Whatever you're doing, compassion helps
Ideas can be inspiring and dangerous, amusing and alienating. They move from head to head, from individual to individual. But sometimes they lose the leash and become stray. Ideas begin floating, collapsing into each other, mutating. We inhale them. They intoxicate us.
The fifth flavour: The hunt for umami
“Umami” is a wonderful, mystery-shrouded word that roughly translates as “delicious savoury taste”. Now recognised as the fifth flavour, alongside salt, sweet, bitter and sour, Umami’s entrance into our culinary consciousness has been curious and treacherous.
The thin place
In Gaelic, the “thin place” translates as “closest place to heaven on Earth”. The cloud appears to touch the water. As you gaze on the iron clad surface, the peaty mud between your toes, a deafening silence surrounds your ears.
Air and food: How smoking made a comeback
Smoking food has been part of our culinary culture since Prometheus came hurtling down from Olympus bearing his gift of fire. There is a perfectly good reason for this. Smoke contains chemicals that act as preserving agents. Before the days of mass refrigeration, drying and smoking were critical for human survival, as meat and other foods could be preserved throughout winter.
Riding the first wave: Lockdown in Paris
Lockdown can feel like prison. No long walks, nor catching up with friends. Everyone you know is scattered across the city, out of physical reach. Policemen patrol the streets. You sit alone in your room, grim and anxious, perhaps even depressed.
Food and flames: BBQ revolution
Everything makes a difference on a barbecue. From the choice of wood, charcoal or briquettes to the quality of seal around the rim (for steaming and smoking) to the use and type of wood chips.
The never-ending quest…
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