Beginning with the premise that taste is primarily subjective and for most of the time utterly elusive, why on earth would anyone want to comment on food, its producers, its consumers or its cooks. For my part I think it is because we wish to share the overall experience with at least one other, to find common ground, to contribute joy and most of all, to avoid disappointment. So much of the historical reasoning behind food has been lost, but as a result of our interest and our efforts over the last few decades, so much is now being re-discovered. We require guidance and illumination in the face of biased marketing and social hypnosis, and to be part of such a continuous cultural dialogue is a privilege, it is also hugely enjoyable.Food writing blogs
Jerusalem Artichoke Soup
Blackadder: “Baldrick, have you no idea what irony is?” Baldrick: “Yes, it's like goldy and bronzy only it's made out of iron”. In my determined quest to reduce our household consumption of meat, treating it as an occasional pleasure rather than a daily expectation, I...
A visit to Noma
Conventional wisdom frequently favours Mediterranean countries whenever healthy diets are under discussion. But following a television documentary broadcast in the UK last year, which examined almost every diet on the planet, certain assumptions were in need of...
The Third Sauce
The third sauce in the world today is……pesto. We can liken Pesto to Genoa as we can Paella to Valencia – the surrounding towns and villages have their versions, the one remains as the gold standard. Some we talk to in Genoa say that Pesto, made traditionally in the...
Bernard Loisseau – the cost of a Michelin star. Eastern Daily Press
“So you read?” David enquired. Well of course I read I thought to myself, was I looking like somebody who didn’t? I was a little stumped, but I nodded anyway. I had been exchanging chit-chat with that hardy annual of Norfolk’s Michelin starred cuisine, David Adlard,...
The Farmer’s Market debate – Eastern Daily Press. November 2010
I would imagine that few of us would decry a Farmer’s Market and many more look forward to their weekly or monthly attendance at a nearby town square. It was not always so. Their early appearance was sometimes shunned by indigenous shopkeepers, displaying a vehemence...
The Tronc system – October 2010
Taking a break in France the other week and prior to the humid airport chaos later in the day, I took the opportunity to spend an ambient hour or so in a cool, simply whitewashed riverside café in Brittany before my homeward journey. If I played my cards right, I had...
Sacre Bleu – Asterix has changed sides – September 2010
At the risk of turning this week’s article into an edition of QI, I wondered whether you had noticed the European gastronomic headlines recently. I have been shaken to the core by tales of sleaze and corruption splashed across the commercial sections of the French...
Travelling the spice road to Felbrigg – August 2010
Memories of childhood mealtimes drift mistily in and out of my thoughts occasionally. Sometimes there are only glimpsed recollections, whereas at other times vivid memories are triggered by unrelated events. Looking back I feel that my earliest sensory recall was...
With bird flu sweeping across the globe – July 2010
It was some time ago, at the height of the predicted epidemic that was to become known as Bird Flu, that I became the anxious custodian of a flock of chickens. My local pub had long hosted several groups of poultry, which were allowed to range free over the adjoining...