Category: Madsen

With jam on it

That strawberry jam I made, with its haunting undertones of lime and apple pectin, took some effort. It was worth it, though. I was finishing off a tub of crème fraiche by putting it on toasted wholemeal pita with the strawberry jam on top when it evoked memories of...

Terracotta warriors, then Roux Brothers

I was at a British Museum reception to launch their Terracotta Warriors exhibition. Prime Minister Gordon Brown made a rather good speech, saying that the individual faces of each statue, all different, stared across the millennia to remind us of our common bond of humanity. I drank an agreeable...

Olive oil oatcakes

Paterson’s olive oil oatcakes were new to me, but they promised less than 3 percent saturated fat, so I could feel virtuous. There was another 10.5 percent of mono-unsaturates, and 3.7 percent of poly-unsaturates, bringing total fat content to 17.2 percent. Fair enough, though larger than the headline figure...

Quite a super frittata

Talk of Jackie’s frittata tempted me. I make lots of omelets and quiches, but not frittatas. There’s always a first time, so I looked up recipes. They are so varied that I decided to wing it. I whipped up four and a half eggs (the missing yolk had been...

The grape that can with logic absolute

A French/Italian team has just announced in Nature that that they have sequenced the full genetic code for pinot noir – the first for a fruit crop. I was reminded of this when drinking an Italian wine labelled Pinot Nero, which turned out to be our old friend. It...

Turkey and pepper pie

The meal started with blinis topped with a dollop of crème fraiche and a spoon of Onuga caviar, munched while we took a champagne aperitif. The pie had a shortcrust base with a puff pastry top joined on. In between were turkey pieces, chopped red, yellow and green peppers...

Fizz saver on the cheap

It looks rather like Darth Vader’s helmet, but it holds the fizz in champagne rather than the dark side of the force. There are many myths on how to keep champagne fizzy, including one about putting a teaspoon handle into the bottle, but the ones that work do so...

Luciano Pavarotti

Luciano Pavarotti has died aged 71. I saw him in Puccini’s Tosca five years ago in what everyone took to be his last performance at London’s Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. He was a sensation, radiating charisma through the theatre. When he first walked onto the stage he...

Cooked for by friends

It’s always pleasant to be invited to visit friends for dinner, especially when they make an occasion of it. This was no exception. We sat in the garden drinking wine beforehand, while fending off the over-friendly dog and conversing with the children. Dinner started with foie gras, huge slices...

Good stuff at the Wolseley

That lobster cocktail tasted every bit as good as it looked, my fellow diner assured me. I’ve had it before, and I endorse that. I myself chose the quail’s eggs croustade (just visible above it), with four of them in a row on a crunchy base under hollandaise sauce....