The Rise Of Risotto
Virgil Evetts Where would I be if it weren’t for Elizabeth David? She nurtured and coddled my love of great food from beyond the grave and across time. She figuratively led me by the hand as I tried so many … Read more
Loving Food
The Cookie Monster
Virgil Evetts When I was a pup, biscuits were mostly regarded as a treat food for children. At least that was my self-serving perception. There always seemed to be a packet of shrewsberries, digestives or their various average kin in the … Read more
Pizza Feature
Virgil Evetts I find that analysing people’s pizza preferences is a useful, if highly unscientific, means of personality profiling. For example, people who favour thin-crust wood-fired Margheritas are typically dashing, intelligent and in possession of the most discerning tastes and rapier-sharp wit. … Read more
Soup Yourself
Virgil Evetts There is plenty to dislike about winter – the rain, the cold, the gloomy grey skies – but it does bring out the best in those of us of a food-centric disposition. While others spend the winter in … Read more
Apples and Autumn
Helen Jackson Apples and autumn go together, while the apple season starts in January it is autumn when they really come into their own once the stonefruit and berries have finished.All apples have their merits, the first of the season galas, warm … Read more
Mellow Fruitfulness, Etcetera
Virgil Evetts So much fuss is made over Summer in food circles, but essentially it’s all just spin. Sure, the season starts with some rather good berries, offers up some fetching salad greens and some splendidly sanguine tomatoes along the … Read more
Growing Minds
Virgil Evetts A few years back, HRH Prince Jamie of Oliver did a sterling job bothering UK schools, parents and politicians into making some pretty far-reaching changes to the way they approached child nutrition, through his super-hyped School Dinners campaign. … Read more
The boys are back in town
Virgil Evetts And as we bid a fond adieu to another summer (technically speaking anyway, still plenty hot around my neck of the woods), the final flurry of fruitfulness arrives on shop shelves. Among the season’s last orders are some … Read more
Mr Tea
Virgil Evetts My current hiatus from wine and other delectable inebriants (coupled with typically oppressive high-summer weather) has forced me to plumb the depths of sobriety for a range of refreshing but chaste alternatives.
A Pregnant Pause…
Virgil Evetts Is it possible that pregnancy is just a ruse invented by women as an excuse for being über-pernickety about food? I’m beginning to think so. You might as well know then, that my best beloved is currently in possession … Read more
Zucchini Zeal
Virgil Evetts After the slowest start to summer in living memory my food garden has finally exploded into production. Until a week or so back, I was still gorging on sugar-snap peas – which really do live up to their … Read more
Getting Over Christmas
Now don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas, I really do – but in terms of writing with any sort of originality it’s somewhat…limiting. The widely accepted rule about Christmas cooking – and writing it would seem – … Read more
Let them eat cake
Virgil Evetts There is danger in declaring one’s passions too noisily. At certain times of the year friends and family will be carefully taking note of any subtle clues you may unwittingly drop about your likes and dislikes. … Read more
Saffron- Like Sun On The Tongue
Virgil Evetts The other night I threw together a dessert quite shameless in its simplicity – five ingredients and no cooking; yet it turned out to be among the best things I’ve eaten in months, serving both literally and figuratively … Read more
