A few months ago, we spent a weekend in Berlin, an edgy, intoxicating, graffiti-covered city tortured by its own past, the streets forming the canvas on which the horrors of the last century were played out. It was cold. Very cold. A type of unrelenting cold that attacked at the very core, damp, miserable, wretched, weather [...]
On rooting through the freezer, I found a pack of mixed game – pigeon breasts, venison and rabbit – right at the back. Now, I must make it clear that, whilst the fact that I’ve got game meat in my freezer sounds quite grand, I’m not some sort of country gentleman who shot this meat [...]
I posted some photos last week from a small café and bookshop in Becherel, France. It was an amazing place, a bookshop with a café attached as a sideline rather than the other way round. This is the way these things should be. It was how I imagine my bookshop will look and feel if [...]
I’m not a huge fan of spirits, so when a recipe calls for a dash of this or a small glass of that, a trip to the off-licence is often needed. This Spanish tart from the superb Moro Cookbook by Sam and Sam Clark calls for oloroso sherry, a smooth, dark and nutty wine. I [...]
This nearly didn’t happen. There were too many things that could have gone wrong, and most of them nearly did. Toasting pinenuts, blind baking a pastry case, the wrong type of honey… To my surprise, things turned out well, and we had a delicate and delicious dessert, sweet and balanced with a deep honey flavour, [...]