The Times 23 February 2012 There’s been a panic at our primary school: somebody has been putting the F word about. And so the girls — just 6 and 7 — have been asking us if we think they’re fat. Some have refused to eat sausages on health grounds. Who can have started it, we’re [...]
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
6 years old and fat!
Posted in Uncategorized on 11/03/2012 | Leave a Comment »
In love with Lebanese again
Posted in Uncategorized on 11/03/2012 | Leave a Comment »
The Times, March 8 2012 A few days in Beirut and I’ve successfully revived a love for Lebanese cuisine. It starts at breakfast: dipping a “croissant au thym” into labneh yoghurt laced with the salty, herby spice mix called za’atar. Then a gorgeous omelette made of some Alpine cheese and parsley. Sitting in a café [...]
Olive oil – 5000 years of fraud and poisoning
Posted in Agriculture, book review, olive oil, The price of food, Uncategorized, tagged cocaine trafficking, tom mueller, virgin olive oils on 15/01/2012 | 2 Comments »
The olive harvest: the money in olives has always been an enemy of tradition and quality Photograph: David Silverman/Getty Images Book review: The Observer, Sunday 15 January, 2012 Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil by Tom Mueller Is there any foodstuff as dodgy as olive oil? Human beings have been defrauding [...]
Disgusting airline food and eating cheap in NYC
Posted in Uncategorized on 24/11/2011 | 1 Comment »
The Times, 24 November 2011 I was so hungry on a flight to the US, I did something I haven’t since I was poisoned in-flight — I ate the food Last week I did something really stupid: I got on an plane without having had breakfast. And the flight was seven and a half hours [...]
Jamie’s great – or simply good?
Posted in Chefs, Uncategorized, tagged Jamie Oliver, the naked chef, the times, UK chefs on 03/11/2011 | Leave a Comment »
3rd November 2011, The Times His new book is tipped to be No 1 and a TV show (his 21st) is under way. Is Jamie Oliver the Elizabeth David of our time? When Jamie Oliver addressed the United Nations last month — not words I thought I’d ever write — I went to the end [...]
Food, hunger and happiness in Armenia
Posted in Armenia, Uncategorized, tagged armenia, BBC, brandy, churchill, khash, the times on 28/10/2011 | 1 Comment »
I went to Armenia in April 2011 for Oxfam, the Times and the BBC. On The Culture Show BBC2, 28 October I told how that story was done, in words and pictures. Here’s more from the trip: Food foraging in Armenia: an Audio Slideshow June 2011, BBC Online Churchill and Armenian brandy BBC Radio 4, From Our [...]
The Truth about Tesco’s not-so-big price drop
Posted in UK food, Uncategorized, tagged food, phil clarke, price, supermarket, Tesco, the big price drop, the times on 17/10/2011 | Leave a Comment »
17th October 2011, The Times Dozens of the savings offered by Tesco in its “Big Price Drop” — the £500 million campaign that started a supermarket price war three weeks ago — are on foods that were sold only briefly at the higher price, research by The Times has shown. Huge advertising promotions this month [...]
My experience of London? Pride came before offal
Posted in UK food, Uncategorized, tagged damsons, forgotten foods, london, Margot Henderson, oysters, Rowley Leigh, slow food, Whiteleys’ Le Café Anglais on 15/09/2011 | Leave a Comment »
15th September, 2011 The Times I lived in London for half my life but I approach the city now with flutters in the stomach. A committed vegetarian I know who leaves the West Country twice a year for the Smoke says that, faced with the urban challenge, he lapses. He goes straight from Paddington Station [...]
Male bonding: The public schoolboy
Posted in Growing up, Uncategorized, tagged male bonding, marriage, public school on 07/08/2011 | Leave a Comment »
7th August 2010 If ex public schoolboys are “the most screwed-up socioethnic sub-group”, it’s no wonder we struggle to find male friends. I wish I’d married a man,” a friend said to me. He sighed: “There’d still be no sex but there’d be more conversation.” I’d been up very early and I’d texted him saying [...]
Making £50 a week taste better
Posted in The price of food, UK food, Uncategorized, tagged £50, fifty pounds, food costs, Sainsbury's, supermarket prices, weekly shop on 07/07/2011 | Leave a Comment »
7th July 2011 The Times Two months ago, Sainsbury’s launched a “value” marketing drive, with TV and press campaigns, promising to feed recession-hit families for just £50 a week. The first menu was depressing with its pseudo-bargains, unlikely extravagances (a £5 bunch of grapes) and lots of tinned and frozen food. These included some sausages [...]
