Jackie Lee visits the Waitrose Cookery School to test out her Mexican cooking skills and hopefully win a KitchenAid blender, courtesy of Benito’s Hat and Discovery Foods.

Cooking the Christmas turkey a solemn task. The family is counting on you. But not only that, that noble bird, born and bred for this very day, is counting on you.

The Spiegel Saloon featuring at this year’s Hyde Park Winter Wonderland will transport you out of the frosty city air and into a time-forgotten space of colour of warmth.

Being at the ambassador’s party among life size marionettes, not to mention the piles of indigo butterfly pea rice, was a warming experience for an early winter evening. This was the Thai ambassador and the party was at Suda, the ‘Siamese rice bar”, or more correctly, swanky Thai restaurant, officially opened in autumn at London’s Covent Garden.

If you remember your Jungle Book, the film or the book, you’ll recall that the only creature brave enough and tough enough to take on the fearsome Cobra was the mighty Mongoose. So it’s a cheeky bit of branding for Wells & Young to call their new beer, one aimed at the curry loving market, Mongoose beer. They clearly have their sites set on the big snake of curry house lager

Christmas gift ideas to ensure that you remain the pillar of generosity and good taste this festive season. From salt platters to gold-dusted candies, you can impress everyone this year with your innovative gift ideas and all for under £20.

Refettorio’s truffle tasting menu may sound expensive at £125 a head and of course no one can deny that sort of cost is not for everybody. But if you’re on the right side of the great UK rich/poor divide, then actually it’s not bad, as Refettorio have kept the cost the same as last year, despite truffles being more expensive owing to the poor crops.

‘I use it in bolognaise sauce,’ says Silvena Rowe, her trademark hair for once not in rapid motion around the kitchen of the May Fair Hotel where she’s head chef. She’s taking five minutes out to tell us how she used Kikkoman’s Soy Sauce in the dishes just served us to add salt, umami and the delicious vibrancy good soy brings.

London loves a party, especially a Christmas themed one, and so we’ve made a list of the top 5 places to go this Christmas for an after work drink or a Saturday night social. From cloistered booths to large open spaces, cabarets to ski lodges this selection will have something for everyone from Chelsea to Canary Wharf.

That haven of tartan, Boisdale, is with Wright Brothers Soho holding an Oyster Festival until next April at its branches in Belgravia, Bishopsgate and Canary Wharf. Connoisseurs can shuck six winning oysters that were chosen from nearly 600 after an epic oyster judging championship earlier this month