Author Archives: Fiona

About Fiona

I am a writer, based in West London. My main interests are food, design and learning.

Delia knows best

So I was looking up the recipe for Rillettes de Tours in the complete Delia and I came across this in the intro to the section on Starters (p85 of my edition): “Hors-d’oeuvre means literally ‘outside work’, which reflects the … Continue reading

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Cooking with Poo

It being April Fool’s day, I assumed this story on the BBC was a hoax. But the website looks fairly convincing: Cooking with Poo. Sticky rice anyone?

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A Venn diagram of my brain

I was in a meeting yesterday and someone mentioned Venn diagrams. I haven’t thought about Venn diagrams for years, but as I doodled away on my pad it occurred to me I could draw a Venn diagram of my interest … Continue reading

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Stomach-first to Spain

I’ve been skipping about in the sunshine to top up my vitamin D levels – as much as one can skip when pushing a buggy, that is. I went out to buy Claudia Roden’s new book on Spanish food, inspired … Continue reading

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Salade composée printemps

The japonica is out and I have made my first salade composée of the year – fennel, bacon, tomatoes, mixed leaves, thyme and grilled goat’s cheese on sourdough.  

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it’s

Spring)and everyone’s in love and flowers pick themselves Except for me who is inside dealing with solicitors and writing about investment funds. It’s so unfair.

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Was your father a butcher too?

In 1963, Elizabeth David was recalling the writing of her first book: “Even to write words like apricot, olives and butter, rice and lemons, oil and almonds, produced assuagement. Later I came to realise that in the England of 1947, … Continue reading

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James Landale’s nadir

I cannot stop laughing at this story on the BBC: Queen and Duke in Parliamentary lift surprise. I mean, really. This doesn’t qualify as a story. The lift went up and then it came down again.  This must be the low point … Continue reading

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Jack Drummond and Elizabeth David

Writing most of this evening about my two favourite people. I now have something resembling an article on them, to be zapped off to some august publication shortly. I don’t have much of a hook for it though – perhaps … Continue reading

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Phew it’s not a motorbike

The rush-seated chairs for my Halsey Street kitchen have arrived, thankfully without the blue motorbike. We still don’t yet own the flat in which this homage will take shape, but I am hopeful it won’t be long now.

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