Food news

• Terroir, natural wines and indie producers: how booze has changed since 2001

  21-01-2018 13:00 via theguardian.com
  Since the first issue of Observer Food Monthly in 2001, the world of wine has altered radicallyOFM began publishing in what now feels like a decisively different era for wine. It was a time when a very particular style of winemaking was approaching its peak – a style that, with hindsight, seems very much in keeping with the credit-fuelled pre-2008 economic boom: big, brash, loud, crafted from a limited set of well-known grape varieties in expensive, toasty French oak barrels.This was a sty
  
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• Randy Newman: ‘I've written a song about Trump and Ivanka – but it needs a little work’

  21-01-2018 13:00 via theguardian.com
  The great songwriter talks about politics, Toy Story and the Smiths – and why he’s never enjoyed the writing processThe prospect of lunch with Randy Newman straddles the line between exciting and scary. He’s one of the great American songwriters, no question, but from a distance he seems intimidating. His work is brainy and funny, but can also be brutal. Famously, he offended an entire subset of the human race in his most commercially successful song, Short People, which railed
  
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• James Haskell: ‘When I came to Wasps, I was eating six meals a day. It was horrific’

  21-01-2018 13:00 via theguardian.com
  The England rugby player on trying anything once – even if it’s cod sperm, pig’s heart and strawberry custardMy first memory is being taken for Indian food at the Cookham Tandoori on the High Street – I remember the poppadoms, the onions, the chicken tikka. I remember being taken for my fifth or maybe my fourth birthday to the Pizza Hut. I hated school food. I love fish now but I just hated it then. And strawberry custard, something you never see except in educational est
  
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• The 20 best food books from 2001-2017

  21-01-2018 12:30 via theguardian.com
  To mark 200 issues of Observer Food Monthly, we pick the most significant books published in the years since the magazine launchedMy most loved food books sit close to the stove, warped by steam from the kettle, sauce spattered, spines cracked and sticky taped, spilling pages torn from magazines.This hard-working reference library of about 40 books provides both instruction and inspiration and it just about squeezes into a small double bookshelf. Most committed cooks have something similar and w
  
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• I’ve been a barmaid and a waitress. I know exactly what late-night banter means

  21-01-2018 12:30 via theguardian.com
  Will a storm of sexual harassment allegations in America bring any real change to restaurant culture?In the nearly 12 years since its publication, Bill Buford’s account of his adventures in the kitchen of Mario Batali’s restaurant Babbo has become something of a classic: a touchstone for food writers of a certain generation, as Helen Rosner put it recently in the New Yorker. And I suppose I understand why. Heat stinks to high heaven of blood, sweat and other intimate bodily fluids; i
  
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• From foraging to clean eating: how our passion for food has grown

  21-01-2018 12:00 via theguardian.com
  For Observer Food Monthly’s 200th issue, Rachel Cooke examines the food trends that have come and gone over the last 17 years – and what lies aheadThe first Observer Food Monthly came out in April 2001. On its cover was an effortfully moody-looking Marco Pierre White, smoking a fag and wearing a black trilby; inside were the chefs Nobuyuki Matsuhisa (“Nobu - the world’s sexiest restaurant”) and Ruth Rogers (“One of the most exciting moments of the year is the
  
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• A new Nigella Lawson cake for our 200th issue – and other recipes for a celebration

  21-01-2018 12:00 via theguardian.com
  To mark the 200th edition of Observer Food Monthly, top cooks and chefs offer treats fit to mark any special occasionI had many run-ups to this cake before choosing the one that was fit to celebrate OFM 200. I wanted sweetness, light and beauty: a cake that felt special. And this does feel special, not just to eat and look at, but also to make. I felt encouraged towards a more whimsical creation than I might normally bake, but nothing too dauntingly difficult. This is not everyday baking –
  
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• Nigel Slater’s haggis recipes

  21-01-2018 07:00 via theguardian.com
  As stuffing or seasoning, the Scottish delicacy is a beautiful thingEarly morning in a Glasgow hotel and I seem to have won the breakfast lottery. The first meal of the day brings not only pork sausages bursting at the seams, but black pudding and a slice of haggis, too. There is much to like about haggis: the coarse, friable texture and generous seasoning; its happy partnership with mashed root vegetables; and the intelligence of a recipe that makes something from nothing. A haggis is a thing o
  
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• Wines and whisky for Burns Night | David Williams

  21-01-2018 06:59 via theguardian.com
  Haggis, neeps and tatties don’t taste the same without a wee dram to toast Scotland’s most famous poetLes Calèches de Lanessan, Haut-Médoc, Bordeaux, France 2011 (from £16.99, T Wright Wine; Rodney Fletcher Vintners; Wood Winters) What to drink on Burns Night, an evening that offers a welcome fizzle of festivity in the January murk, even for Sassanachs? Whisky, of course, and you can find a dram or two below. For drinking with the haggis, however, another drink, o
  
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• ‘Let’s hope it never changes’: L’Escargot, London – review | Jay Rayner

  21-01-2018 06:50 via theguardian.com
  Snails, chandeliers, and suited waiters… this isn’t just a French restaurant, it’s a Soho institutionL’Escargot, 48 Greek Street, London W1D 4EF (020 7439 7474). Meal for two, including drinks and service, £100 to £140 L’Escargot is your stylish auntie, the one who knows how to grow old gracefully; who had that green velvet halterneck from Biba back in the day but knew when to stop wearing it. Has she surrendered to the passage of time? Hell no. She jus
  
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• Bondi Harvest's beetroot lentil burger recipe

  21-01-2018 01:50 via theguardian.com
  The clean-living chefs’ new cookbook is filled with healthy and delicious versions of family-friendly recipesHearty and packed with protein, this vegetarian beetroot and lentil burger is a healthy wholefood feast all wrapped up in a bun for easy two-handed eating. Even the vegetarian sceptics will be coming back for more of this little beauty.Related: Bondi Harvest's Mexican salsa verde eggs recipeContinue reading...
  
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• Bondi Harvest's beetroot lentil burger

  21-01-2018 01:50 via theguardian.com
  The clean-living chefs’ new cookbook is filled with healthy and delicious versions of family-friendly recipesHearty and packed with protein, this vegetarian beetroot and lentil burger is a healthy wholefood feast all wrapped up in a bun for easy two-handed eating. Even the vegetarian sceptics will be coming back for more of this little beauty.Related: Bondi Harvest's Mexican salsa verde eggs recipeContinue reading...
  
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• Classic photography from the OFM archives

  21-01-2018 00:57 via theguardian.com
  Groundbreaking images to celebrate Observer Food Monthly’s 200th issue Continue reading...
  
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