More from life
I love sausages!
‘Sausages,’ my son says to me, leaning forward from the back of the car, with the authority and confidence only…
No, I’m not a British spy
Dante’s Beach, Ravenna The youngest of our six children, Giuseppe, nine, received the Eucharist for the first time on Sunday.…
It’s time to reclaim tapioca pudding
‘Nothing will surely ever taste so hateful as nursery tapioca,’ wrote Elizabeth David. She’s not alone in her hatred of…
Pope Francis, my love rival
To be honest, I felt relief when Pope Francis died. This had nothing much to do with his regular assertion,…
Devilled kidneys: a heavenly breakfast
Iam standing in my kitchen preparing kidneys for devilling. Snipping their white cores away piece by piece until they come…
The gobsmacking brilliance of baked Alaska
I have never seen a baked Alaska in the wild. Have you? I knew what they looked like, of course,…
The day the King came to Ravenna
Dante’s Beach, Ravenna ‘Fortune’s a right whore: If she give aught, she deals it in small parcels,/ That she may…
The simple elegance of fondant potatoes
In 1999, a relatively unknown American chef wrote an essay in the New Yorker uncovering the secrets of restaurants. ‘Don’t…
Is there sex after 70?
When I turned 70 in September, I had a panic attack. I was certain that my romantic life was over.…
Golden syrup dumplings: the perfect comfort food
The Italians have a phrase: ‘brutti ma buoni’. It means ‘ugly but beautiful’, and it’s the name they give to…
Why I won’t accept the Laurels of Dante
Dante’s Beach, Ravenna I have just refused to accept the local equivalent of an Oscar, which was to have been…
Sole meunière: simple one-pan sophistication
Picture the scene. The year is 2004. The setting, a British field or maybe a beach. There is a small…
In defence of red velvet cake
I will admit to having been dismissive of red velvet cake in the past, considering it to be bland in…
The secrets of the perfect potato rösti
You may be forgiven, if you are a regular reader of this column, for thinking that my primary motivation in…
Drinking with The Chemist – and God
Dante’s Beach, Ravenna The closest I get to a social life these days is when I sneak off into town…
The time-poor woman’s perfect chocolate cake
Isn’t it awful that the older you get, the more you know yourself? It’s supposed to be a good thing,…
Hunter’s chicken: the ultimate cheer-me-up-quickly recipe
Pub food in Britain has had a mixed reputation over the years. For a long time, the most a pub…
My night with Mussolini’s ghost
Dante’s Beach, Ravenna I came to Italy to write a biography of Benito Mussolini in the summer of 1998 and…
My YouTube rabbit hole
How do you live with yourself when 179 air passengers are burned alive on a South Korean runway, and you’ve…
January deserves lemon pudding
January kitchens are my favourite. This isn’t anything against Christmas – I love the spice, the frenzy, the ritual of…
The Spectator’s 2024 Christmas quiz
Events, dear boy In 2024: 1. Twenty-two tons of what were stolen from Neal’s Yard in London? 2. Down…
How to make chocolate salami
For as long as we’ve been serving food, we’ve been unable to resist a bit of culinary deception. Making one…
The glamour of the scallop
There is a gentle irony to the dish coquilles St Jacques: a decadent, rich preparation of one of our most…
Mince, glorious mince
Sometimes, when it comes to culinary history, Britain is its own worst enemy. For a long time, British food has…
The slippery business of catching a snake
Dante’s Beach, Ravenna It is strange how events elide and create a pattern whose significance remains elusive. I had just…
