Food

The real name for this is castagnaccio, which I can’t pronounce responsibly so I call it chestnut cake. It’s a recipe I first encountered in Italy quite a few years ago and enjoyed immensely.

The dehydrated beetroot in this salad is an attempt to achieve a chewy, gummy bear-like texture. I don’t own a dehydrator at home, so I turn my oven down really low and put the beetroot in for the afternoon. This does more than alter the texture: it also concentrates the flavour.

There are various techniques to achieve the perfect, ear-like shape, with its smooth indentation and the cracked surface to hold sauce, but I won’t go into them here. The one I recommend involves the corner store. The shape of the pasta is a perfect foil for sauces, but in this recipe I’ve gone for something a little bit drier.

Traditionally, Brussels sprouts were boiled or steamed for an inexplicably long time. This gave them a grey tinge and a bad name. But then we started treating them with a bit of dignity and bacon, and life was good again.

Quality rollmops make themselves known the instant you open the jar. The smell should be briny but not too bracing. Good delicatessens should have herrings imported directly from Scandinavia and I wouldn’t make this without a proper pickled herring.

This potato cake of sorts is layered and slowly cooked. It can be pre-prepared and warmed later in wedges or as a large puck that can be sliced at the table. Cutting the whole thing into wedges and roasting in individual servings yields a crisp golden wedge.

I never tire of this recipe. I started cooking it when I started my apprenticeship. It was one of the first things I learnt to cook. This week in the restaurant we cooked the same recipe as a snack at the bar. Admittedly, the one I cooked 25 years ago used local cheddar. The one we cooked this week used 18-month-aged Gruyere de comté.

For years, not much had changed in the onion world. That was until last year, when the cipollini onion arrived. These sweet little onions are tender and not as astringent as their cousins. They also have a lovely squat shape.

A guide to the season's top wines, from the buyers at Cutler & Co, Supernormal, Cumulus Inc, the Builders Arms Hotel and Meatsmith.

I think it’s good to get away from contemporary desserts – gelatines, contemporary flavours. This dessert has its origin in the Middle Ages, and began as a warm milk drink. Eventually it evolved into a dessert that was curdled, often with alcohol. There are other iterations where almonds and egg yolks have been used to thicken the milk or cream. In this recipe, though, the thickening agent is also the flavouring agent: lemon juice.