“Whisky Month in May is the perfect time to visit Scotland, the home of whisky. An exciting programme of distillery and festival events awaits our visitors. They will experience the very best that Scotch Whisky has to offer and learn why this global icon embodies the spirit of Scotland.” Find out more

Foodepedia travels to southwest France to learn more about the most heart friendly wines in the world – and to influence their future blends.

Madame Zingara’s is an exciting, bohemian circus experience and one with fine dining to accompany the cabaret. Nick Harman went backstage to see how the kitchen pulls off a major meal every night.

‘A good cookery book should always be covered in food stains,’ laughs Trina Hahnemahn when I tell her about the sorry state of my copy of her excellent The Scandinavian Cookbook. It’s a book so packed with recipes that leap off the page and demand to be cooked that I’ve had a hard time keeping my sticky hands off of it.

We all love a golden, crunchy roast potato and never more so than on Christmas Day. Whether it’s a turkey, pork, goose or beef dinner the one thing we all agree on is that it’s not right without a roast tater or two. But how do you make them perfect? Check in any recipe book, or ask your mum, and you’ll get all kinds of varying opinion on cooking times, type of spud and what kind of fat to use. At this time of year it seemed vital that we nail this dilemma quickly so we decided to get a top chef to cook up a pile of spuds to try and work out once and for all how best to get a right roast result.

Gordon Ramsay has memorably pulled a noodle, as we now know of course, but today is my chance to try my hand at this genuinely ancient art. Teddy K.C Chen a Director of Inn Noodle confirms the noodle’s long history while letting a small grin crack his otherwise stern face, ‘Italians think they invented pasta and spaghetti, huh? Stolen from Chinese!”

Right now the big must-do added extra on the Vinopolis tour for Xmas is the Port tasting, because after all what is Xmas without port? So after a trip through the wine rooms and admiring the clever little ideas like the battered 2CV van in France and the virtual Piaggio scooter ride in Italy, we fetch up at the port bar to try five different ports, together with some Stichelton cheese supplied by Neal’s Yard.

Who’d have thought an Oasis song would provide a headline for a piece about baking? Can’t see Liam in a pinafore really but Patsy….mmm. Anyway, those other charming Northerners, the people at Jus-Rol™, have put on a demo of just how easy their ready-made pastry is to use as a quick route to tasty meals and, being a bit fond of the product, I’ve rolled up to watch.

We knew that he would win. Just watching Sam Greaves work around the Good Housekeeping kitchen along with the other three contestants (one had dropped out with flu) you could see he had the chops.Pro chefs, or even those like Sam just nineteen and studying food at university, have an economy of movement, a calm outer bearing and clear focus that marks them out. When his dish was presented for judging, it had the cheffy look too, one that makes the diner happy before a spoon is raised and which justifies the price on the menu.

It seems highly likely that Alex James ex Blur will have Alex James ex Blur written on his headstone, it’s the only way that people seem to refer to him. It’s a bit unfair as he has carved out a whole new niche for himself since those heady BritPop days as tweedy countryman, conductor, columnist and now of course cheese maker.