Drinking outside the box
Pouches, magnums, half-bottles, the much maligned wine box – good quality drink doesn’t have to come in one sizeI have a strange relationship with drinks packaging. On the one hand, I’d rather go...
View ArticleThe Marmite row is the first sign of the true cost of Brexit for food producers
The result of the Brexit-inspired falling pound is that we are, and will continue to be, at the mercy of increasingly expensive importsLast month, Marmite managed to leave a nasty taste in the mouth...
View ArticleFrozen in time: Salvador Dalí’s dinner parties, Paris, 1973
The artist’s foray into food and cookery was just as surreal as his paintings, as his recently republished book Les Dîners de Gala illustratesSalvador Dalí’s late-life foray into cookbook writing would...
View ArticleFive Christmas bakes from the inventor of the Cronut
Dominique Ansel, named the world’s top patissier, shares his yuletide recipes for snowflake beignets, chocolate tres leches cake and champagne morning rollsChristmas has always been exciting for...
View ArticleTaste test: Christmas sandwiches
Who better to sample sackfuls of festive-season sandwiches than our own Jay Rayner?What exactly does the baby Jesus taste like? Or to put it in a rather more obliging manner, how would you describe the...
View ArticleChefs and their tattoos
A new book, Knives & Ink, by writer Issac Fitzgerald and illustrator Wendy MacNaughton, documents the cooks whose food stories are written on their bodies as well as their menus. Introduction by...
View ArticleThe 50 best wines for Christmas 2016
Observer Food Monthly’s seasonal picks, from supermarket budget wines to high street bargains and top-end quality – plus suggested food matchesTesco Finest St-Mont, France 2014 (£6, Tesco)Made by the...
View ArticleJeanette Winterson: my family Christmas
In an extract from her new book Christmas Days, Jeanette Winterson shares her childhood memories and favourite seasonal recipes, including Mum’s mince pies and Dad’s sherry trifleWe make our own...
View ArticleJohnny Marr: ‘When the Smiths went to No 1, we were surviving off crisps,...
The former Smiths’ guitarist recalls Irish stew with his dad, New York diners with his band and why he became a veganI’m extremely anti-cucumber. I believe cucumbers are demonic, the black hole of the...
View ArticleAlexei Sayle: ‘To buy a salad in the 70s you had to go to a kebab shop and...
It’s not just takeaway food that’s moved on for the Liverpool comedian and diarist – now he’s cultivated a taste for roast grouseI’ve got it on the best authorities that he’s a changed man. After all,...
View ArticleWelcome to part one of OFM’s Christmas special
We mark the arrival of the festive season with nostalgic family recipes by Jeanette Winterson, sweet baking from the inventor of the Cronut, Dominique Ansel, and 50 great red, white and sparkling...
View ArticleFive Christmas recipes from Nigel Slater
Potato pancakes, partridge pie and fig ice-cream terrine: dishes to make and eat any time over the Christmas seasonChristmas is not one, but many meals. What is more, it seems to start earlier every...
View ArticleWhy the macaron is a pastel menace
The macaroon of my childhood has been supplanted by its mimsy French cousin. How did it get so popular? After all, it’s little more than a table decorationIn the crazy days before Christmas, I have...
View ArticleWhat’s my cure-all for the misery of 2016? A big tub of ice-cream
Trump, Brexit, Bowie: it’s time for some serious comfort eatingAs this miserable year comes to a close I have finally found a way to deal with Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election....
View ArticleRoy Hudd: ‘I saw Dick Whittington and spent a fortnight on all fours...
The comedian and classic pantomime dame on the secrets of stage goo and the joy of condensed milkI don’t remember eating with Mum or Dad. Dad wasn’t around in Croydon, then Mum died while I was...
View ArticleThe great Christmas 2016 taste test
Observer Food Monthly’s cast of Dickensian players feast on the high street’s cakes, cheese and chocolates. Which are the best buys? And did anyone ask for more?Continue reading...
View ArticleWelcome to December’s Observer Food Monthly
Italian Christmas recipes, our brilliant seasonal taste test and my own recipes for parsnips and potatoesThe world feels like a different place from the one in which, this time last year, I sat down to...
View ArticleThe best thing I ate in 2016
From a homemade birthday cake to wild pig in the Yucatán, the big names in food, including Nigella Lawson, René Redzepi and Nadiya Hussain, recall their favourite eating experiences of 2016Fat chips...
View ArticleObserver Food Monthly's book of the year 2016: Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler
‘I wanted to show the soft beauty of kitchen culture’: Stephanie Danler on how she went from waiting tables in New York to writing a brilliant novelStephanie Danler doesn’t much like the “creation...
View ArticleThe 20 best food books of 2016
Observer Food Monthly’s choice of recipe collections, reference books and all things food-related. Gift wrap them, or keep them for yourselfInterview with Stephanie Danler, our book of the year...
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