Taste test: Christmas chocolate
Dark bars, champagne truffles and salted caramels rated for Observer Food MonthlySainsbury’s Taste the Difference Santo Domingo100g, £1.40, sainsburys.co.ukBeautifully thin. It melts quickly to reveal...
View ArticleThe Christmas turkey: is it ever worth the bother?
No matter how you cook it – and I have one recipe that needs 32 items in the stuffing alone – a Christmas turkey will never be more than just fineIn his brilliant book of essays, The Man Who Ate...
View ArticleHow to make the most of your Christmas leftovers
Transform your Christmas dinner leftovers into delicious modern dishes to excite even the most jaded palateFattee is a Lebanese dish of layered crisp pitta bread, rice, chilli sauce, garlic, yoghurt,...
View ArticleMy cooking is a mess – and tastes better for it
There’s a place for artful food presentation – it’s just not usually on my plateRecently I made a dreadful mess in the kitchen. It was delicious. I was looking for something to kick off a dinner party,...
View ArticleRicky Wilson: Working on The Voice, I have the same thing for lunch every day
The musician and judge on The Voice reveals a childhood obsession with crisp sandwiches and why he never eats on a planeI wasn’t interested in food as a kid. I was skinny, non-sporty and lacked...
View ArticleMarco Pierre White: My work was a painkiller – it was where I hid
Marco Pierre White was the chef who cooked like an angel, looked like a rock star and changed the way the world thought of British food. Rachel Cooke meets him on the 25th anniversary of his...
View ArticleMarco Pierre White - in pictures
On the 25th anniversary of his groundbreaking cookbook White Heat, Observer Food Monthly looks back on the early career of the groundbreaking chef.Photographs courtesy of the estate of Bob Carlos...
View ArticleGive pease pudding a chance
An uninspiring bucket list of world food recommends pasties and pies from the UK. It could have been more adventurousA strange book arrives in the post. It’s called 1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die,...
View ArticleLen Deighton's new cookstrips No 1: soufflé
In the first in a new series of tips for Observer Food Monthly, the spy novelist spills the secrets of souffléNo 1: SouffléThey say “you can wait for a soufflé, but it can’t wait for you”. That’s...
View ArticleWelcome to January’s Observer Food Monthly
A tour of British takeaways, delicious recipes for under a tenner and an interview with the original rock star chef, Marco Pierre White, are among the highlights of OFM this monthForget, for a moment,...
View ArticleAldi and Lidl’s best budget wines
The discounters’ wine range is small but consistent“Better than you might think.” As advertising gambits go, it’s not one to set the pulse racing exactly. But that, essentially, is the message behind...
View ArticleOmid Djalili: I’ve tried a lot of diets, but I’ve come to one conclusion –...
The stand-up and TV favourite has a fund of anecdotes, is passionate about food and would make the ideal dinner-party guest. But it’s perhaps best not to let him drive there“Hellooooo!” The nice folk...
View ArticleThe farmer who makes 'ethical' foie gras
Foie gras has become a byword for cruelty, but in this extract from his book The Third Plate, cook and activist Dan Barber meets one Spanish farmer who says he knows what’s good for the goose – and...
View ArticleSix brilliant bakes from Claire Ptak
Buttermilk biscuits, rhubarb galette, butterscotch blondies – bring out the best in your bakingTo me, it’s important that a cake be worth it, so while presentation is a huge part of what I do, I am...
View ArticleHow to feed four for £10, in one pot
Lamb curry, pisto, pot au feu, couscous, stir-fried noodles: seven of our favourite cooks create delicious dishes on a budgetSeven dishes that feed four for £10, all cooked in one pot. When calculating...
View ArticleNighthawks at the takeaway - in pictures
Laura Barton travels from Wigan to Brixton in search of the tastes, sounds and people that make up the great British weekend.Photographs by Sarah Lee A trip to Meat Shack in BirminghamBrix Chicken in...
View ArticleNighthawks at the takeaway: Birmingham
In a series of vignettes from Friday night takeaways, Laura Barton visits Meat Shack in BirminghamUnder the railway arches, through the Spotlight Bar, and into a small courtyard will lead you to...
View ArticleNighthawks at the takeaway: Brixton
In a series of vignettes from Friday night takeaways, Laura Barton visits Brix Chicken in Brixton“This shop has been 30 years in London,” says Tariq at the counter of Brix Chicken in Brixton. Outside,...
View ArticleNighthawks at the takeaway: Wigan
In a series of vignettes from Friday night takeaways, Laura Barton visits Gaskell’s fish and chips in Orrell, near WiganThey come in with wet shoes, bare knees, they shove their hands deep into their...
View ArticleObserver Food Monthly Awards 2014: the winners - in pictures
All the winners from this year’s awards, from best food personality to best cookbook, photographed exclusively for Observer Food Monthly
View Article