Carlos Acosta: ‘My mother roasted my pet rabbits. I was sad, but I ate them’
The Cuban dancer talks about food rationing, what he ate at ballet school and his father’s terrible cookingI always lived with rationing in Cuba – I was born in 1973. We used the term “the three...
View ArticleYuzu, calcots, monk's beard: I can measure my life in food trends
Everything we eat adds meaning to our lives – from granny’s lasagne to whimsical food fashions that come and goAt a lovely restaurant called Levan in Peckham, south London – scene of my best (and...
View ArticleOFM’s classic cookbook: Leaves from the Walnut Tree by Ann and Franco Taruschio
The Walnut Tree restaurant opened in Wales in 1963. Its cookbook, published three decades later, transported Italian food from curiosity into the British mainstreamSince 1993 I have changed my career,...
View ArticleWhy are millions of children in the UK not getting enough to eat?
Levels of food insecurity in Britain are among the highest in Europe. Here, campaigners and struggling families explain why food banks alone won’t solve the problemSarah Batts shows me up a narrow...
View ArticleWelcome to February’s Observer Food Monthly
From fried pigs’ tails in Gateshead to the revival of eastern bloc wines, discover the people, places and plates exciting us at the moment, with this year’s OFM 50Observer Food Monthly has long been a...
View ArticleHow bushfires have hit Australia’s winemakers
The damage to vineyards pales in comparison to the devastation to homes and animal life, but it is yet another sign of the significant effects of the climate emergencyAmid the many hellish images and...
View ArticleCeleriac, blood oranges, rhubarb – Nigel Slater’s winter recipes
Make the most of end-of-season fruit and vegetables with these five dishesWith spring around the corner, I am making the most the last of the winter fruit and vegetables; the little bunches of purple...
View ArticleIt takes skill to work in a restaurant. Try telling that to the Home Office
The post-Brexit immigration system is a threat to the food industry – and a snobbish failure to understand the value of people who do jobs that benefit us allHave you ever watched a waiter take a dover...
View ArticleSara Cox: ‘I was a vegetarian for a few days but my heart wasn’t in it’
The broadcaster reminisces about growing up on a farm, eating fried rice for breakfast, and her love of liquorice pipesFrom our farm’s kitchen window you could see the coal bunker where my brothers...
View ArticleOnline grocery shopping hasn’t taken off. Will coronavirus change that?
Experts predict less than 10% of the UK grocery market will be online by 2024. That was before the coronavirus made us stay at homeThe other night, in a restaurant, two friends of mine confessed, in...
View ArticleEaster taste test: hot cross buns, dark and milk eggs, and chocolate animals
Baker Dan Lepard tastes and rates high-street buns and chocolates, from traditionally spiced to an Easter slothAll products are blind-testedContinue reading...
View ArticleThe takeaway that wants to be healthy by stealth
Childhood obesity is on the rise – and so is Britain’s takeaway market. One new outlet aims to deliver delicious, affordable food… that just happens to be better for youIt’s 5.15pm on a Tuesday in...
View ArticleLen & Alex Deighton’s Mexican Cookstrips: Salsas
Len: Mexican food is defined by sauces. There are cooking sauces, hot sauces for sprinkling over food …Alex: And condiments. Like these two – one fresh and one cookedLen Deighton is the author of the...
View ArticleDear dairy: one graphic novelist’s fixation with the world of ice-cream vans
Matthew Dooley’s elegiac debut Flake tells of rival ice-cream salesmen. It’s warm, affectionate and full of outrageous puns. Walt Whipman, anyone?Here’s an example of Matthew Dooley’s sense of humour....
View Article‘A love letter home’ – recipes and stories of the Palestinian table
Sami Tamimi and Tara Wigley, leading lights of the Ottolenghi empire, talk about their new book of Palestinian foodSami Tamimi was 17 when he moved out of his family home in East Jerusalem’s Old City....
View ArticleRoger Phillips: ‘Fungi will have a role in ridding the world of plastic’
Britain’s original forager on his eight decades of adventures in wild food and why mushrooms were once associated with witchcraftRoger Phillips is Britain’s most celebrated mushroom-hunter, but it’s...
View ArticlePerfect wines for Easter, from Tuscany to Crete
A sweet white that matches with chocolate eggs and mellow partners for Mediterranean lambPreparing the food for Easter is a considerably more relaxed experience than it is at Christmas – if only...
View ArticleWelcome to March’s Observer Food Monthly | Nigel Slater
Meet Britain’s original forager, linger over ice-cream art and find the best Easter treatsI once became entangled in an ice-cream protest. I can’t remember exactly what their point was but the...
View Article'She finally let me make samosas': chefs on the recipes their mothers taught...
In celebration of Mother’s Day, cooks and their mums share stories and food from their home kitchensRavneet Gill is a pastry chef who has worked at St John and has her own pop-up bakery, Puff. She is...
View ArticleRoast hogget and rhubarb trifle: Gill Meller’s Easter recipes
The River cottage chef marks the first festival of his cookery year with a spring feastWe all like a reason to cook. Days need marking, they need to be remembered and making something good to eat...
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