Are there any 3 sweeter words? Apart from maybe hot buttered toast, or deep fried cheese, or anchovies, bread and butter.... Anyway I...

The combination of cold cream and sweet strawberries is the signature flavour of summer, and as I always find sorbet just that little bit...

Or Bigoli, Bach, Breakfast and a Bathroom He told me about the all-inclusive breakfast a week or so before we were due to go. Would you...

Frying is not usually described as a dainty act. It conjures up familiar images of brightly-lit glass cabinets, white paper caps, small...

Or My Bimby & Me I’ve inherited a Bimby. The (now infamous) Monica has donated hers to me, as she says she never used it. I didn’t know...

Or Saint Lorenzo, Loneliness and a Loosening I’m not really someone who cooks alone. I have tried to be one of those people who really...

and Puddings, Primroses and Plymouth Pavilions I went to the UK last week for a job interview. It was a head chef job, a new opening in...

Almost exactly 3 years ago, my mum took me to Florence for my birthday. My mum, my grandmother and I, all 3 generations, used to...

Photo by Charlotte Bland My friend Lorenzo describes Sardinia as sperduto. He says this with a sigh and a slight shake of his head, as...

I have often thought about calling my daughter Patience, because I possess none. This invaluable trait has always eluded me, try as I...

I remember Luca telling me a story about when he first worked in restaurants in London. There was a large pot boiling away on the back of...

One of the first things I ever learnt how to make was Bechamel. It was at school, in a class known fondly as F&N, or Food and Nutrition,...

I often think March is really the worst month of them all. Traditionally it is January that gets bad press but at I’ve never found it as...

One of the best things about moving to a different country is adopting a whole set of new festivals. The Italian year is peppered with...

A charming name for a delicious thing, gnudi are really just nude ravioli: pillowy orbs of creamy ricotta filling stripped of their pasta...

or Lemon Self-Saucing Pudding So often it is imperfection that we fall in love with. A nose that’s a bit too big, teeth that are too...

I went with my friend Silvia to collect her daughter from school the other day. It was 1pm, and there was a gaggle of mothers outside the...

There can be no denying that lasagne is a labour of love. It’s complicated, it takes time (a lot of it), it needs balance. It has many...

No one who cooks cooks alone. When I make Minestra di Patate I think of Nonna Giulia. It was Ferragosto when I first arrived in Sardinia,...

When I think of Luca, I think of wild asparagus. Luca and I were an odd couple, by all accounts; little (him) and large (me), quiet (me)...