Adam Gopnik, author and writer for The New Yorker magazine, came to London in late November for the UK launch of his new book. He credits Fergus Henderson for unwittingly giving him the title, The Table Comes First, and the two of them met up at St. John Hotel where the conversation ran from subjects as diverse as farting cows and the worrying proliferation of square plates in France...
Hot on the heels of our Rosh Hashanah series comes Yom Kippur. Once again, we have an introduction to this holy day from Rabbi Geoffrey Shisler who explains the meaning and practices of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
In part 2, Silvia Nacamulli and Sula Leon discuss the foods they prepare for the festive meal and the different ways in which they break the Yom Kippur fast.
In the latest of our series on food for religious festivals, Mridula Baljekar, cook, television presenter and multi-award winning author, introduces us to the Hindu festivals of Diwali, Onam and Holi.
In Part 1, Mridula talks us through the meaning and celebration of each festival, the various foods that are eaten and what they represent.
In Part 2, she shows us a selection of festival dishes in more detail and demonstrates one or two simple recipes.
Look out for her book Vegetarian Cooking of India as well as Great Indian Feasts for an entirely new twist on traditional festive food.
Valentine Warner talks to Richard Craig about his early influences which led him to write about food and its heritage. "Don't let things vanish. Protect what we have because once it's gone that's it." Outspoken about certain practices, questioning some fashionable views he is never less than honest and passionate about what happens around 'The Good Table'.
In March 2009, in a small backwater near Hammersmith, a copper pot still, the first in London for almost 200 years, was born and christened Prudence.
Sam Galsworthy and his partner, Fairfax Hall, together with master distiller Jared Brown, were the driving force behind what became a multi-award winning gin known as Sipsmith.
This is Sipsmith's story (with a nod of thanks to Stanley Kubrick's '2001- A Space Odyssey').
Food journalist, Andy Lynes, talks to Gerald Röser, Head Chef of the Mirabelle at the Grand Hotel, Eastbourne, and Chairman of Master Chefs of Great Britain. Topics include the excellence of Sussex produce, how to find the best suppliers and ingredients and foraging in the wild, something Gerald has been doing quietly for decades.
Mohsin Abbas, Director of Arts Versa and Ramadan Festival, and Reza Mahammad of Star of India have a fascinating and enlightening discussion about Ramadan, what it represents to the followers of Islam and the thinking behind its discipline.
This is the first in a series of films about foods eaten at different religious festivals.
In the first of the three videos in this series, Rabbi Geoffrey Shisler of the New West End Synangogue introduces Rosh Hashanah and what it means in the Jewish faith.
In parts 2 and 3, Silvia Nacamulli, a well known expert on Italian Jewish food and Sula Leon, cookery teacher and author, each prepare one of their favourite dishes for the festival; Silvia's Chicken with Pomegranate and Sula's Apple Filo.
"Marguerite Patten gave me my first inspiration to cook." so says Gary Rhodes. "I had decided to do this lemon sponge for Sunday lunch one day. I remember turning it out at table and seeing everyone drool as this intense smell of lemon filled the room and the thick lemon sauce dripped down over the sponge." Nigel Slater writes of happy hours spent lost in her 'Cookery in Colour' as a boy. They were not the first and nor will they be the last to be inspired by this extraordinary woman.
Our full interview with Marguerite includes contributions from Brian Turner, Valentine Warner and her daughter, Judith Patten.
Fulbright Scholar, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the City University of New York, Latif Jiji is also the only person known to grow, harvest and turn his grapes into wine in Manhattan! He resides on the upper East Side.
Leaving his native Baghdad in 1946, Professor Latif, a Jew, never returned to the country of his birth but continued the tradition of his father, who also grew wine.
This wonderfully eccentric idea has been the subject of TV interviews and featured in newspaper articles as diverse as Time Magazine, New York Times and The New York Post.
A chilli is a chilli...red or green... Take another look!
One of the highlights of the annual Chilli Fiesta at West Dean in Sussex is a walk through the glasshouse in the walled garden where they grow chillies of all sizes, shapes and colours.
"Go to work on an egg", the 1957 advertising campaign featuring Tony Hancock. The eight ads were banned from being shown again for the 50th anniversary in 2007 as 'they did not suggest a varied diet'. Enjoy them here.
The charismatic and much loved Antonio Carluccio cannot easily be pigeon-holed. Not a chef, yet so much more than a cook; not a businessman by his own admission, yet he is the originator of the highly successful Carluccio's brand.
His passion for good, simple and flavoursome cooking, not to mention a great love of mushrooms, has inspired countless millions who have seen his television series and read his books on Italian food and life.
In this interview he talks about his earliest memories of food and shares anecdotes of his family and childhood in war-time Italy as well as the birth of Carluccio's. And by the way, there are even some English dishes he loves!
In the late 1970s Johnny Noble, laird of Ardkinglas, and marine biologist Andy Lane succeeded in growing oysters in the waters of Loch Fyne. From the humble beginning of a roadside stall by the shore, the venture grew and grew. Although smoked salmon has overtaken oyster production, Loch Fyne oysters are eaten in restaurants throughout the land and even as far afield as Hong Kong. A group of businesses has developed based on the principles of good food, sustainably sourced and simply presented by people who care. Andy Lynes interviewed Virginia Sumsion, Marketing Manager for Loch Fyne and niece of founder Johnny Noble.
Fenghuang — Phoenix Town — is a town in the west of Hunan Province, 6 hours by bus from the provincial capital of Changsha. It is built on the banks of a river, and the old town is very largely preserved or has been restored keeping its original style.
Fenghuang has a number of sweet specialities, the most common of which can be seen being made in small shops all over the old town: ginger toffee.
Peter Boizot, MBE, is a Soho legend. In 1965 he introduced the pizza to Londoners when he imported an Italian oven into the first ever Pizza Express in Wardour Street. The popularity of the jazz club below his Dean Street pizzeria lead to the founding of the Soho Jazz Festival. He fought the very successful Save Piccadilly campaign, was a founder member of the Soho Society and the Soho Restaurateurs Association and supported in no small measure Soho Housing Association.
We interviewed him about those pioneering days at his home in Peterborough.
Zabar's is not a building that really stands out, perhaps the mock tudor looks a bit odd on 81st and Broadway but that's about it. Yet any self-respecting New Yorker knows it...
Originally from the north of China, hand-made noodles can be found on street corners across the whole country. Watch the awesome skill of this noodle-puller as he makes two of the most popular types, Lamian (pulled noodles) and Daoxiao Mian (knife-cut noodles).
Ever wished that you could cut down on your food bills? Artist and activist Spring Exprit (Eugenia Beirer) may have the answer. Call it Dumpster Diving, Skipping or even Freeganism - on the face of it “food salvage” is simply the practice of retrieving and eating food that others have thrown away. But it goes much deeper than that, calling in to question the workings of the entire capitalist economy. Oh, and it’s a heck of a lot of fun too.
Hattie Garlick visited New Covent Garden Market with a group of novice scavengers to learn the tricks of the dumpster diving trade. Click More below to watch her video.
REZA MAHAMMAD, owner of the famed Star Of India in Kensington, TV celebrity and much loved personality, talks about his father’s early struggles when he arrived as a stowaway in 1937. He and a handful of friends attempted to establish Indian cuisine in England and eventually succeeded in changing the eating habits of a nation.
A man with a dark passion. At Phil Neal's Theobroma Cacao in London's Turnham Green can be found some of the best chocolate in town. His ambition is to change people's habits, to get them to understand what great chocolate tastes like and eventually to open the best chocolate lounge in the country. He explains both his passion and his dreams.
Geoff Rothwell joined the RAF in 1939 at the age of 19. He miraculously survived 71 operations as a bomber pilot, but in September 1944 his plane crashed on the Dutch island of Texel and he spent the rest of the war in Stalag Luft 1 in Germany.
He talks about the food experiences of the 'kriegies' (prisoners of war) while looking at the illustrated diary kept by his room-mate, Bohdan Arct , later published as Prisoner of war: my secret journal.
A visit to Liu Shunli's teashop in Xiamen is a leisurely affair as he makes tea for tasting - not drinking - explaining the process and customs involved. He talks about the properties of Tieguanyin Tea, one of China's most famous teas, grown in the plantations of Anxi.
Started in 1871, Maison Bertaux still survives in its original premises. Such is the devotion to this wonderful pastisserie that one ex-Soho resident has been going there for over 60 years - even though he moved out of London 25 years ago.
The original London coffee bar. Opened in the middle of the last century initially to provide workers in the Soho area a place to eat after they finished work in the local restaurants, it went on to became a beloved institution. Still family owned, it is now run by the grandsons of the original owner. Tony tells the story.
Ace Cafe on London's North Circular Road has been serving bikers since 1938. Hattie Garlick visited recently and learnt how, after being destroyed in an air-raid in 1940, it became the world famous haunt it is today getting through an astonishing 7 tons of sausages a year.
But how does a vegan survive in this world of leathers and bacon sandwiches? Hattie tracked down Vegan Biker Boy for some answers.
The Ye family have been making award-winning sesame cakes for decades. They are one of the specialities of Gulangyu Island where visitors and locals alike stop to buy them on a busy corner from a diminutive cart.
Xi'an, long the capital of China from the time of Qin Shihuangdi, the first emperor, is not only famous for its history, but also for its dumplings; one restaurant in particular offering some 120 varieties.
Every morning in Xiamen in China, you find people selling breakfast foods from barrows to people on their way to work. The project was set up by the government about 8 years ago to provide employment for the jobless and to ensure that everyone could have a good breakfast.
The Chinese are great 'snackers'. Throughout China, in the evenings in particular, street markets offer a huge range of foods. These snacks from a night market in Beijing prove once again that, to the Chinese, anything is a potential food...
The Year of the Tiger is not considered auspicious for marriage, so in the last days of the Year of the Ox there was a rush of weddings. Lily and Wan Li held their wedding banquet in Guangzhou on 31st January - a magnificent event with a 13 course meal. The dishes are almost always the same and there are hidden, lucky meanings in most of them.
Richard Craig, Master of Wine student, will attempt to identify a series of mystery wines against the clock.
