MOMENT

My autumn breakfast – fragrant shavings of my own guanciale with slices of my own tomato (Marmande; the best of the fryers). Plus coffee (Yergacheffe & Negresco blend) from the admirable Markus Coffee of Connaught Street. Oh, and a James Grieve apple (out of shot) from Day’s Cottage of Brookthorpe, Gloucestershire. Pride & prejudice.

DISPATCH FROM THE GARDEN FRONT – BEETROOT

Have you ever had that fright of thinking you’re peeing blood before remembering that you ate a load of beetroot a few hours before? I’m not sure of the mechanism by which the purple of the vegetable is transported to your urinary tract, but it can be a touch alarming if you’re absent-minded. I loathed beetroot […]