‘Chaps’ to a man: sexism, ageism, classism, and lack of creativity in food TV
A look at the presenters of food programming so far for the fag end of 2011 and 2012 reveals nothing but white chaps with names like Henry, George, and Tim. All good eggs no doubt, and let me say for a moment I don’t blame these fellas for the dire state of plurality in food...
‘Pleased to meet Roux’ my interview with the Roux family
Michel Roux Jr and his uncle Michel Roux talk to lovefood about family, food and feuds in their new TV show, The Roux Legacy. Doing things like this really is the best part of my job. Read more on lovefood.com
How to be a food writer & how to write for the web
Recently we began recruiting a new writer for the editorial jugganaut that is Lovefood.com. When one candidate asked about the team structure I replied ‘how many people do you think there are?’ ‘six?’ came the reply. Wrong, there’s one (me), soon to be two. Much of my time then is spent managing a team of...
Food Britannia is The Sunday Times’ food book of the year, and the FT likes it too
Golly, the lovely Bee Wilson (who's book Swindled is a great read btw) has very kindly named Food Britannia The Sunday Times' food book of the year, and what a year it was for interesting foodie books. Other contenders included some big tomes from the big names like Jamie's Great Britain, Raymond Blanc's Kitchen Secrets...
Meet the new editor of lovefood.com… me
The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play. Arnold Toynbee Just a quick one to let you know that on the 19th of October I 'got the keys' to Lovefood.com. Which as the apt URL suggests, is a website for people who love food. There’s a mix of recipes from chefs,...
Trullo, Islington
Jay Rayner's July 2010 review of Trullo contains the line 'My one fear, I said, was that they couldn't keep it up; that I'd give it a glowing review and then get emails from furious readers in six months' time saying it was no longer such a star'. Well if my experience the other night...
Who needs cookbooks?
How many cookbooks do you own? And how many recipes have you cooked from them? That's the question I ask in a piece I've written for the BBC food site. As a food journalist I own a lot of books about food. What often surprises people, however, is that I don’t own too many cookery...
Me on Steve Wright’s show
A few weeks ago Steve Wright thumbed through a copy of my book on air and liked the look of it. I ask Random House's PR to see if they'd like me to come on the show and talk about it in person, which they did. Below is my interview with Steve and the crew,...
Interview on The Food Programme BBC Radio 4
A few weeks ago Tim Haywood and producer Maggie Ayre popped by my house for a cuppa and a chat about new food entrepreneurs. Tim was interested in people who had started new food businesses in the midst of a economic downturn. I've met many of these small businesses on my travels, indeed my book's...
wine and tarragon make it French
Ah the French, they have given the world of food so much. French cooking techniques run through the art of preparing food like the radiation from the Big Bang runs throughout the Universe – they are omni-present. However I would proffer that theirs is not so much a star in descendence, but that others cultures,...
Me on Robert Elms’ show BBC London
Here's me talking about the food of London featured in Food Britannia on the Robert Elms show on BBC London 94.9. Robert's a fan of black pudding, and also knows his London food history, correctly saying that parsley liquer served with pie and mash was traditionally made with the water the jellied eels had been cooked...
A man of appetites: Ham, ham, ham
This week on AOL's lifestyle channel Lou and I looked at heroic ham. It's one of the best forms of meat that works for breakfast, lunch and dinner, yet all too often is poorly made watery reformed pap. One of my favourite ways to eat a nice hand sliced piece of cold ham is with...
