À bout de soufflé

Notoriously tricky to master, soufflé takes its name from the word ‘souffler’, meaning ‘to puff up’ in French. The same word also means ‘to breathe’, hence my tenuous link to Jean-Luc Godard’s effortlessly cool new wave flick Breathless ( À bout de Souffle) – any excuse to lead with a picture of Jean Seberg and

Chicken fit for a Queen

For as long as I can remember, Easter and coronation chicken have been inextricably linked. One of my mum’s favourite special occasion dishes, a giant platter of gloriously golden coronation chicken on an abundant bed of rice and iceberg lettuce leaves scattered with toasted almonds and dotted with grapes is as synonymous with Easter for

She knows her onions

Onions and I aren’t the best of friends. An unsavoury reaction to the French onion soup at Brasserie Zédel a while back has made me wary of them ever since. While pleasant to eat, digesting it felt like someone was making balloon animals with my intestines. Priding myself on the fact that I eat almost

How do you like your eggs in the morning?

As March draws to a close so too does my focus on eggs in all their glorious guises. Despite hollandaise disasters and quiches with soggy bottoms, I was hopeful of ending the month on a high, having left the quickest egg dish imaginable – the humble omelette – until last. With the UK on lockdown,

Quiche Lorraine on my parade

Coronavirus has changed life as we know it. In the space of a week we have been told to work from from home and not to go to bars and restaurants, which were forced to close their doors for the foreseeable future last Friday. I worry how many may never open again. While the virus